Parents: Never, Ever Feed This To Your Kids!
Thanks to the Standard American Diet, the average child is consuming the equivalent of a five pound bag of sugar every ten days. Parents, you may not realize the sugar content in the foods you are feeding your kids. It is time to start reading the ingredients list on every single package you bring home from the grocery store. Sugar hides in even the most unexpected places, and the health of your family depends on your ability to keep it out of your pantry as much as possible. Here is why:
Increased Risk for Obesity: Excess sugar that isn’t readily used for energy by our cells is stored as fat and if the average American consumes 53 teaspoons of sugar per day, but can only handle 1-2 teaspoons in the blood at any given time – that’s a whole lot of sugar being stored as fat! It’s no coincidence that as the production of processed foods and sugar content in these foods has increased; our country’s obesity rates have skyrocketed. According to a recent study by the Institute of Medicine, one in five kids is overweight or obese before even entering kindergarten.
Increased Risk for Type 2 Diabetes: Insulin is required to move sugar out of the blood and into the cells for energy or storage. The constant bombardment of sugar, however, eventually causes the insulin receptors on the cells to burn out. The result is a decreased effectiveness of insulin to move the sugar out of the blood, and an increased level of sugar in the bloodstream. This is the definition of diabetes. Diabetes leads to a host of ailments including kidney dysfunction, heart disease, neurological paresthesia, and poor healing.
Increased Risk for Cancer: In 1931 a German professor named Otto Warburg hypothesized that cancer cells use sugar as their main source of energy, while healthy cells use oxygen. Cancer cells have 8 times the amount of receptors for sugar (glucose) than healthy cells. Since at any given time we all have 100 to 10,000 cancer cells in our bodies, we need to be doing all we can to prevent these cells from multiplying beyond our immune system’s control, and that includes cutting off their food supply!
Sources of sugar include the obvious (i.e. candy, soda, sweets, etc.), but you may not be aware of some hidden sources:
- Infant Formula
- Fruit Juice
- Most fruits (except Granny Smith apples and berries)
- Breads, pastas, oatmeal, whole grains, crackers, cereals (most packaged goods)
- Sauces (i.e. condiments, pasta sauce, ketchup, mustard)
- Read the ingredients! Anything ending in –ose, high fructose corn syrup, or cane juice is synonymous with sugar.
Contact your local Back in Balance Wellness Center doctor for more information on nutritional foods to feed your family
Back in Balance Wellness Center is dedicated to changing how people view and manage their health. Visit a Back in Balance Wellness Center doctor for more information on how to improve the health of you and your family.
1L. Birch, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies Report, June 23, 2011
2B. Hardick, K. Roberto, B. Lerner. Maximized Living Nutrition Plans. Maximized Living 2009: pp 10-13.
3P. Madison. “Babies Battling The Bulge.” CNN 6/27/2011. http://www.cnn.com/2011/health/06/27/obese.toddlers/index.html
