Health News
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Health News
Cut back on sugar-sweetened beverages, eat natural foods and read labels to decrease the added sugar in your kids' diet
A greater awareness about added sugars in food products has led many parents to make healthy food swaps for their children, granola bars for cookies, yogurt for ice cream, but what they probably don't realize is that they have likely swapped one source of added sugar for another, Liza Lucas reports for CNN.
Lucas offers some suggestions on choosing foods with no or little added sugar and recommends that for a short time, until you easily recognize these foods, you will have to become a "sugar detective." Added sugar is syrup or sugar that is added to foods during processing; the sugar in fruits, vegetables and other whole foods are natural sugars.
Added sugar has been linked to obesity, which is then linked to so many other chronic diseases: type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer.
Kentucky is the 7th most obese state for children, with 36 percent of its children overweight or obese, according to Child Health Data. And studies have shown that children who are obese are likely to become obese adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The United States Department of Agriculture found that kids eat 18 teaspoons of added sugar a day and most of that comes from what they eat at home.
One 12-ounce regular soda has 8 teaspoons of sugar, which is more sugar than children of any age should have in a given day.
In Kentucky, 15 percent of high school students reported that they had three or more sodas a day during the past seven days, 25 percent said they had two or more per day, 33 percent said they had one or more a day, and 22 percent said they did not drink any soda, according to the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
How do you help your kids cut back on added sugar?
Multiple sources recommend limiting sugar-sweetened beverages, which includes soda, fruit drinks and sports drinks, as the most important thing we can do to decrease most of the added sugars in our kids diets. They recommend replacing it with water.
"The preponderance of research shows that sugar sweetened beverage consumption leads to excess caloric intake and weight gain, as well as increased obesity rates among children and adolescents," says a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Serve treats occasionally and only at special events. The added sugar from daily cookies in the lunch box and ice-cream every night adds up quickly.
The easiest way to decreases added sugars is to eat whole, natural, unprocessed foods. They have no added sugars.
It is also important to learn how to read labels, especially snack foods, breakfast foods, any foods marketed toward children and beverages. Four grams of sugar is equal to one teaspoon, so a food that has 16 grams of sugar has 4 teaspoons of sugar in it.
In addition to desserts and processed treats, granola bars, cereals, barbecue sauce, ketchup, salad dressings, tomato sauces, soups, fruit juice, lemonade, bottled teas, and flavored yogurts are common foods that kids eat that are loaded with added sugars, Madeline Vann reports for Everyday Health.
"Even 4 grams of sugar makes a difference. It may be only 7 grams versus 11," in terms of product comparison "But if you're making five choices a day, that's 20 grams of sugar you're saving," Dr. Melina Jampolis, a physician specializing in nutrition, told Lucas.
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| Image: foodnutritionscience.com |
The American Heart Association's guidelines for the daily amount of added sugar a child should consume depends on the child's age and caloric intake. BJC HealthCare in St. Louis breaks it down on its website:
- Preschoolers averaging 1,200 to 1,400 calories per day should limit added sugar to about 4 teaspoons (16 grams) per day.
- Children ages 4 to 8 who average 1,600 calories per day should limit added sugar to about 3 teaspoons (12 grams) a day. To fit in all the nutritional requirements for this age group, there are fewer calories available for added sugar.
- Pre-teen and teens averaging 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day should not have more than 5 to 8 teaspoons (20 to 32 grams) of added sugar per day.
Why does it matter?
Kentucky is the 7th most obese state for children, with 36 percent of its children overweight or obese, according to Child Health Data. And studies have shown that children who are obese are likely to become obese adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The United States Department of Agriculture found that kids eat 18 teaspoons of added sugar a day and most of that comes from what they eat at home.
One 12-ounce regular soda has 8 teaspoons of sugar, which is more sugar than children of any age should have in a given day.
In Kentucky, 15 percent of high school students reported that they had three or more sodas a day during the past seven days, 25 percent said they had two or more per day, 33 percent said they had one or more a day, and 22 percent said they did not drink any soda, according to the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
How do you help your kids cut back on added sugar?
Multiple sources recommend limiting sugar-sweetened beverages, which includes soda, fruit drinks and sports drinks, as the most important thing we can do to decrease most of the added sugars in our kids diets. They recommend replacing it with water.
"The preponderance of research shows that sugar sweetened beverage consumption leads to excess caloric intake and weight gain, as well as increased obesity rates among children and adolescents," says a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Serve treats occasionally and only at special events. The added sugar from daily cookies in the lunch box and ice-cream every night adds up quickly.
The easiest way to decreases added sugars is to eat whole, natural, unprocessed foods. They have no added sugars.
It is also important to learn how to read labels, especially snack foods, breakfast foods, any foods marketed toward children and beverages. Four grams of sugar is equal to one teaspoon, so a food that has 16 grams of sugar has 4 teaspoons of sugar in it.
In addition to desserts and processed treats, granola bars, cereals, barbecue sauce, ketchup, salad dressings, tomato sauces, soups, fruit juice, lemonade, bottled teas, and flavored yogurts are common foods that kids eat that are loaded with added sugars, Madeline Vann reports for Everyday Health.
Nutrition labels don't list the amount of added sugars separate from naturally occurring sugars in a product so you will have to read the ingredient list to see if the product contains added sugars. First look for any word that ends in "ose," and then look for any of these following added sugars: agave syrup, brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, honey, invert sugar, malt sugar, molasses, raw sugar, sugar, and syrup, says the American Heart Association.
"Even 4 grams of sugar makes a difference. It may be only 7 grams versus 11," in terms of product comparison "But if you're making five choices a day, that's 20 grams of sugar you're saving," Dr. Melina Jampolis, a physician specializing in nutrition, told Lucas.
- Australian Filmmaker Gained 22 Pounds Eating Foods That Most Parents Think Are Healthy; Visited Ky. To See 'mountain Dew Mouth'
An Australian filmmaker, while maintaining his normal caloric intake and eating standard grocery store items, ate the equivalent of 40 teaspoons of sugar a day for two months and gained 22 pounds, expanded his weight size and developed pre-diabetes, reports...
- Americans' Sweet Tooth Blamed For Increases In Obesity And Diabetes; New Website Explains The Dangers Of Too Much Sugar
A new website called SugarScience is now available to help consumers understand the health dangers of sugar in our lives, Lisa Aliferis reports for NPR. This University of California, San Francisco project examined 8,000 studies and research papers and...
- Students In 2 Appalachian Ohio High Schools Help Reduce Classmates' Consumption Of Sugary Drinks, A Bane In The Region
In a region where sweet-tea and soda is more popular than water, student-led groups in Appalachian Ohio were successful in reducing the amount of sugary drinks students consumed, reports The Ohio State University's Center for Clinical and Translational...
- Kids Are Still Eating Too Much Sugar, Regardless Of Parents' Income, And They're Getting Most Of It At Home
By Tara Kaprowy Kentucky Health News American children's sugar consumption is down, but kids are still eating too much sugar, and they are getting most of it at home. So says a new study from the National Center for Health Statistics, which also...
- Choosing Healthy Drink Options
by Jason Bosley-Smith, CSCS, Live Well @ LifeBridge Did you know that a 20-ounce soda has about 17 teaspoons of sugar and over 200 calories? While many of us focus on food when we think of controlling calories, how often do we stop and think about our...