Thinking About Sugar and Kids

Here is the problem with sugar: we generally have two different thoughts about sugar competing for space in our heads. On the one hand, when we think about sugar, fun and joyful images pop into our heads: sugar-plum fairies, sugar daddies, sugarland … and other enjoyable fun sugar-filled thoughts.  At the same time, though, many of us have these nagging questions and thoughts in the back of our head that make us wonder if sugar may not be such a fun and joyous thing.

Doesn’t sugar cause disease or make my children act crazy? Too much sugar can be harmful; can’t it? But if sugar is harmful, why isn’t my doctor telling me it is harmful? What about diabetes, does sugar cause diabetes? You want to give your children something they will enjoy, but you also want them to be healthy.

These two different sugar personalities play themselves out in interesting ways. We bake cookies for our kids, but then get mad when they eat too many and start jumping around the room demanding more sugar. Or they won’t eat their dinner, but ask for desert.

These competing thoughts can be maddening, but let me suggest to you that the first images of sugar (the nice versions) are a lie because the destruction that is caused the large amount of sugar we all eat outweighs the few moments of happiness we experience while sugar is in our mouths; let’s take a look.

Over consumption

The amount of sugar we put into our bodies has increased dramatically in the last few years to the point that most children and adults are eating somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 pound of sugar every day. Whenever I site this statistic, most people cannot believe they are eating that much sugar. As you will see, though, it is not that hard to get that much; especially if you and your children are eating typical diets.

Most of the sugar we are consuming comes in one form: from our drinks.   The medical journal Pediatrics published a recent study that showed just how much sugar our children are getting from drinking sweet drinks. The study showed that 10 to 15 percent of all the calories our children are consuming come from fruit juice and soda. Children and teens aged six to eighteen, averaged 30 ounces of juice or soda every day (or 20 teaspoons of sugar) and younger children were drinking an average of 15.5 ounces of sugary drinks (for 10 teaspoons of sugar a day). Thirty teaspoons, by the way, is equal to 1/4 pound of sugar.

Soda and fruit juice alone is almost enough to make our children’s daily sugar consumption “quota” and this doesn’t include all the other sugar they are consuming, including breakfast cereals, jams, cookies, crackers, candies, ice cream… and everything else they are eating. It is very clear: our children are eating a ton of sugar.

The Harm that Sugar Causes

Remember that nagging thought in the back of your head? The thought that keeps telling you that sugar may not be good for you or your children, despite the lack of warnings from the medical community? That thought is right: Sugar is harmful. There is an ever-increasing amount of scientific study that is proving that sugar is both harmful and addictive and not simply a “food” that, may add calories and rot our teeth, but is otherwise okay to eat.

Sugar packs a powerful one-two punch that makes it especially harmful:

First, it is addictive. We all have joked about being addicted to sugar, but what scientists are discovering is that sugar addiction is no joke. Sugar, it turns out, is every bit as addictive as cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol. When rats become addicted to sugar, they act just like other addicts. If you take sugar away from sugar-addicted rats, they shake, tremble, become aggressive and show other signs of withdrawal. The sugar-addicted rat’s brains show close similarity to drug and alcohol addicted rats.

Seeing sugar as an addiction explains a lot of the behavior around sugar. It explains our and our children’s cravings, binging on sugary foods and why we go on diets only to gain the weight back later.

