ZisBoomBah

What’s important to remember, says ZisBoomBah’s nutritionist Lisa Lanzano, MS, RD, is that sugar in itself is not terribly bad. The culprit is the amount of ADDED sugar in many of your kids’ favorite foods. It is simply the quantity and day-to-day consistency in which you let your kids consume added sugars. A healthful diet absolutely can include sugar, says Lisa. But it is up to the parents to limit the concentrated sources of sugar (e.g. ice cream, cookies, etc) for their children.

Understanding natural sugars versus added sugars

Sugar occurs naturally in some foods, such as fresh fruit, milk, plain yogurt and some vegetables, such as tomatoes. All these foods are part of a healthful diet.

What you really want to watch is the amount of added sugars in the foods your kids eat. And ironically, of course, food manufacturers pack added sugars in some of their processed foods just so your kids would go crazy over them.

Added sugars include (not an all-inclusive list):

• Sucrose
• Glucose
• Fructose
• Honey
• Agave
• Brown rice syrup
• Molasses
• Table sugar
• High-fructose corn syrup sweetener
• Barley malt

How much added sugar is reasonable?

Our nutritionist recommends these daily goals for children (and, by the way, these guidelines apply to adults as well):

Keep added sugars between 5-7 calories (1.25-1.75 teaspoons) per 100 calories for females and males, respectively.

For example, a typical 7-year-old girl needs 1600-1700 calories per day, and a typical 7-year-old boy needs 1900-2000. This amounts to approximately 90 calories of added sugars per day for 7-year-old girls (22 grams or 5 ½ teaspoons), and 135 calories/day for 7-year-old boys (34 grams or 8 ½ teaspoons).

We asked Lisa, what ill health effects – besides the obvious one, childhood obesity (from consuming too many calories) – eating too much sugar can cause in children. Here is her list:

1. More dental decay resulting in cavities
2. An increased risk for cardiovascular disease, which can begin to develop in childhood, due to the increase in body fat levels
3. Added sugars displace essential vitamins and minerals in food so we consume more calories, but become more poorly nourished (over-fed, under-nourished)
4. The fructose in table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup sweetener increases blood fats called triglycerides, another risk factor for heart disease (though fructose is found naturally in fruits, a person does not ingest as much in one sitting by eating fresh fruit, as they do when eating processed foods)
5. Concentrated sugar intake, from candy, sodas and kid’s breakfast cereals cause a dramatic rise in blood sugar, over-working the pancreas which may lead to diabetes down the road
6. Long-term fructose intake may blunt the body’s fullness signals, leading us to eat more than we actually need, without realizing it.

Check out how many teaspoons of sugar are in the following*:

• Starbuck’s or Panera Bread cookie, 8 teaspoons
• 6 oz. muffin, 14 teaspoons
• ½ cup ice cream, 3-4 teaspoons
• 1 cup soy milk, 4-5 teaspoons
• 6 oz. fruited yogurt, 3-4 teaspoons
• 12 oz can soda, 10 teaspoons
• 16 oz sweetened bottled tea, 10-12 teaspoons
• 1 oz granola bar, 1.5 teaspoons
• ¾ cup kids’ cold breakfast cereal, sweetened, 2 ½ to 4 teaspoons
• 1 slice whole grain bread, ½ to 1 teaspoon

*Each teaspoon of sugar adds 16 calories. So a food with 10 teaspoons of sugar adds 160 calories, just from the sugar alone.