Please consider that you are being scammed by Jamba Juice. These people don't care for your kids, they only want your money! Note that the American Heart Assoc. suggests children age 4-8 have no more than 12.5 grams of sugar per day, and 16.7 grams for preschoolers. Jamba's kids' smoothies have up to 34 grams of sugar. Read the fine print, caring parents! Also, the Healthy Living Council appears to be nothing more than a group that was put together BY Jamba Juice, to sell their products! Sounds pretty official at first, doesn't it? Check it out online.

There is a difference between "natural" sugar which occurs in fruit and added, refined sugar which the Jamaba smoothies don't contain. One large banana has about 17 grams of sugar - so are you saying my toddler should only get one serving of fruit because it has too much sugar? I think the Jamba options are great and much better than the options at McDonalds when you are in a pinch and need to eat on the run. Thank you for sharing this article!

Michelle, Here a list of sugar in grams for single servings of the following basic fruits: navel orange (23g), apple (23g), peach (15g), red seedless grapes (20g). So according to your last post I shouldn't be feeding my kids any of these junk food snacks. Considering what other options exist for parents, I think the Jamba kids offering is a step in the right direction. Your suggestion that Jamba is trying to scam unsuspecting parents is a bit reactionary in my opinion, especially considering what a lot of kids are eating after school! Vincent Randalo

This was basically written as a free ad for Jamba Juice. It's one thing to let us know that a kid's meal is available (I wouldn't have thought to check JJ for a filled pretzel) but "next time I'm going to skip the guilt and go to JJ" is VERY much ad inspired. 500 calories sounds like a lot to me. How does that compare to a meal from McD/BK? And why is there brown sugar in a cheese stuffed pretzel? I can deal with sugar in the pizza sauce (it's everywhere!) but there is no need for sugar in a cheese stuffed pretzel. And why didn't you have a kid try the beet/kale smoothie? What an adult tastes and what a kid tastes are often very different. I think you should do a comparison between the fast food restaurant options for kids meals. Obviously, it would take a lot of work, maybe compare Mc D/Burger King/Wendy's to start.

Pam, thanks for you comments. Just to let you know, this was not an ad in any way for Jamba Juice. I visited a store, and tried the new products and was not compensated in any way. My kids were in school that day so they could not try the beet/kale smoothie. I like your idea about a comparison, and hopefully we'll be able to try that and write it up soon. Thanks!