If you have read my previous post or attended my seminars, you would have heard me warn about the pernicious effects of sugar in our child’s health.
Well guess what. The Sugar and sweetener industry has ramped up their contributions to fight any changes or new regulations. See below (2010) contribution.
And they are able to have an impact too….
In 2013, both General Mills and the Sugar Association weighed in on proposed lunch standards, dismissing the connection between sugar and health problems. According to the report, "the USDA adopted a weaker rule than it first proposed, limiting kids’ sugar intake at school by weight rather than by calorie as public health experts had recommended."
Unless we as parents don’t raise our voice, our kid’s health will be affected by processed food.
STUDY: Babies who ate more fruits and vegetables and fewer packaged foods were less likely to develop food allergies
DETAILS: University of Southampton in the UK did a study on over 1140 babies. They found that babies without food allergies scored higher than babies with allergies on a diet that was rich in healthy, often homemade, foods – including fruits, vegetables, poultry and fish – and scant on processed foods such as pre-made meals, potato chips, cook-in sauces and bacon. The analysis showed that the infants who were having more fruits and vegetables and less commercially produced baby foods and also less adult foods were the ones who were less likely to develop an allergy by the time they were two. It’s not that they didn’t have commercially-made baby foods, it’s just that they did not have them predominantly in their diet.
TAKEAWAYS:
· We recommend that parents gives their kids primarily fresh fruits and vegetables.
· Avoid junk foods.
· Try to serve home-made meals
Source: The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Because this prevailing myth continues to cause even the most independently minded person to ask where vegetarians/vegans get their protein, this episode from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s popular podcast, Food for Thought, is dedicated to debunking this myth.
LA Times has a very timely article on one of the sins of American eating habits – loading up on Sugar.
BACKGROUND
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines advise us to limit our total intake of added sugars, fats and other “discretionary calories” to between 5% and 15% of total calories consumed every day.
STUDY
The report finds that from 2005 to 2010 we got 13% of our total calories from added sugar alone. Not only does sugar cause us to gain weight, but sugary items often displace fruits, vegetables and other foods that contain essential nutrients. Adults tended to eat the most sugar in their 20s and 30s, with consumption falling steadily over time. African Americans got more of their calories from added sugars — 14.5% for men and 15.2% for women — than whites (12.8% for men, 13.2% for women) or Mexican Americans (12.9% for men, 12.6% for women). And poorer people added more sugar in their diets.
Added sugars do not include the sugars that occur naturally in fruit and milk. As the name implies, added sugars are used as ingredients in prepared and processed foods and drinks. For the sake of the analysis, other forms of added sugar included brown sugar, raw sugar, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, malt syrup, pancake syrup, fructose sweetener, liquid fructose, anhydrous dextrose, crystal dextrose and dextrin.
YOU WANTS MORE DETAILS?
This
from a professor of endocrinology in UC explains the biochemical route that sugar takes and how it destroys our body.
SO WHAT?
One simple message – for a healthier life, Cut out added Sugar as much as possible.
Sugar-sweetened soda is the single biggest source of added sugars in the American diet.
Beverages overall accounted for only one-third of added sugars consumed by adults. It is even worse in kids.
For your kids, avoid sodas like a plague.Support soda bans in schools.
When you head out to eat, choose water over fruit juices (which are spiked with sugar) or artificial beverages (especially for kids)
Avoid sugary breakfast like donuts and high sugar cereals, in favor of oatmeal, grits, bread with PB, fruits etc.
Remember the old grandmas adage “What is good of the tongue is usually bad for the body”
