My childrens health - banana style! (Asda Banana Flavour Milkshake Mix)

Member Name: kaitlinsmummy

Product:	Asda Banana Flavour Milkshake Mix
Date:	11/04/08 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Full of vitamins and minerals.

Disadvantages: The inner foil lid.

The product I will now review is "Asda's banana flavour milkshake mix, with added vitamins".

Anyone with children know that it is recommended that children should consume at least half a pint of milk a day, to top up their calcium intake, this can also be topped up with things like cheese, yoghurts and some green leafy vegetables.

If you have children like mine, you will also be aware of how difficult it can be, to get them to eat anything even resembling "healthy" food.
My daughter has a particular aversion to yoghurts, so I feel needs to be encouraged slightly more than my son, who in fairness eats so much dairy, he gets quite milk bound!!

My way around this is to encourage a glass of milkshake and a biscuit for supper, mixing the healthy with a little bribery in the form of biscuits!!

~~~~~~ THE PACKAGING ~~~~~~

The packaging (in the case of the banana flavour), is a bright yellow cardboard rectangle, with large paler yellow swirls across the front, in the centre is a large picture of a glass of banana milkshake, frothy and inviting and topped off with straw for the child factor.
Above the picture is " Banana flavour milkshake mix", in funky blue coloured writing.
The lid is again yellow and plastic, under the lid the milkshake powder is sealed into the box with a gold film of foil.
I do have a gripe about the foil inner lid though, for some reason it doesn't have a pull tag, so is not particularly easy to remove, I usually take a pair of scissors to it and snip around it, this does however leave it will a jagged edge, no matter how carefully I cut it, and with it being foil, it does tend to be a bit sharp, so when spooning out the remnants at the bottom can actually slice your hand.

~~~~~~ THE PRODUCT ~~~~~~

The powder comes almost to the top of the box, which is reassuring, some products under fill their boxes, so you don't always feel like your getting your money's worth.
The milkshake mix is not a fine powder, it is more like a fine crumble mix, and of course yellow in colour, not bright yellow though, so you don't look at it and think it is full of additives.
The mix smells lovely and is quite strong on opening the box, but obviously doesn't have a true banana smell, It reminds me more of the foam banana sweets you can get, delicious!

~~~~~~ HOW TO USE AND TASTE ~~~~~~

The "how to prepare" instructions are as follows - take one glass of cold milk, add 3-4 teaspoons of the banana milkshake powder and mix...... Easy peasy! If after you have put the powder into the mix, you whisk vigorously you get a lovely frothy mixture, which if my memory serves me, is very reminiscent of the shakes I got when I was a child, delicious!
The taste is very sweet and again very much like foam banana sweets. My children have a truly disgusting habit which involves them having one spoon for the milk, then one spoon for their mouths, they could eat a whole tub this way, I'm sure!!

~~~~~~ ADDED GOODNESS ~~~~~~

This product attracted me initially by the price but secondly by the added vitamins, not only are my children benefiting from the calcium in the milk, but from the many, many vitamins and minerals added to the mix, these include -

Vitamin B1, B2, B3 and B6, which for anyone that read my previous reviews will be aware that these are used for some of the building blocks of life.
These vitamins cover formation of red blood cells and regeneration of cells through to promoting good muscle tone and healthy skin and hair, these vitamins (B vitamins), are recommended to be taken together as they seem to be more effective that way!

Vitamin A - (beta carotene), helps with the growth and repair of tissues and maintains skin quality, also a diet rich in beta carotene supposedly reduces the risk of contracting certain types of cancer, (lung and oral).

Vitamin C helps to maintain healthy teeth, gums and bones. It also helps to prevent and treat the common cold, and finally aids absorption of iron.

Vitamin D is like many other "vitamins", it doesn't actually have a specific role, other than to encourage absorptions of other vitamins, this helps to absorb calcium from the vitamin C.

~~~~~~ NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION ~~~~~~

Per 20ml serving of mix in 200ml of semi-skimmed milk - 167 calories
7g protein
28g carbohydrates
28g of which sugars
3.0g fat
2.0g of which saturates.

~~~~~~ PRICE AND AVAILABILITY ~~~~~~

These are available from Asda, (obviously!), and retail around the £1.10 range, which considering how many servings you can get from the one box is well the money. (A box lasts me two weeks, using the recommended amount of powder and serving two children once a day, did you get that!!)

The milkshake is also available in chocolate and strawberry and both are just as delicious.

~~~~~~ CONCLUSION ~~~~~~

Would I recommend this product.....yes I definitely would. Ok, so it is high in sugar content, but for a once a day treat I think the positives outweigh the negatives, the added minerals and vitamins are such a boost to my children's diet. My children, or at least my son is rather a picky eater, so even though I know these added vitamins are no competition for the real deal, it is a welcome second best!

Thanks for reading x

Summary: A delicious addition to my childrens diet.