Secondly, sugar is toxic to the body and it damages our bodies through three mechanisms:

1. Weight Gain: While the standard medical opinion of sugar is that it is simply a source of calories like any other food, you shouldn’t believe this. Sugar is unique and contributes to weight gain through other mechanisms than simply containing calories. Our bodies need a certain amount of energy in the form of blood sugar, when we exceed our energy needs, the extra blood sugar is stored as fat. Eating (and especially drinking) sugar leads to very high blood sugar much of the time, and this creates fat storage.
2. Insulin Insensitivity: Sugar leads to insulin insensitivity. When our blood sugar remains high over a long period of time, the cells of the body become insensitive to insulin and this leads to metabolic syndrome and, eventually, diabetes. While even the American Diabetics Association won’t admit a connection between diabetes and sugar, there is mounting evidence that this is true.
3. Toxic: While it is surprising to many people, sugar is toxic in ways similar to the way cigarette smoke is toxic to the lungs. Sugar, though, is toxic to the blood vessels throughout the body. The blood vessel damage sugar causes is very apparent in people who have high blood sugar (such as diabetics). Sugar destroys the blood vessels in the kidneys, eyes, heart and throughout the body. The exact same damage is happening in people who don’t have diabetes, only at a slower rate.

Sugar can be blamed for the ever growing epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and even heart disease that we see every day, and despite the medical community’s denials, sugar affects the brains and moods of our children.

Helping our Kids Survive Sugarland

Removing all sugar from our children’s diets is a large task most of us are not able to undertake, but that doesn’t mean you should not make an effort. Parents actually have a lot of control over what their children eat. In the journal article in Pediatrics, researchers discovered that most sugar consumption (55-70 percent) occurred in the home.

Here are some ways to reduce the amount of sugar (and the harm that sugar does):

• Throw out the Soda: This one simple step can dramatically reduce the amount of sugar your children are consuming. Fruit juice should also leave. If you feel that you simply must have a sweet drink in the house, than unfiltered juices are probably the next best choice, but not much better than soda – just use in moderation, or mix with 1/2 water.
• Discover Hidden Sugars: Reading labels often doesn’t help you in finding sugars because sugars have so many other names. Look for ingredients that end in OSE, like this: glucose, fructose, dextrose, maltose and others. This won’t help you to find all the sugars, but many of them.
• Eat Something Crunchy: At our house, we encourage our kids to eat something crunchy with every meal. While this often gets the response, “chips are crunchy,” we correct them by telling them we mean fresh and crunchy: something that grows that way. This helps kids to understand what we like them to eat: carrots, apples, pears, peaches, celery… something fresh and crunchy with every meal.
• Eating Fruit: Most fruits don’t raise blood sugar the way that fruit juices do, but taste sweet. The fiber content of the fruit help to keep the blood sugar down. My kids like mixed frozen berries with whipped cream (whipped cream is our “bribe” to help them keep eating lots of fruits; the other great “bribe” is peanut butter).
• No Artificial Sugars: I’m not going to discuss the full extent of why you should keep away from artificial sweeteners; I think it is enough to say that it is better to eat sugar than it is to eat these crazy chemicals.
• Sugar substitutes: If you need some sort of sweetener, try xylitol or Stevia. Stevia is an herb and take a while to learn how to cook with, but is a good substitute. Xylitol is a sugar that doesn’t raise blood sugar as much as most sugars and has been shown to actually help prevent cavities.

So what to do if you can’t keep sugar away from you or your kids?

The Key: Keep Blood Sugar Low: If keeping sugars completely away from your kids impossible, you need to know what will keep their blood sugar low. There are three things that can help keep blood sugar low: fiber, fat and protein.

The way to take advantage of this is to make sure that no sugar is consumed without it being near some form of fat, fiber or protein. It works like this: no desert without it being near a meal; no cookie without, say, a hot dog before… and so on. Peanut butter is both a fat and a protein and works to help keep blood sugar low (just use the no-sugar kind).

Sugar Free

You are in for a big challenge whenever you try to remove sugar from you and your children’s lives. Every little step you make is a step in the right direction. Sugar is powerfully addictive and you have your work cut out for you if you try and keep it out of your house. Know that you are making better choices for you and your family with each sugary snack you keep out of the house. I wish you the best of luck!

Original article for Healthy Green Moms.

Dr. Scott Olson is a Naturopathic doctor, an expert in natural medicine and the author of the book Sugarettes. You can read his blog at www.olsonnd.com

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