Children love sweets, but sugar is terribly harmful to their health: it leads to hyperactivity and mood swings, impairs brain function, lowers immunity, and increases the risk of asthma and obesity. I have personally found that if my son eats something containing sugar, after a while he literally starts running up and down the walls.
Craving for sweets is a huge problem, which is extremely difficult even for an adult to cope with. For children, this is perhaps even more difficult.
What foods are high in added sugar, and how do you wean your kids off sweets?
Sugar is a simple carbohydrate found naturally in fruits and vegetables, for example. Problems arise when we eat sugar that is artificially added to food. And modern diets tend to contain foods that contain added sugars.
Sugar sneaks onto our table under so many different names that in most cases we don’t even know we are eating it. Fructose, dextrose, corn syrup, honey, barley malt, sucrose, and cane juice extract are just a short list (see this link for a more complete list). The added sugar hides in a wide variety of store products such as ketchup, peanut butter, spreads and condiments, meats, and even baby food. And, unfortunately, we often feed our little ones with foods that contain huge amounts of added sugar – breakfast cereals, ready-made baked goods, etc.
Why should we minimize sugar in our children’s diets?
In my opinion, the answer to this question is obvious, but still I will give several reasons.
Conduct and mood disorders
The sugar eaten in the body is converted into glucose, which is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream. This leads to a dramatic increase in blood sugar levels. To normalize blood sugar levels, the pancreas produces insulin: it transports glucose into cells, which will use it for energy. The rapid rise in insulin causes a sharp drop in blood sugar known as hypoglycemia. In response, the brain produces excessive amounts of glutamate, which causes havoc in the brain and nervous system. This provokes anxiety, panic attacks, feelings of anger and depression.
The American Nutrition Association concluded that hypoglycemia is one of the most likely causes of hyperactivity in children, their inability to stay in one place and concentrate.
Sugar influences behavior in children in another way. Our children eat to get nutrients and to grow. Sugar is “anti-nutritional”: it does not contain nutrients, and the body is forced to “pull” minerals – magnesium, zinc and others – from its own reserves in order to assimilate this sugar. This can lead to chronic mineral deficiencies that cause behavioral and mood disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety, anger, irritability, and difficulty concentrating and learning.
Decreased immunity
Sugar suppresses the immune system and makes our children more susceptible to infections. Research shows that two cans of soda (the equivalent of 20 teaspoons of sugar) can suppress the immune system for two to five hours. So if during this period your children are faced with viruses, their immune systems will not be able to effectively fight the invaders.
Sugar competes with vitamin C in the body because insulin is needed to transport both substances into cells. Eating sugar of any kind reduces the ability of vitamin C to enter cells, which in turn reduces the body’s defenses. Therefore, during illness, sugar should be eliminated from the diet, even in the form of fresh fruit juices, as it will further weaken the immune system.
Increased risk of asthma
Research by Sonia Kirsten of the Nestlé Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland, has shown that a high-sugar diet is associated with asthma. Asthma can be caused by any inflammation of the airways, and Dr. Kirsten’s research has shown a link between consumption of processed sugar and increased airway responsiveness.
The release of too much insulin, which occurs when we eat added sugar, triggers a cascade of inflammation and an overreaction in the airways that can lead to asthma.
Impaired brain function
Research has shown that high blood sugar levels in the short and long term can harm the brain and impair memory. Eating excess sugar reduces the amount of a chemical called brain neurotrophic factor (BDNF), thereby disrupting people’s ability to remember information and learn.
In a 1986 article, Dr. Schontayler describes how a million children improved their test scores after eliminating sugar and white flour.
Obesity
Sugar is closely associated with obesity, especially among children. And not only because of the high number of calories. It is addictive because it affects the production of the hunger hormone ghrelin. Sugar interferes with the child’s decision about how much to eat. As a result, children eat more than they should.
How to save a child from sugar addiction?
Reducing the amount of sugar in a child’s diet is a big problem, especially if he is already used to sweets and craves for it. Eliminating the cause of cravings is much easier than banning candy from your child. And cravings for sweets often indicate that your child suffers from dysbiosis, that is, in his intestines, harmful bacteria prevail over friendly ones. And you need to direct your efforts to combat this phenomenon. For example, feeding a child with fermented and fermented foods.
And of course, to restrict his access to desserts and sweets, try to cook analogs of his favorite sweets at home, explain to children how they are threatened by an excessive passion for sugar.
Unfortunately, in modern conditions of life, it is very difficult to rid a child of sugar, and I experience it myself every day. Therefore, becoming a mother, I am constantly looking for new ways to deal with excessive sugar in the lives of my children.
If you are interested in the topic of getting rid of sugar addiction, I suggest trying my 21-day course of sugar detox. Details on this link.