Children do not need to eat large amounts of sugar, yet we in the Western world are consuming ever-increasing amounts of the stuff. It’s not always obvious, however, how much we are eating and where it is hidden. In this piece, we look at the role sugar plays in children’s diets and how to control a potentially sweet tooth!
Sources of sugar
Talking about sugar is a difficult thing to do. On the one hand, ‘sugar’ is akin to a swear word in nutritional areas, especially concerning children’s diets. Most new mothers get in a complete state about eliminating what is seen as nearly a poison these days from their child’s diet … yet several months into or a year after weaning find that they renegade on this belief
because it seems if not unfair then at least impossible to maintain.
There are good and there are bad sugars. Good, or natural, sugars can be found in food items such as fresh fruit, fruit juices and dried fruit, as well as in some vegetables, milk and yoghurt. Natural sugars are deemed to be good because they are high in other essential components of a healthy diet, including vitamins, minerals and fibre. In fact, natural sugars
only constitute a small part of the total amount of sugar eaten in today’s typical diet.
‘Bad’ sugars are ones that are refined, such as white sugar. Refined sugar can be found in many foods that we consume on a daily basis, such as cakes, biscuits, sweets, ice cream, chocolate, soft drinks and fruit squashes. Unnatural sugars are not necessary to our diets, as they contain ’empty’ calories, providing little, if any, nutritional benefits.
Sugar is also difficult to spot in lists of ingredients, unless you are a trained dietician! If you check out a product’s ingredient’s list, and see any of the following words, you can be guaranteed that a form of sugar is contained: sugar, sucrose, glucose, dextrose, sorbitol, corn
syrup.
A dose of reality
Before we get too worked up about how bad sugar is, it’s important to at least look at what sugar can and cannot cause, to see just how much or little it affects our diets and our lives.
Without a doubt, the most obvious crime sugar commits is against our teeth. Sugar is one of the main causes of cavities and can even be found in the most ‘innocent’ of drinks – milk – which is why dentists and nutritionists urge parents not to let children fall asleep with a bottle in their mouths at night-time or naptime. Of course, sweets, chocolates and other sugar-laden foods can also cause cavities and are best kept to a minimum.
Fruit sugars can also cause havoc with new gnashers and health visitors will often advise that (diluted) fruit juice be given with a main meal so it is not left on its own to do its damage. Parents are also advised not to let children have sweet drinks in bottles because this practice
can encourage ‘Milk-Bottle Syndrome’ – when the sugar coats the baby’s or toddler’s teeth, causing serious dental problems such as gum disease and cavities.
Sugar is also one of the main culprits of the rapidly rising levels of childhood obesity in the Western world. Unused sugar is stored as fat and it is estimated that up to 15% of UK children are either overweight or obese. While this is not solely due to sugar intake, highly processed and refined foods will be major culprits. And overweight or obese children are more likely to be overweight and obese adults, at high risk of suffering from type 2 diabetes, bowel cancer, high blood pressure and strokes.
Acceptable alternatives?
Weight-conscious individuals, and parents concerned about rotting their children’s teeth, often opt for ‘sugar-free’ alternatives – in drinks, ice creams and medicines. But are they even more risky than a bit of natural sugar, even if it has been refined?
Sweeteners are undoubtedly lower in calories and safer for teeth than sugar and are used in fizzy drinks, yoghurts and chewing gum. The most common ones are the ‘Intense sweeteners’, such as aspartame (E951), saccharin (E954) and acesulfame-K (E950), which are many times sweeter than sugar so only very small amounts are used. ‘Bulk sweeteners’, such as sorbitol (E420) are as sweet as sugar and are therefore used in the same quantities.
The Food Standards Agency’s website recommends that, if you give concentrated soft drinks that contain sweeteners to children under 4 years of age, it’s important to dilute them more than you would for an adult simply because it is not healthy to give your child large amounts of sweetener.
