Stop giving children sugar

There has been a culture in society that dictates that it is okay to give children sugar, because they like it. Is it really all in the name of innocent fun or are we actually causing more harm than good?

Sugar addiction

Sugar addiction is a worldwide epidemic that affects every country in the world. It has been called the world's deadliest addiction, killing more people than illegal drugs and other diseases. Some believe that more than half of the western world's population may have an unhealthy addiction to sugar. By allowing children to eat sugar-filled sweets; laden with other harmful colorants, artificial flavors and toxins, are we subconsciously teaching them how to become sugar addicts?

Some people probably think that I am going too far in this post. If we lived in a world where unhealthy foods were not the norm for those who can't even make decisions for themselves yet; would obesity, diabetes, heart failure and other related diseases are as prevalent as they are in adults?

Imagine two children who were born exactly the same: identical genetics, lifestyles, social groups and disciplines. Now imagine that one of them follows the same typical diet as what is considered normal. Imagine that the other child is raised on a diet that consists of nothing but healthy, wholesome food 99% of the time like fruit, vegetables, diary, meats and grains in balanced proportions. Which child do you think would get the best marks in school? Which one would be the healthiest and get sick less often? Which one would do better at whatever hobbies and sports they chose? Which one would get the least pimples in puberty and which one would turn out to be the best looking? Ultimately, which one is most likely to make the healthiest life choices in adulthood and which one would be the happiest in life? Which one of these two children got the best chance at the best possible life?

I'm not saying that parents don't care for their children. I'm saying that they don't know how badly a sugar filled diet will actually affect them. The problem is that we raise our children according to the way everybody else does. It has become the norm to have cake and sweets at birthday parties and other events, for children to be rewarded with sugar and for children to drink carbonated drinks when they are thirsty. I can remember all the different kinds of sweets I used to have regularly at school and at home. Whenever I visited my grandparents' house, I got to choose 3 sweets out of the 'sweetie bowl'. I remember all the sweets we used to buy from the shop at my school, and my sports teams were given nice sugary treats every time we played against other schools. It was the norm.

Perhaps now would be a good time for you to pause for a moment and do a quick search on the negative effects of sugar and the other additives commonly found in sweets on childhood development. 

Health has become a choice

Here is one of the biggest problems in the world: health has become a choice, not the norm. Those who follow healthy diets have chosen to do so. Eating healthy is not a standard. You either eat a healthy diet, or eat like a 'normal' person. Has this got anything to do with the way we were raised? If eating healthy was the standard, wouldn't everybody be doing it because that is what they know, instead of mainly for other reasons like weight loss or disease control? Then again, is eating healthy was the standard; would anyone need to 'diet' for weight loss? And how much disease would actually trouble the western world?

Spotting the 'crazy' in the 'normal'

• Ask a parent what their child's favorite sweet is, then ask what their child's favorite vegetable is. 
• Vegetables are the things we need to finish quickly on the plate, but sweets are the things we can have fun with.
• Have you ever seen a parent say 'hmm, yummy!' when giving their baby their first taste of cake? They are saying that because they expect their child to like the taste, not realizing that they are actually suggesting that their baby should like the taste.
• Children are told to finish their greens, and then have a choice of desert afterwards. The healthy stuff becomes the work; the unhealthy stuff becomes the reward.
• Look at cafeterias in schools. What kind of food is offered to children there?
• How often are sugars present at fun childhood events, and which foods have the most interesting colors and shapes?
• A child runs to a parent and says, 'I'm hungry'. How often will the parent say, 'there is an apple in the food bowl'?
• At the age of 7, compare the number of different sweets a child has tasted to the number of different fruits they have ever tried.

At the risk of sounding negative, if this article has made you think twice or given you a new perspective, it was well worth the write! STAY STRONG!

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