I read this article today by Annette Noray (see link above) and found her explanation of what is actually happening in the body when we eat processed sugar very helpful.
I am all about balance-maybe that is because I am a Libran!! Whatever, or whyever, I strongly believe that we, as parents, therapists and educators need to form a decision about how we want to bring our children up with regards to their eating habits. This is easier said than done and I am still on a quest to learn more about this subject. One thing I am trying to bear in mind is that much of the research into disease (diabetes, heart disease, obesity) is done on adults. There is just not enough information out there yet that is based on randomised controlled trials (or meta analyses) in children. Therefore, we do not know, for certain, whether or not sugar addiction or carbohydrate resistance exists in children, whether or not obesity in children is due to highly processed sugar diets and or highly processed carbohydrate diets, but the scientists are working on it and I hope that soon, this information will be available to us.
However, what I do know is that there is a recommended daily allowance (RDA) for added sugar for adults and children and this is something we need to be aware of. Awareness and knowledge is the first step towards health and we need to educate ourselves about how much sugar we are consuming. Obviously, we know exactly how much added sugar we are having when we sprinkle some onto our cereal or in our coffees. However, it is the ubiquitous sugar that we need to be aware of. Thus, we need to read the labels of our breakfast cereals, yoghurts, bread and drinks. Most of the extra sugar in the diet comes from drinking sugar-sweetened beverages.This includes carbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks, punches, sports drinks, coffee and tea with sugar added and milk products that are flavored. Sugar is also found in cake, ice cream, jelly, cookies, fruit packed in syrup and baked goods. Other sources include tomato sauce, pasta sauce, barbecue sauce, applesauce, jello, pudding, granola bars, breakfast cereals and many more. Be careful with foods that are labeled as fat free because they may be loaded with sugar instead. The best bet, I think, is to read the nutrition label. This has been a very educational process for me, I must say and I am astonished by how much added sugar we were having as a family.
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that adults should not consume, on average, more than about 6 (women) to 9 (men) teaspoons, or 25 to 37.5 grams, of sugar a day. Preschoolers with a daily caloric intake of 1,200 to 1,400 calories shouldn't consume any more than 170 calories, or about 4 teaspoons, of added sugar a day. Children ages 4-8 with a daily caloric intake of 1,600 calories should consume no more than 130 calories, or about 3 teaspoons a day.
Now for the statistics:
A can of soda has 8-10 teaspoons of sugar in it, half a cup of ice cream has 4 teaspoons in it, a bowl of chocolate flavoured puffed rice can have 2 teaspoons of sugar in it and we won't talk about the caffeine content here!
A study conducted by the AHA found children as young as 1-3
years already bypass the daily recommendations, and typically consume around 12
teaspoons of sugar a day. By the time a child is 4-8 years old, his sugar
consumption skyrockets to an average of 21 teaspoons a day. The same study
found 14-18 year old children intake the most sugar on a daily basis, averaging
about 34.3 teaspoons.
So, I guess my summary is that we need to start off by being aware of how much added sugar our children are consuming (without realising, as it has been added to the product) and secondly to teach our children to make healthy choices when it comes to snack time, drinking time and breakfast time. If we can start off by eating our calories and not drinking them, that would be a fine start, I think!
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