Despite the fact that nutritionists urge to limit the consumption of sweets, they recognize that the body still needs natural sugar for energy.
At the same time, nutrition experts recommend that you still refrain from refined sugar. The baby should get everything his body needs from fruits, vegetables, honey and molasses.
According to recent studies, children need no less sugar than adult women (for men, this amount is more).
«Sugars cause a surge of energy, which can be useful for a child, especially when he learns something new. Plus, for children with little teeth, sugar makes many dishes more enjoyable and excites the appetite,» doctors say.
It is better to eat foods with sugar content in the daytime. Because in the evening it can provoke a surge of energy and it will be difficult for the child to fall asleep.
At the same time, sugar is a source of «empty» calories, without any nutritional properties. Therefore, children who consume more than the recommended daily allowance are at risk of getting a nutritional deficiency and gaining excess weight — and this is already a serious problem, there are more and more obese children in the world.
In addition, sugar in large quantities provokes inflammation and causes negative side effects from the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the child does not eat more sweets than doctors recommend. And it is not necessary to introduce sweets into the diet too early — up to two years.
Early introduction of sweets may incorrectly form the taste preferences of the child. Then it will be difficult to accustom him to a balanced diet.
Specifically
Kids under five years old should either completely avoid sugar, or consume less than 10 grams per day.
Children aged 5 to 10 years should limit the amount of sugar to no more than 20-25 grams per day.
Children from 10 to 15 years old can be allowed to increase the amount of sugar to 25-30 grams per day.
Children over the age of 15 can eat no more than 30 grams of sugar per day.
«It is very important to observe a safe norm of sugar per day for children. And it is also important not to forget that we mean all sugar — both obtained from products, for example, fruits and juices, and added — from cookies, sweets, etc. We recommend first of all giving children fruits and dried fruits, but the rest of the sweets — only one or two names per day, depending on depends on the age of the child.
Contraindications also exist for healthy sweets — this is food intolerance and allergies. For honey and products in which sugar or fructose is added — diabetes mellitus.»
«Modern children eat a lot of sugar, and often parents don’t even realize how much. For example, 200 ml of cola contains 10 teaspoons of sugar, which is one and a half times the daily norm for a child from 10 to 18 years old. Just one can of soda with a volume of 0.33 liters — and the daily norm of sugar has already been exceeded. Add to this another candy, a chocolate bar — and the sugar level is already off the scale.
Without added sugar in the diet, the child, of course, will be healthier. After all, these are the right eating habits, and the risk of problems with teeth, weight, and skin is reduced, there is less chance that allergies or diabetes will develop in childhood. But it is quite difficult to cultivate such habits: the child takes an example from parents who are often not used to denying themselves goodies.»
Giving up sugar is now gradually becoming fashionable.
