We’ve long known that processed sugar is bad for kids. And yet new data presented this week (June 10) at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting show that American infants are consuming excessive amounts of added sugar in their diets, much more than the amounts currently recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA) and other medical organizations.
The study, conducted by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looked at added sugar consumption—sugars in your diet that are not naturally occurring, like those found in fruit and milk, but rather added into foods during preparation or processing. Researchers used data collected from a nationally representative sample of more than 800 kids between six and 23 months old who participated in the 2011 to 2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Parents were asked to record every item their child ate or drank during a 24-hour period, and the researchers calculated a mean sugar intake based on these testimonies.
The study found that toddlers 12 to 18 months consumed 5.5 teaspoons per day, and that toddlers 19 to 23 months consumed 7.1 teaspoons. This is close to, or more than, the amount of sugar recommended by AHA for adult women (six teaspoons) and men (nine teaspoons). Parents of more than 80% of kids aged six to 23 months reported their children consumed at least some added sugar on a given day.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday June 19 2018, @05:33AM
How else can one prepare the future generations for their role as consumers?!?
Next step: evolve them to survive ingesting plastics, the next feed available only moderately more expensive than the HFCS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @06:03AM (3 children)
Based on observation, I suspect in many cases the mothering instinct values the child eating frequently over longer-term health. Moms just worry if a kid appears to not be eating enough, even if it's a minor or imaginary gap. And kids looove sugary things.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @06:59AM (2 children)
You may not be entirely wrong, but eating frequently != eating unhealthy.
Added sugars are, literally, terrible. It is not particularly difficult to find excellent snacks without these - the summary even includes examples (dairy products without added sugar and fruits). Teach your kids to like fruit, treat them to a small helping of what happens to be in season, and you wouldn't have to be even on this chart.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @08:38AM (1 child)
I think a lotta mommas think healthy babies are big fat heavy babies.
If the baby has a bottle in its mouth, its not crying.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @05:36PM
Don't forget also the effect poverty and near-poverty has on access to healthy foods.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday June 19 2018, @08:13AM (5 children)
This has happened within two blocks of me in the past five years:...
A large appliance superstore went out of business... the whole two-storey building has been repurposed as "Fresnius Kidney Care".
Two years later, a supermarket a block down the street went out of business ... now its "Da Vita Kidney Care".
Two huge dialysis centers. I must have a half-dozen of these businesses within walking distance of me...
I guess its telling me something... but I really don't wanna know.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @09:07AM (2 children)
Yup. I saw a DaVita dialysis place go up next to my local hardware store. What do you know, it's a chain...
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday June 19 2018, @09:51AM (1 child)
I can't help but believe that all these pills we seem to take are bad news for our excretory systems.
You know, the ones we see all the time advertised on TV... usually something for depression, rash, or sometimes things quite trivial.... while they show something like a football play to keep one distracted, the motormouth in the background mumbles stuff like heart and kidney failure...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 19 2018, @12:32PM
Just about every Rx med has some serious downsides - if they didn't they'd be OTC.
Is the thing you are taking the pill for really worse than the side effects?
There's some short term vs long term tradeoffs to consider, but on the whole, it seems to me like prescription meds are best avoided.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:38PM
Dialysis is probably becoming a new lifestyle product for the contemporary hipster. Kinda like the oxygen bars of the past.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday June 20 2018, @12:17AM
Almost everybody has a fridge, almost everybody has a range. Microwave. So many have washer dryers. And barbecue. And the nice appliances cost a few thousand. Maybe $10,000 or a little more, right? It's good money. But sometimes folks don't feel like spending the money. And they can go, "oh, let's keep the old fridge for another year." Or "oh, the washer dryer is acting up, let's call the repairman." Instead of buying new appliances. And they can go YEARS AND YEARS without buying appliances.
But the folks that do dialysis, they're REGULAR customers. They come in there 3 times a week, they don't miss a session. Because when they miss a session, they feel really sick. And they die a little inside. And each session is about $200. Not huge money but it's very steady. When the economy tanks (Bush & Obama) the money keeps coming in. Great investment. And I'm very busy right now. With documents, with negotiation. But I think my next business will be the dialysis clinic that's also a tanning salon. So people can feel great and look great. With a PERFECTO tan just like mine.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 19 2018, @12:34PM
Did they report this directly, or by checking off boxes of products they consume which contain added sugar but don't advertise as such?
Sure, there's the legally required Nutrition Information panel, but... we are talking about the majority of people here and I don't think that the majority is even aware of what information is available on that panel, much less how to interpret it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:32PM
Why compare toddlers sugar intake to adult requirements? They are going to be different than children's requirements (admittedly higher fat is the usually quoted part of children's diet). Then the summary goes on to measure sugar intake in teaspoons, what kind of bullshit is that, give your results in grams, don't convert mass to a volume measurement, especially not one that shares a name with a common implement of incredibly variable volume. And no, I didn't bother with TFS after all that.
(Score: 2) by corey on Tuesday June 19 2018, @11:58PM
Must be hard in the US to eat anything without added sugars. When I was there on holiday, I was amazed by the amount of food that had added sugars and high fructose corn syrup. We ordered a soup one day with a bread roll and the bread was sickly sweet like a muffin - couldn't eat it with the soup. But people there are normalised to it.
We fed our toddler steamed veg and nuts and unsugared milk and yoghurt from the day she ate solids and she still chows veg. No teeth issues too. A baby-toddler doesn't have any concept of sugary sweet food unless you introduce it to them. They don't need it.
Just read ingredient labels. Avoid the crappy "fruit" snacks that aren't actual fresh fruit.