The Sugar Monster Lives In Your House

By Nonna Joann • Sep 12th, 2008 • Category: News & Views

because you let him!

In fact, you regularly invite him in.
Unless your children are driving and have an income, they’re eating the foods you purchase. jonah2.JPGChildren aren’t the only ones controlled by the sugar monster. It’s estimated that American adults get about 20 percent of their daily calories from sugar. That’s alarming!

It translates to approxi- mately 150 pounds of sugar in a year, or 2½ pounds a week! What’s worse, children eat more sugar than their parents and the picky child is eating fewer foods, but consuming just much sugar!

Without fail, children love fast food and fun food. Both are loaded with sugar.

Pictured: Jonah making cookies for a class project. 

Tiny taste buds grow to prefer these tastes. So much so, that the taste for sugar hinders appreciation of healthy foods!

When foods loaded with added sugars aren’t readily available, you won’t be tempted to eat them and your kids won’t either.

You can restrict impact the sugar monster has on your family when your pantry is stocked with nutritious foods, so you’ll have plenty of healthy snacking options. Get in the habit of reading labels, you’ll be amazed at how much sugar is in the processed foods you purchase. 

When you offer your children a treat, make it a nutritious one. And for those occasions when a sweet treat is given, make it yourself so that the very best ingredients are used. 

Now for the good news! Taste buds have a type of thermostat. What you’ve eaten in the preceding week affects your taste buds. Your preferences today are affected by what you ate yesterday. So, when you and your children stop eating sugar, your taste buds adjust and whole food will become more flavorful! You’ll be amazed at how sweet an orange or an apple can be, when your palette adjusts.

I discuss in more detail how sugar interferes with healthy eating habits, especially for the picky eater, in my book: Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater…
CLICK HERE for purchasing details.

CLICK HERE for the FREE Podcast.

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One comment on »

  1. Thanks for another great article that we will include in Parenting News You Can Use! — the free weekly e-zine from the International Network for Children and Families [see http://www.WholeHeartedParenting.com for more]. You are so right on — the one area we parents can control around what our children eat is what we purchase, what we bring into the home, and what we prepare. You are awesome!

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