Contents:
- Medical Video: What If You Stopped Eating Sugar for 1 Week
- Overview of the function of sugar in the body
- Ortu must be wiser in choosing sugar sources for children
- Limitation of adding sugar to children's food
Medical Video: What If You Stopped Eating Sugar for 1 Week
Sweet or sugar-containing foods are often seen as bad by many people, because they say make fat and diabetes. So many parents forbid their children to eat sweet foods, to maybe choose products that are sugar free for them. In fact, sugar does not always have a negative impact on children. The human body basically needs sugar to get energy. Your job as a parent is only to limit children's intake so that they don't get too much. Indeed, what are the benefits of sugar intake for children, and what is the safe limit for sugar for children?
Overview of the function of sugar in the body
Sugar or carbohydrates are the main energy source in the body. Without enough sugar, the body will use fat or protein as energy. And, this is certainly not good, can disrupt the metabolic balance in the body. So anyway, you as a parent still need to provide sugar for children. Sugar still needs to be consumed by children, but also pay attention to the amount.
The sugar that enters the body will be directly used by the body and there is also stored by the body as an energy reserve. Sugar is stored in the form of glycogen in the liver and muscles. Glycogen will be used if needed by the body. For example, when low blood sugar reserves in the body, glycogen will be used as a source of energy by the brain.
Not only that, sugar can also be converted into amino acids or fatty acids. This depends on your body's needs. For example, if the sugar needs are sufficient, the excess sugar in the body can be converted into fatty acids so that they can be stored in fat tissue. Excess sugar is also used to break down amino acids according to the body's needs.
Ortu must be wiser in choosing sugar sources for children
Indeed, sugar is needed by the body as an energy source, but most sugar consumption is also not good for children. Too much consumption of sugar or sweet foods can cause children to get fat. This is because sweet foods tend to contain lots of calories and are low in nutrients. Besides being able to cause obesity, eating sweets or sugar too often can also cause cavities in children.
For this reason, you need to choose the right source of sugar for your child. This helps to meet his energy needs and prevent weight gain and cavities in children. Then, what sources of sugar are good for children?
- Choose brown sugar or honey compared to white sugar to give sweetness to children's food. This is because brown sugar and honey contain nutrients, besides calories. While white sugar only contains calories without nutrients. Red sugar contains chlorine, iron, potassium, sodium. While honey contains several vitamins and minerals, including iron.
- Give fruit compared to sweet cakes or sweet biscuits for children's snack foods. Fruit can be a good source of sugar for children. Plus, fruit also contains many vitamins and minerals that are needed by children.
- Only give sweet foods that kids like on certain occasions, not every day. For example, only giving chocolate, candy, donuts, or other sweet foods on holidays. This is done so that children are not used to eating lots of sweet foods.
Limitation of adding sugar to children's food
Reported from Live Science, the American Heart Association recommends that children aged 2-18 years consume additional sugar no more than 6 teaspoons or 25 grams per day. This amount is equivalent to 100 calories.
For children under 2 years, the American Heart Association recommends that they not be given added sugar. Adding sugar to the food of children under 2 years old can make children "addicted to" sugar. You might be able to add fruit as a substitute for sugar to give sweetness to children's food.
Not only on food, limiting the addition of sugar should also be done on drinks. Children aged 2-18 years should limit the consumption of sweet drinks not more than one glass or 240 ml per week, based on the recommendations of the American Heart Association. The sweet drinks referred to here are like soft drinks, energy drinks, sweet tea, and bottled juice drinks.
