chocolate drink Archives • Natural New Age Mum

You may have noticed an uproar on Facebook last week about these new Coco Pops chocolate drinks.

These drinks have made the ‘green light’ category for Australian school canteens. That means it’s classified as a healthy food. Ummmm…. right.

Here is what Kellogs have to say: “With over 400,000 Australian kids and one in four adolescents skipping breakfast, Kellogg’s breakfast drinks are the latest in a series of innovations by the company aimed at helping parents find a way to give their families breakfast. We know it’s hard for many Australian parents in the morning when you’ve got bags to pack, lunchboxes to fill and school buses that won’t wait,” said Kellogg marketing director John Broome. “We believe Kellogg’s breakfast drinks offer a quick and easy, mess-free solution that can be enjoyed at home or on-the-go. Both Kellogg’ breakfast drinks are low GI, high protein and high fibre and contain around 10% sugar with the majority of that coming from low-fat milk in which sugar is found naturally.”

Here are the ingredients of the Coco Pops drink: Reduced fat milk (90%), sugar, skim milk powder, vegetable fibre (inulin), cocoa, flavours, stabilisers (460, 466, 407), minerals (calcium carbonate, iron), acidity regulators (339, 332), vitamins (niacin, vitamin D, folate, vitamin B6, riboflavin, thiamin).

And here is the nutrition information:

	Per Serve 250 ml	Per 100 g
KilojoulesCalories	740176	30071
Protein, g	9.8	3.9
Total fat, gSaturated fat, g	3.22.2	1.30.9
Carbohydrate, gSugars, gLactose, g	24.524.513.8	9.89.85.5
Dietary fibre, g	4.5	1.8
Sodium, mg	150	60

There is so much wrong here I don’t really know where to start.

Okay, let’s do some quick dot points of what I take offence to as a natural, new age mum.

Get up earlier and eat breakfast. It’s that simple! You don’t need to drink your breakfast in the car.
At best this is a treat food for kids, not a breakfast food.
A mess-free solution? Really? We can’t wash up a few bowls and spoons now? We need a disposable solution?
This product is heat-treated milk (UHT – ultra high treated). I try to avoid UHT milk for these reasons.
Reduced-fat milk is not healthy! Kids should be having full fat milk.
Sugar is the second ingredient and comes in at a whopping 24.5g per serve. That is a lot of sugar for a little body to process.
Inulin is a questionable substance and one I am not too keen on.
Flavours! Right there – that could be anything and everything!
Lots of numbers! They may be listed as safe but I don’t like my kids eating lots of numbers.
Probably synthetic vitamins. Processed food usually contains synthetic vitamins added back in after all the goodness is stripped out of a food.
Cashing in on the ‘Coco Pops’ brand – there are no actual Coco Pops in this drink. Confusing for kids.
Expensive! Fruit, oats, eggs are all cheaper than this.

Okay, I had my rant. Whew! I feel better now! But, I won’t just leave it there, I have eight better options for you. Real food options. I mean, who doesn’t love a chocolately drink right? Just make a real food one.

NNAM Home-made Healthy Milo