I have written and talked about the harm of sugar many times and I will not tire of repeating it. Each of us faces this enemy, and we can confidently call him one of the main destroyers of our health.
The scary thing about this product is not only that it is addictive and because of the surges in blood sugar, we want to eat more and more sweets. But also the fact that, as befits an insidious enemy, sugar hides and disguises itself so skillfully that most often we do not even know how much we consume it every day. Now think: if this is such a problem for us, adults and conscious people , then what a danger it is for children. Read about how sugar can affect your child’s behavior and health here.
If you are worried that your child is eating too much sweets, it’s time to start fighting this problem (for example, I try to follow these rules). After all, eating habits are established in childhood. The sooner you wean your child off a lot of sweets, the more healthy and independent life you will give him, without many terrible problems and diseases. If you are a passionate parent, I advise you to read this book. Personally, I liked it for its approach: the authors tried to find the simplest solution to this difficult problem. And they proposed a program for getting rid of sugar addiction, which consists of 5 steps. No one asks children to stop eating sweets right away. Helping your child walk through these 5 steps will slowly but surely wean them off their sugar habit.
The book contains shocking data: the average child aged 4 to 8 eats 36 kilograms of added sugar per year (or almost 100 grams per day!). This is several times more than the daily recommended amount for a child (three teaspoons, or 12 grams).
If these numbers surprise you and you wonder where they came from, then let me remind you that fructose, dextrose, corn syrup, honey, barley malt, sucrose, and cane juice extract are all sugar. It also hides in a wide variety of store products such as ketchup, peanut butter, spreads and condiments, meats and even baby food, breakfast cereals, ready-made baked goods, drinks, etc. Plus what a child eats when you cannot control, for example at school.
In general, this problem is really worth thinking about and working with. Your child will then say “thank you” to you!