The discerning parent would know why a dull child is not doing well at school.Food choice and breakfast may play a very important role. These days, adults are so busy trying to work to generate enough income to keep body and soul together that they do not pay attention to food choice and combination in their homes. Feeding properly seems to be a task for even families with a lot of money. Why? It’s simply because a good balanced diet requires attention and care. Preparing such meals can also be time consuming.
Tired and worn out parents have a way of feeding their children fast and ready-to-cook, tired and worn out parents find it easy to feed their children fast ready-to-cook meals.some family most especially Nigerians and Africans eat rice and stew on a daily basics!, for some others, plain noodles are permanently on the menu. Where are the fruits, vegetables, essential amino-acids, essential fatty acids, etc. The fast food treats do not make it any better; they only add a lot of saturated and trans fats, salt, sugar, etc. Today, we will take a look at free sugar in relation to a child’s diet and health. The sugar that we refer to is the table sugar used on a daily basis to manufacture drinks, confectionery, added to foods at home like beverages, custard, pap, etc. How does it affect your child¡_s health, especially in high content?
Sugar in your child’s diet: Sugar is a very popular chemical in our daily diet. Three sources provide over two thirds of the free sugar our diet and especially the diet of our children. These are, soft drinks, table sugar, which we add to foods, like tea and confectionery like biscuits, cakes, etc. Unfortunately, these are the very foods which are popular with children. This is largely because these foods are promoted by intense advertising and have a profound effect on food choice by children. Immediately after watching one of these glamorous adverts promoting highly sweetened drinks, my son nearly always asks me if he can have it. I firmly tell him no and explain that it is bad for him if he wants to grow up to be big and strong! Only careful parental guidance will teach a child to choose a fruitover a sweet when offered both.
As populations got more civilized, the amount of sucrose (sugar) they consumed increased. Prior to that, most of the sugar in the diet was from fruits; fructose – fruit sugar.
Sugar and the Teeth: I must applaud dentists. They have continually educated the public on the harmful effects of sugar on the teeth. They seriously deserve this commendation because the sugar cartel are a very powerful international body. Sugar sells and it is available everywhere. It is interesting to note that sugar was so scare in England during queen Victoria’s time, that only the elite ate it. The Queen, on the other hand, ate so much sugar; because of her privilege, that all her teeth were rotten! Many countries, especially in the third world; have traditionally eaten a high starch low sugar diet.¨ These population, like Nigeria, used to have a low incidence of dental caries i.e. holes in the teeth were not common. The deterioration of dental health, grew with the introduction of free sugars and foods high in it into their diet.
This is in line with research conducted by Newburn et al in 1980, which concluded that starchy foods are not cariogenic (i.e. they do not decay the teeth to cause holes in them). I will not usurp my esteemed dentists job by writing on how sugar decays the teeth. It suffices for me to say here, that a low sugar diet is compulsory for your child’s dental health to be good.
Sugar and Nutrient Deficiency; Drinking large quantities of soft drinks can lead to deficiencies in several important vitamins and minerals. A survey of more than 4,000 children, aged 2 to 17 years, foundthat soft drinks consumption rose 41% between 1989 and 1995. Soft drinkers were less likely to get the recommended levels of Vitamin A or calcium, and were at increased risk of magnesium deficiency. Sugar depletes magnesium, and the high levels of phosphoric acid in soft drinks can combine with calcium and magnesium in the gut to cause a loss of these vital minerals.
Children and Diabetes: Type 2 diabetes used to be called "adult-onset" diabetes, because it mostly occurred in people over 50. But this is no longer so. The rising rate of diabetes in children is epidemic. Dr. Gerald Bernstein, an endocrinologist with New York's Beth Israel Medical Center said, "If you go back 20 years, about 2% of all cases of new onset diabetes (type 2) were in people between 9 and 19years old. Now, it's about 30% to 50%." It is now a well established fact that the incubation of type 2 diabetes is directly related to diet (about 90%). More specifically a diet that continually floods the blood with a high sugar content; a diet high in refined carbohydrates and free sugars. Children with a positive family history maybe programmed to develop type 2 diabetes earlier if they are fed the later type of diet.Sugar and obesity: The combination of high sugar and high fat in food is a very deadly one. This is because the presence of sugar in the blood after a meal is digested makes the pancreas to secrete insulin. Besides it normal function of helping to metabolise sugar, insulin makes the body deposit fat cells! You can see that this is an unwholesome combination.
You are more likely to put on weight much faster with the sugar in your diet encouraging the deposit of fat. Obesity is increasingly becoming a problem in children. Besides inactivity (not burning energy by engaging in physical activity), a diet combination as is being described here is one of the major contributors to the rising problem of child obesity. We will talk more about obesity in children.Sugar blues: An intake of a high sugar food gives a sudden boost, a temporary high. The habitual intake of such items leads to the craving for the quick sugar
high when one does not have it. Have you observed the speed with which some people gulp down a bottle of soft drink? As if their very life depends on it!
Today’s youths have been described as jetfighters.¨ They refuel on the move. They live off junk food, confectionery like sweet and canned drinks. A condition described as reactive hypoglycaemia¨ has been found to be common among them. This is the sugar blues, which occurs immediately after their blood is deprived of their high sugar fuel. They feel extreme tiredness, depression, aggression and have been known to even attempt suicide! In North America, a Professor Schoenthaler even traced it to criminal behaviour.
Most importantly, families should device ways to reduce the amount of free sugars in their children’s diet. Soft drinks should be few and far between, and even then, diluted. Water is by far the most satisfying fluid. If you teach your child to appreciate and drink plenty of water, then they are less likely to have sugar addiction.
This article may not be entirely true for American audience,it may be well suited to fellow Africans and Aisians
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