5 Reasons to Limit Giving Your Child Unnatural Sugar

Ogbugoh Terundu Joy Esq.

Ice cream, chocolates, soft drinks, sweets, are just a few of the treats we endorse our little ones with. “They are kids” we say and so go on to buy all the unnatural sugary things they desire and demand for.

The question is, “Do we really need sugar?” The answer is yes, our bodies need sugar to create energy for us to survive. Carbohydrates in the foods we eat are broken down by our bodies to create the sugars that we need, therefore, additional sugars such as those found in ice cream, soft drinks, sweets etc are not necessary not even for children as this would only cause harm to the body. The sugar we consume in our carbohydrates everyday is all the sugar the body needs.

But how much sugar is too much sugar? And is there any negative implication of letting your child consume additional sugars?

Below lies the answers….

1. Excess weight gain: Many kids today weigh way more than it for children in their age group to weigh, some are even obese. This is what excess sugar does to the body, it gets stored up in the fat cells and the fat cells avoid burning it thus causing the body to inflate in size. Also, sugar actually makes you hungry causing the child to eat more than they would have because the sugar has stimulated their appetite.

2. It makes them prone to Diabetes: Because excess sugar is harmful to the body, when our kids eat foods that contain too much of this sugar, their insulin level shoots up and gets the sugar out of the bloodstream into the cells where it can be used. But over time, the Cells become resistant to the effects of insulin, causing the insulin to store up in the bloodstream and when the insulin gets to an extremely high level, it breaks and leads to type II diabetes.

3. It weakens their immune system : the body contains good bacteria that protects the body system from diseases as well as help in digesting the foods we eat and produces nutrition for the body. However, when children eat too much sugar, it changes the balance between good and bad bacteria thus weakening their immune system causing them to be prone to illnesses such as cough and frequent colds amongst others.

4. It causes tooth decay: Streptococcus mutans is a bacteria that lives in our mouths. When children consume excessive sugar, this bacteria feeds on the sugars and the results are tooth decay and even gum disease.

5. It encourages the growth of Cancer: Cancer cells feeds on excessive sugar thus fueling Cancer tumors.