So many kids out there 'learn' and think the orange juice they drink at breakfast, the cookies they eat as a snack after lunch, the goodies they trade at school and the Gatorade they chug after practice are no big deal. They get this believe because their parents often believe the same thing: that daily intake of sugar is harmless and just a function of childhood.
What short-term health effects does Sugar have? What long-term effects does Sugar have? Eating too much sugar can make you feel full so you don’t eat enough healthful foods. Then your body ends up missing important nutrients such as protein, vitamins and minerals. Childhood Obesity is on the rise as is Pre-Teen Type 2 Diabetes.How does Sugar make me fat? If you eat more sugar than your body can use in a day, it stores the sugar it doesn’t need in the liver or converts it to fat. When you do this regularly, you damage your liver and build up fat. Will a little Sugar hurt me? No. Make it a sometimes food. (Unless you have diabetes or an issue with your blood sugar in which case see a doctor.) The American Heart Association recommends no more than 3 teaspoons (12 grams) of added sugar per day for kids, yet get according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the average consumption is 23 teaspoons for boys and 18 for girls. The recommended daily allowance can be easily exceeded with just one bowl of cereal! A child who drinks a 20-ounce original Gatorade will have consumed three times his or her sugar allowance for the day. “Added sugar” refers to the sugar and high-fructose corn syrup added to foods during processing. The sugar in fruits, vegetables and other whole foods are not added sugars; they are natural sugars. What foods have Sugar? Added sugar is in 74% of packaged foods, according to a study published in 2012 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Those include foods that many of us think of as healthful: yogurt, energy bars, pasta sauce, breads, salad dressing and ketchup. The FDA maintains a list of more than 3,000 food additives that are put into our processed foods. Sugar is the second most common behind salt, which means it is in a lot of the things we eat. Low-fat foods often have extra sugar to help bolster the taste. Brightly colored foods with dyes usually have added sugar. Read your labels. Doesn’t fruit have Sugar? Unless you have diabetes, it is difficult to absorb too much sugar from eating whole fruit because whole fruit has fiber. Fiber slows down the digestive process by releasing sugar into the bloodstream at a slow and steady rate. Unlike whole fruit, fruit juice lacks fiber, quickly releasing sugar into the bloodstream causing a burst of energy followed by a sugar crash. One cup of apple juice has 24 grams of sugar. Some juice has almost as much sugar as soda. How does Sugar cause cavities? Yes. Tooth decay begins with bacteria that naturally live in the mouth. These bacteria burn sugar in order to thrive, and during this process convert sugar into acid. The acid then eats away at a tooth’s enamel, which causes cavities. Sticky foods like Skittles and Starburst and long-lasting candies such as lollipops and Jolly Ranchers are the worst for teeth because they allow the sugar to dawdle in the mouth for a prolonged period. Now that I know this, what can I do? I recommend that parents and their kids (age 10 and older) watch the film “Fed Up” together and join the filmmakers’ challenge to give up sugar for 10 days and see how they feel. My 10- and 12-year-olds found it fascinating. And if you want to have a sizable impact on your lifelong health, reduce your sugar consumption all year long! Original Article via Washington Post writer, Casey Seidenberg: http://goo.gl/6FmIdD |
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