Take note! This is what sugar consumption can do to your children's health.

There is an increasing number of investigations that They reveal how harmful excessive sugar consumption can be in childhood. A recent study, published in the journal Science in 2024, reveals that the dangers persist into adulthood, and that hypertension and type 2 diabetes They are more common in adults exposed to higher consumption of added sugars at early ages.

Although excess sugar is also harmful to adults, it appears to be especially problematic at an age when food preferences are forming . “If you've been exposed to sweet foods at a young age, you're likely to prefer them throughout your life more than someone who hasn't,” says Tadeja Gracner, a scientist at the University of Southern California.

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Sugar is naturally present in some foods, such as fruit, but is often added during processing or preparation. Dietary authorities recommend that children over two years of age consume 10% of calories from added sugars , while the World Health Organization suggests an ideal intake of less than 5% of total calories .

Reducing child consumption is a challenge: It appears in soft drinks, breakfast cereals, many processed foods and salty snacks, and even in baby foods. That children and sweets are a natural combination is so widely accepted that some pediatricians' offices even hand out candy.

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Research indicates that excessive sugar consumption also affects the health of children when they are still young.

In a scientific report published in December, a government committee tasked with updating nutrition guidelines concluded that exposing children and teens to fewer sugary drinks and snacks (along with fewer salty snacks and less red and processed meats) is “associated with a lower risk of obesity” .

Excess added sugar is also linked to the increase in childhood type 2 diabetes This “adult disease” now affects nearly 50,000 children .

Studies show that every eight-ounce serving of sugary drinks consumed by children and young adults is associated with a 34% increase in insulin resistance .

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In contrast, high insulin levels decreased after just nine days when researchers reduced sugar intake in 43 obese African-American and Latino children to 10% of their diet . Those same children also saw their liver fat decrease significantly after the reduction.

Other health effects of children who consume too much sugar include girls having their first period earlier than other girls and a higher rate of tooth decay .

One thing sugar doesn't do is make children hyperactive. , a theory widely held decades ago, but it can cause other cognitive problems. A study in male adolescent rats found Attention disturbances and increased impulsivity in those who had received a lot of fructose as babies .

When young adults consumed various amounts of sugar in sugary drinks for two weeks, those who got 25% of their daily calories from added sugar experienced the greatest increases in liver fat and blood cholesterol levels; but the problem also appeared in people who consumed only 10%.

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“I was surprised to see differences in that group,” says Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis, who led the research. She believes the results would be similar for most children, except for those who are extremely physically active , as their bodies may use sugar as an energy source.

Corn syrup is high in fructose and is found in most sugary drinks , as well as in many ultra-processed foods. This ingredient seems particularly problematic for the liver, Stanhope warns, because an enzyme limits the amount of glucose that can be delivered to the organ at once, but there's no corresponding enzyme for fructose. When so much enters at once, "much of it ends up being stored as fat in the liver," he maintains.

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Reducing a child's added sugar intake is difficult. According to Joshua Tarkoff, a pediatric endocrinologist at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, there are some important steps parents can take to reduce this substance's consumption.

Read the labels

It's helpful when you realize that sugar goes by dozens of names on ingredient lists:

Maltose
Dextrose
High fructose corn syrup
Natural fruit juice concentrate

Require companies to make labels clearer

Placing simple graphic warnings on sugary drinks reduces parental purchases by 17%, according to a study, but in the meantime, Focusing on certain types of foods could help parents navigate sugar dilemmas. Cookies and candy are obvious, but there are other foods loaded with added sugar, too.

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“If they have juice for breakfast, chocolate milk for a snack, soda after school, and soda for dinner, they have hundreds of calories, and they don't feel satisfied ,” Tarkoff explains. Be wary of labels that claim a juice is 100% natural or high in vitamin C, as studies show They induce parents to think that drinking is less harmful than it is. .

Take care of breakfast

Packaged breakfast cereals are actually “a semi-liquid dessert,” says Tarkoff. Opting for plain oatmeal with fruit can reduce your morning sugar intake.

Snacks

“Nature made sugar hard to come by; humans made it easy,” Tarkoff says. Processed foods can be convenient, but the more whole foods and home-cooked meals a child eats, the less sugar they’ll inevitably consume .

Avoid sweets as rewards

“People can become addicted to the comfort of their favorite sugary foods,” a mentality that can begin in childhood, says Stanhope.

Even with all this information and all the recommendations from professionals, Completely restricting added sugars is unrealistic .

During the first years of a child's life, parents are the guardians of nutrition: "The goal is to try to teach children limits: when to eat sugar and how much," says Gracner.

With information from National Geographic.

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