Search results
10 ways to help if your child is obsessed with sugar. Serve fruit often. Sometimes we think we need to limit fruit because of the sugar. But serving fruit often can actually help meet that craving for sweets. Fruit is filled with nutrients, so don’t worry about the sugar there.
- Reconsider sugar-sweetened beverages: The 20% increase in sugar over the past 40 years is primarily due to sugar-sweetened beverages. Yes, soda is one of them but so are energy drinks, juice drinks, and coffee drinks (See this post for the difference between juice drinks and 100% juice).
- See how low you can go: I regret the day I gave my daughter sweetened yogurt because the next time I served her plain she refused. When possible, keep your child on everyday foods that are as close to natural as possible — saving the sweets for “desserty” type foods.
- Spoil your child’s palate: No doubt your child will be faced with lots of overly-processed sweet foods throughout their life. But at home, you can up the ante by thinking twice about bringing these foods in your home and, instead, provide homemade desserts, wholesome treats, and dark chocolate (my personal favorite).
- Stay neutral when it comes to sweets: While it’s not always possible to stay totally calm when it comes to kids and sweets, try your best to stay neutral and matter-of-fact.
- Eliminate or drastically reduce sugary drinks. This includes sodas, sports drinks, lemonade, fruit punch, energy drinks and 100% fruit juice. Even 100% fruit juice with no added sugar contains a lot of sugar with none of the fiber you will find in a piece of fruit to help fill you up.
- Serve more vegetables and fruits. Most children (and even adults!) do not eat enough produce each day such as apples, carrots, broccoli, bananas and peppers.
- Eat whole foods that aren’t processed. Eating more foods in their natural state will not only ensure that you know what is in them, but will help eliminate added sugars.
- Cook more at home. I realize this is a tough one, but the more you can cook for your family at home, the more control you have over the foods that you eat.
- Fizzy Drinks & Juices. Water and milk are really the only drinks kids should be having on a regular basis. Fizzy drinks are completely devoid of kind of nutritional benefit and are stacked full of sugar or artificial sweeteners.
- Breakfast Cereals. As parents the last thing we want is an argument about food first thing in the morning but feeding our kids sugary breakfast cereals is going to start their day off with an inevitable sugar rush and slump which will leave them craving the stuff all day.
- Mealtimes. The key to cutting down sugar intake at mealtimes is homemade and from scratch. Most ready meals and convenience foods are pumped with sugar and innocent looking sauces are usually the worst offenders.
- Yogurts. One of my biggest bug bears are those low fat or fat free yogurts, marketed as “healthy” but are in fact as sugary as a doughnut! Fat is not the enemy remember so choose full fat yogurts which are lower in sugar instead.
- Evaluate your own mindset and fear around sugar. Have you ever considered how your own personal thoughts and fears around sugar may be impacting the current situation?
- Take notice of how you talk about sweets and sugar. Our words our so powerful. What we say and how we say it can profoundly impact how our children view food, nutrition and their bodies.
- Allow foods high in sugar regularly with meals and snacks. Not just at holidays. You may also be experiencing an increase in perceived ‘sugar-obsession’ around the holidays if you normally restrict sugary foods and then the availability suddenly increases.
- Give kids opportunities to self-regulate and learn more about their bodies. On this note, there is great value in letting children eat until they’ve had their fill, even with foods high in sugar.
It’s the basic scarcity mentality. 3. Reduce the energy around food. Use neutral language (not good, bad, healthy, unhealthy). Say yes whenever possible. Even if it’s yes, tomorrow. Allow them to eat what they want, if any, from what’s provided. Do not pressure, bribe, or force them to eat any food.
People also ask
How can I prevent my child from being obsessed with sugar?
How do I Stop my kids from eating sugary sweets & snacks?
What if my child eats too much sugar?
Why do kids eat a sugary treat after school?
What should I do if my child refuses to eat sweetened yogurt?
Jan 5, 2022 · All address the metabolic consequences of sugar and how it can affect your child’s health. #1: Suppresses Your Child’s Immune System. Sugar can suppress your child’s immune system and impair its defenses against infectious disease. This means that your child can be susceptible to all kinds of illnesses, colds, flu, etc. Suggestion
