Time to crackdown on sugar: Reducing sugar intake for 10 days can REVERSE chronic metabolic diseases in children
02/22/2020 / By Rose Lidell / Comments
Time to crackdown on sugar: Reducing sugar intake for 10 days can REVERSE chronic metabolic diseases in children

Children love sweets. From cookies to candies, kids can’t say no to sugary treats. However, rewarding the good behavior of your kids with candy may not be the best idea in the long run.

According to a study, sugar can make you sick, even if you don’t gain weight by binge-eating chocolates and cookies.

The link between sugar intake and chronic diseases

According to a study recently published in the journal Obesity, chronic diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and Type 2 diabetes in children used to be rare. Children didn’t use to have serious risk factors for heart disease either, but somewhere along the line, things have changed.

Now, these types of diseases are becoming quite prevalent in children, as well as adults.

Some children who suffer from these diseases are overweight or obese, but a significant number of them are not. That means the onset of these conditions is not purely weight-based. As it turns out, sugar can lead to these types of health problems, even if the stereotypical weight gain isn’t present.

For the study, scientists observed the effects of sugar-restriction on 43 obese children. The young participants, aged nine to 18 years old, were diagnosed with at least one other metabolic problem, like high blood pressure or high triglycerides (blood fats) or markers of fatty liver.

For nine days, the volunteers followed a sugar-restricted diet. However, their calories were kept as constant as possible with the substitution of starches and carbs for the sugars. The aim of the study was to reduce sugar content in the diet from an average of 28% to 10%.

The researchers didn’t try to make the young participants lose weight. Rather, the goal was to keep their weight constant by eliminating sugar from their diet to see what would happen when this variable changed while the rest stayed the same.

After the conclusion of the nine-day study, the kids’ metabolic parameters changed significantly:

  • Average diastolic blood pressure decreased by 5 mmHg
  • Triglycerides decreased by 33 points
  • LDL (low-density lipoprotein) or “bad” cholesterol went down 10 points
  • Insulin levels were reduced by one-third
  • Fasting glucose and liver function tests improved

The researchers concluded that the surrogate measures of metabolic health improved after substituting starch for sugar in the diet of the participants, even if they didn’t lose weight or exercise. The study shows that where calories in your diet come from determines where they go once in your body after consumption.

Sugar calories are the worst offenders because they turn to fat in the liver, cause insulin resistance, and increase your risk for diabetes, heart and liver disease.

When manufacturers tell you their cereal is healthy because one serving contains only about 150 calories with skim milk, they’re neglecting to tell you that it still contains as much sugar as a chocolate bar. They’re missing the point that health isn’t just about a certain number of calories per day.

You could eat nothing but chocolate and hot dogs and maintain your present weight, as long as you keep your calorie intake the same. Will you still be healthy? No. You’d feel sick after just a few days because all you had was sugar.

That’s what excess sugar intake does. It makes you sick. It goes unnoticed because the normalcy of lethargy, disease and obesity has been so deeply ingrained into our society’s thinking. It’s time to change this mindset before it’s too late.

How to reduce your kids’ sugar intake

It can be difficult to wean your kids (and yourself) off sugary treats and drinks, especially if they’re used to having unhealthy snacks on a regular basis – but this is something you must do immediately to ensure that your kids grow up healthy and strong.

Here are some tips that you can follow to reduce your kids’ sugar intake and improve their eating habits:

Replace store-bought juice

Don’t let food packaging fool you. Fruit juices that claim to have no added sugars still contain around at least 16 to 24 g of sugar per serving, or four to six teaspoons of sugar in a single serving.

Instead of store-bought fruit juices, give your kids plant milk or fruit-infused water for all of the flavor with none of the added sugar.

Make changes to your regular breakfasts

Cereals, pancakes and waffles are full of added sugar and little to no nutrients. Replace sugary breakfast foods with a nutritious, filling meal that contains more protein and healthy fat instead of carbs.

While carbs in sugary foods spike blood sugar levels, they’re also digested and burnt off quickly. Kids who eat waffles for breakfast will get hungry much faster.

But if you serve filling meals with fat and protein, your kids will feel full longer, which helps prevent the unhealthy snacking.

Healthy breakfast foods include eggs, plain cottage cheese with some fruit and plain Greek yogurt. If you don’t have time to cook breakfast every morning, make a big batch of baked egg scramble with vegetables and cheese on the weekend and refrigerate the rest.

Make homemade sweet treats 

Instead of buying candies and chocolates for cranky kids, set aside some time over the weekend and make healthier alternatives with nutritious ingredients such as vegan cookies or fruit kabobs!

Get kids used to eating more fruits

Look no further than sweets from nature: Fruits! Give your kids healthier snacks by serving naturally sweet treats like bananas, blueberries, clementines, melon and strawberries.

After you start reducing their sugar intake, your kids will start to appreciate fruits more since naturally sweet foods will taste a whole lot sweeter.

Source:

TheSleuthJournal.com

OrganicConsumers.org

BodyUnburdened.com

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