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Child Health How many sweets is really allowed for children?
Too much sugar makes children fat, adults sick and seniors toothless, so the warning from the Foundation Child Health. The high intake of sugar poses a major problem for both children and adults in Germany. Countermeasures are urgently required, according to the experts.
"Sugar in sweets, sweet drinks and foods thickens, promotes the development of diabetes and harms the teeth," emphasizes the Foundation for Child Health in its latest release. These relationships have long been scientifically confirmed by many studies and underpinned by new studies. A reduction of sugar intake is therefore urgently required. However, it is difficult for many parents to estimate the amount of candy allowed in children.
After a scoop of ice cream and two shortbread biscuits, small children have reached the recommended maximum sugar intake per day. (Image: Maria Sbytova / fotolia.com) Risks of high sugar consumption
Professor Berthold Koletzko, chairman of the Foundation for Child Health, emphasizes that the high intake of sugar in Germany is a huge problem for children and adults. Proven consequences of high sugar consumption are obesity, type 2 diabetes and tooth decay and "fat children run the risk of later civilization diseases such as high blood pressure, heart and circulatory disease and gout to fall ill," said Professor Koletzko.
Avoiding sugar improves liver fat levels
Recently, according to the Child Health Foundation, a study at the University of California, San Francisco, has shown that if obese do not consume sugar, obese children will experience a reduction in liver fat, a decrease in abdominal fat, and a decrease in insulin secretion. The average body weight of the participants had also fallen and all this after only nine days without sugar.
Sugar causes massive dental treatment costs
In another study with data from 168 countries worldwide, scientists from the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Biotechnology Research and Information Network AG (BRAIN AG) made clear that the consumption of sugar was clearly associated with the occurrence of tooth decay, Periodontitis and as a result, tooth loss is related. With more than 25 grams of sugar consumed per person per day, dental care costs in high-income countries have risen by an average of € 75 per person per year.
Criticizing propaganda of the sugar lobby
To date, the harmful consequences of excessive sugar consumption by the sugar lobby stubbornly denied, so the Foundation Child Health. Furthermore, there is an undeniable opinion that there is no direct link between sugar and obesity and tooth decay and that sugar consumption is further boosted by advertising. For example, German confectionery manufacturers alone spent more than 898 million euros on media communication within one year - 15 percent more than in the previous year. Here, the marketing directed to children on the Internet, according to the Foundation child health, citing a study funded by the AOK Federal Association of the University of Hamburg.
Only ten percent of the energy needs of sweets
According to the experts, confectionery, sodas and snack foods should "not contribute more than about ten percent of their daily energy needs." In a four to six-year-old child, one scoop of ice cream and two shortbread biscuits will supply ten percent of their daily energy needs, emphasizes Professor Koletzko. Special care should be taken with sweetened drinks and sweet fruit juices. Here, many studies show a close connection between the regular consumption of such drinks and the worldwide increase in obesity.
Soft drinks particularly critical
"Sugar-sweetened drinks flood the organism unchecked and quickly with excess calories, which can cause the energy balance to lose its balance," warns Professor Koletzko. In addition, the liquid calories are less filling than solid food and the rapid rise in blood sugar stimulates the formation of the hormone insulin and thus the fat deposition in the body. This applies not only to soft drinks such as coke and sodas, but also to the particularly popular in Germany fruit juices. According to the expert, "Infants and toddlers should drink fruit juice as gently as adults drink champagne."
What is consumed regularly tastes good
The Foundation for Child Health emphasizes that only "tap water, mineral water, unsweetened herbal and fruit teas or fruit juice spritzers (two-thirds water)" are really well suited as drinks for children. Sugared fruit juice drinks and sodas, including iced teas, should only be drunk occasionally, experts say. In the implementation of the nutrition program TigerKids in kindergartens, in which children are given mainly water or low-calorie drinks, it has been shown that in the end, people will enjoy what they regularly consume. "Within a week, children also demand water from their parents at home"; said Professor Koletzko.
In order to achieve an appropriate consumption of children's sweets, the Foundation Child Health gives parents the following advice:
- Never use sweets as a reward, pressure or punishment. Then sweets are just good tasting foods and do not get exaggerated emotional value.
- Sweets are eaten if possible only once a day, with meals. Then the teeth are cleaned.
- Even grandparents and aunts, relatives and acquaintances should know the domestic rules for dealing with sweets.
- Do not create any sweet supplies: What is not in the house can not be eaten either. Against sweet hunger fruit and carrots are a proven help.
- Do not leave candies standing around openly. To protect yourself and your children from eating candy, gummy bears, chocolate or biscuits from boredom or thoughtlessness without any appetite.
- Explain to your child as early as possible that sweet things are not good for your teeth. If possible, get used to brushing your teeth, rinsing your mouth, or eating an apple after sucking sweets.
- After the evening brushing your teeth, you must not eat anything. Late "Betthupferl" gnaw on the teeth.
- Adhere to the rules - who constantly nibbles, can not be a role model.
Candy undoubtedly tastes good and "children already know the taste of mother's milk or baby food and therefore love it," explains Professor Koletzko ... Therefore, no reasonable person would come up with the idea to ban all sweets children, the expert continued , Instead, the Stiftung Kindergesundheit advocates setting up strict rules for dealing with sweets in families right from the start, thus helping the child to find his own measure. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the daily amount of six teaspoons of sugar in children (12 teaspoons in adults) should not be exceeded.
In order to be able to understand the sugar intake, the Foundation for Child Health also advocates an easily understandable traffic light system that makes the content of sugar, fat, salt and energy (calories) visible at a glance in all processed foods. (Fp)