As children, who did not love having a big bowl of cereal in the morning? I know I loved it. My favorite cereal was cocoa puffs and to add just a little more chocolate, as if there was not enough, I would use chocolate milk rather than regular milk. While this tasted incredible, I can now reflect back on this meal as an adult, whose metabolism has significantly slowed down, and recognize that such a meal is extremely unhealthy. Just on breakfast alone, I was consuming over thirty grams of sugar. Not to mention the rest of the meals that I would consume throughout the day.
Such a diet is not realistic for a young child. According to Jacqueline Howard, The American Heart Association stated that it is unhealthy for a child to consume more than twenty-five grams of sugar per day. To further Howard’s argument, she cites an associate professor of pediatrics who discusses the risks to cardiovascular health children will face as adults if they continue to consume a diet full of sugar. One of these risks includes weight gain which could potentially lead to obesity. It is no secret that obesity is major problem in America today. In 2010, 35% of Americans were considered to be obese. This is extremely concerning as that is a rather large number of people who weigh over 200 pounds. To prevent the population from continuing to live unhealthy lifestyles, it should be instilled in parents that their children should not be consuming more than twenty-five grams of sugar a day. If a child is brought up with this diet restriction, it is rational to assume that the child will not become obese as an adult.
Perhaps if someone wanted to confirm that children who eat twenty-five grams of sugar or less a day, they could perform an experiment. As we discussed in class, an experiment is when a scientist assigns treatments to different groups. One group of children could be the experimental group and consume twenty-five grams of sugar or less a day until they are adults, while the other group could be the placebo group and consume greater than twenty-five grams of sugar a day. This study will either prove or disprove The American Heart Association’s statement that children should consume no more than twenty-five grams per day. With this being said, I think that it is logical to assume that is is better for children to not consume great quantities of sugar.
Picture:
I completely agree with you that children are eating way to much sugar–I know I was guilty of it! It astonished me that the healthy amount of sugar for kids is only 25 grams a day, but I wonder what American obesity would look like in about 20 years if kids (and parents) stuck to that rule. I agree in that I believe that it is important for doctors to inform parents that their kids should only eat 25 grams of sugar. According to an article by Julie Relevant, sugar has side effects other than just gaining weight. A few of these include allergies, cold, a weakened immune system and acid reflux. If sugar was drastically reduced in childrens’ diets in America, it would be a much healthier country. (http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/08/17/4-shocking-ways-sugar-affects-your-kids-health.html)