Parents concerned with the long-term health of their children should be more mindful of the amount of added sugar their children are eating on a daily basis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Guidelines indicate that Americans should keep the amount of added sugars in their diet to less than ten percent, and ideally less than five percent of their total daily calories. However, the average child aged 2-19 consumes about 16 percent. Parents must learn the potential health risks and ways to find and avoid added sugar to help protect the health of their children.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, overeating added sugar could create severe long-term consequences in the health of children such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. Those issues add together to increase the risk of a child to develop heart disease at a much earlier age. To make matters worse, sugar intake has a powerful effect on the body because it releases chemicals that make a person feel good, as well as dopamine, which is integral to the reward system in the brain. As a person eats more sugar, the brain craves more of it in the future which can lead to a cycle that is hard to break.
Grocery stores and restaurants are filled with sugar-laden foods, and it can be challenging to find ways to lower the amount of sugar in a child's diet, according to Parents magazine. For a standard 2,000 calorie-per-day diet, total sugar consumption for the day should be under 40 grams so parents should add up the amounts for the day when possible. For perspective, one can of soda can have around 35 grams of sugar alone and even seemingly healthy processed items like whole wheat bagels can have eight grams. Rather than banning treats altogether, focus on putting sweets back in their place by lowering portions of desserts or letting children choose where they will get their sugar for the day as long as it is under the daily maximum.
