"Soft" drinks : hard to swallow facts

As parents, we've all been there. It's a hot, sweaty day, the kids are cranky, and we just give them something to cool off and let us take a breather.

However, "soft" drinks are not an healthy idea. Here's why:

Below, I have shown the "Nutritional facts" panel on two popular "soft" drinks. Lets look at them in detail:

Both panels show almost 16g of sugar (natural + added). However, the key is what is written above the panel: these values are PER 100 ml (milliliters).

Each drink above is 250ml - which means that each packet contains essentially almost 40 gms (about 10 teaspoons of sugar). This much sugar is NOT healthy for kids. Don't do it.

Take a further look at the ingredients : The "fruit" content is less than 20% (14% apple juice, 19% mango pulp). This means that over 80% content has nothing to do with real fruit !

Both claim a fat content of 0%. That sounds healthy, until you realize that both contain carbohydrates of about 40g each. Carbohydrates are converted into glucose when the body requires energy (exercise, daily activities etc), but are stored within body fat until required.

If the carbohydrate intake is too high, the body generates more fat to store it all. So while the drinks themselves may not have any fat content, it can act as a trigger for the body to retain fat from other sources!

Also, remember all that sugar mentioned before? If not used during exercise (as glucose), that too turns into carbs, to be stored in fat.

Carbonated "soft" drinks are almost as bad. 

So the next time you want to get a quick drink for your kids, or pacify them, don't reach out for the convenient "soft" drink. Take the trouble to find a natural fruit juice stand; it's more expensive now, but healthier kids are worth a darn lot more.

When bigger is not cheaper

When buying household provisions, bigger is usually cheaper, right?

Not in the case of Britannia Jim Jam biscuits.

A 100g pack costs Rs 15 (MRP), making a cost per KG of Rs 150.

A 150g pack costs Rs 25 (MRP), making a cost per KG of over Rs 166.65 !

That's a difference of almost 11% more for the larger pack!

Many companies use non-standard sizes to ensure that comparisions are difficult for the average consumer. Always try to estimate the price/weight for a good deal.

For example, in the above case, a quick estimate can be performed as follows:
for 300g,
small pack price will be 15 x 3 = 45
big pack price will be 25 x 2 = 50

Thus we can see that buying 300g in small packs is a better deal than buying large packs!

Manipal Global's elastic fees

I received an email from Manipal Global, offering an Android Development course.

A click through for more details showed the price as Rs 6,000 - discounted from Rs 8,000 all inclusive.

However, the representative I communicated with said the normal course fees were 7,000. When I pointed out that the website fees were different, she asked for a screenshot via email. I sent her a screenshot as below (price near top right corner) :

A few days later, the upshot? They increased the website price!

Companies like this will always have a raw deal for consumers. Approach with caution.