Aspartame, also known as Nutrasweet or E951, is called an ‘intense sweetener’ because it is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar. It has been used worldwide for 25 years and there has been some controversy over its safety when research in the US suggested a link between it and brain tumours. After extensive testing, no conclusive results were found and aspartame is a permissible additive, in quantities not exceeding 2800 mg for an adult (up to 14 cans of fizzy drink) or 600 mg for a three-year-old child. However, it is important to note that infants suffering from the rare genetic disease phenylketonuria (PKU) should not consume aspartame.
Saccharin: The jury is out on the oldest artificial sweetener on the block. Many say that saccharin, which was developed more than 100 years ago, tastes great, is helpful for people who have to limit or restrict their sugar and glucose consumption, and is a completely safe additive. Other organisations disagree on this, following reports of it causing bladder cancer in rats. The controversy over the cancer link provoked numerous research cases to prove its safety (or otherwise) and results have shown that it is acceptable for human consumption and has been endorsed by the World Health Organisation.
Sorbitol: is a bulk sweetener, added to larger products and quantities. It has 60% of the sweetness of sucrose with 33% fewer calories. It is safe for teeth and, according to US-based Calorie Control Council, is non-carcinogenic and can be useful for people with diabetes. However, there have been demands, particularly in the US, for better labelling on products containing sorbitol because of the potential laxative effects of the sweetener when ingested in large quantities.
This probably will have to come down to a personal decision in the long run – whether you would feel more comfortable feeding a natural product that may cause cavities and obesity (if used in high quantities) to your child or opt for an artificial option that is safer for teeth and weight.
Beware of beverages
Once babies are allowed to venture from the strict confines of breast or bottle milk, the door opens for other beverages, including water and juice. While juice is often seen as a healthy addition to a child’s diet, Dr Mary Gavin, paediatrician and author of Fitkids, recommends not offering fruit juices to babies less than six months old and then to limit them to four ounces per day. For older children, she advises keeping away from sweet drinks such as fizzy drinks and squashes, which also contain artificial sweeteners.
Young babies are normally satisfied with cooled boiled water to quench their thirst so, by encouraging them to stick to water, you are helping to stave off a sweet tooth! Diluted fruit juices make a nice, sweet alternative and are healthier than fruit squashes or fizzy drinks, which are high in artificial sweeteners and other additives.
Reducing sweetness
Even though we do not need unrefined sugars or artificial sweeteners in our diet, occasional treats are no harm whatsoever. It would be mean and unfair in the extreme, for example, to allow your child to attend a birthday party and not indulge in a piece of cake!
Occasional sweets are also not harmful – most of us associate childhood with some treats from the tuck shop – just look at Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! (And also the fate of Augustus Gloop.) However, timing should be key because sweet foods do impair children’s appetite for healthier grub, as Dr Benjamin Spock, paediatrician and author of
Baby and Child Care states. “Sweet, fizzy drinks and ice creams are usually eaten between meals while children are away from home with their friends. These snacks can spoil their appetites for regular meals and promote tooth decay. If your child is not trained to love these foods at home, he is less likely to eat a lot of them when away…”
If you don’t make a meal out of sweeties from early on in your child’s life, chances are you won’t have too much of a battle on your hands when they get older. Obviously, they will be exposed to sweets outside of the home but, if you find them demanding a sweet treat at home, you can get round the problem in many different ways. Allow sweets to be a treat once
or twice a week but no more than that. When baking flapjacks and cakes, try to sweeten them with fruit juice, such as apple, rather than copious amounts of sugar. You can make ice lollies from fresh juice, rather than buy shop-bought versions which normally contain high amounts of either sugar or artificial sweeteners (or both).
Another pitfall to avoid is using food, and sweets in particular, as bribery. This not only is unhealthy but establishes negative associations with food that are hard to break. Dr Spock agrees: “When parents say ‘You can’t have your ice cream until you have finished your vegetables,’ they are giving the wrong message and basically using junk food as a bribe.
Teach your child, instead, that a banana or peach is the greatest gift of all!”
- Visit the Food Standards Agency’s website: www.eatwell.gov.uk
