A Blog For Mums
With so many different fizzy drinks in the supermarket aisles these days, it feels impossible to keep up with what they all contain.
But if you have young children, or perhaps if you are cutting down on sugar or caffeine for health reasons or because of pregnancy, this stuff is important. Plenty of drinks are marketed as being zero sugar or caffeine free, but what about those that aren’t?
Caffeine is a natural stimulant that can perk you up, which might sound great as an exhausted Mum, but there are reasons to avoid it, too, especially for kids. Too much caffeine is not good for tiny tummies, even less so when combined with sugar, especially right before bedtime!
So we need to know what is in all those brightly coloured bottles.
However, it’s not always practical to stare at the list of ingredients for five minutes when shopping with kids. One of them might wander off, or sneak a bag of Haribo into the trolley or something. Well, luckily for you, I’ve got this covered.
If you’re wondering whether fruity drinks like Fanta, Tango, or Lemonade contain caffeine, I’ve got the answer.
Let’s start with Fanta. This orangy delight is often served at picnics and birthday parties, and the UK version is totally caffeine free. Parents rejoice! That goes for all the flavours: Fanta Orange, Fanta Lemon, and Fanta Fruit Twist.
I know they look like they are full of neon toxic waste, but there is no caffeine in there.
Tango is a similar sort of drink. It’s possibly a little louder and more obnoxious than Fanta – if these traits can be applied to a fizzy drink – but the ingredients aren’t wildly different. Well guess what? The regular Tango line such as the Orange, Apple and Dark Berry flavours are all caffeine free too. Although I will emphasise again that I am talking about the UK versions only.
However, Tango do like to release limited edition versions of the drink, so you should double check anything that’s new or looks extra luminous.
Next up, those classic lemon and lime type drinks like Sprite ad 7Up. Given these drinks are clear, we often think of them as ‘cleaner’ too, but what’s the truth? The truth is that they are indeed clean, containing zero caffeine. The same goes for most supermarket own brand lemonades. Whether you shop at Tesco, Sainsburys, Aldi, or Asda, the bog standard lemonade is almost always caffeine free. It’s pretty much just carbonated water, sugar or sweeteners, and lemon flavouring.
Some cloudy lemonade drinks may contain caffeine, or versions that have botanical extracts such as the more grown up mixer type lemonade drinks. So double check those.
The other fruity drink that’s worth a mention is Dr Pepper. Well, is it fruity? Technically it’s a blend of 23 fruits and spices (I think), so it’s in a category of its own in some ways. But it’s not Cola (which does contain caffeine) and does contain fruit flavours, so I’ll cover it here.
All of this is to say that, yes, Dr Pepper does contain caffeine.
You should also be wary of anything that has the word ‘Energy’ in the name or on the bottle somewhere, but that much would be obvious I should hope.
They are.
Too much of anything is not a good idea, but a regular bottle of Fanta, Tango or Lemonade isn’t going to cause you any problems. None of them have caffein in so they are perfectly safe for anyone with a sensitivity or for kids, and to be honest, most have reduced sugar content these days too thanks to the sugar tax.
A lot of fizzy drinks just aren’t as unhealthy as they used to be.
I’m not saying they are healthy, I’m just saying they aren’t all the sugar monsters they used to be. I’m sure they still have E numbers and what have you.
If you want something fizzy and fun for a party or a treat, but want to keep yourself (or your kids) clear of caffeine, these drinks are a perfect option. Just double check the label if you pick up anything new or unfamiliar.
Self Care and Health
