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Jan 31, 2010

Hazards Of Sugar And Kids

Do you notice a change in your kids after they eat sugar?

I wanted to post about sugar and how I have observed it affects my kids and I assume it affects others in a similar way.

Quick story, we decided to go to Disneyland in 05 my son was two and a half years old. I was about five months pregnant with our youngest son and we wanted to get to Disneyland while we had the chance. The first day was good my son did not have a fit and was really behaving well, we hadn't had a treat yet so the second day we had ice cream and let our son have some too.

About ten min after he ate it he had the worst fit, crying, screaming, he wouldn't calm down!
I had some high protein snacks in my bag so I gave my son some cashews I figured the protein would balance out the sugar attack. A soon as he finished those cashews he passed out asleep lol! so we left for a few hours and came back that night. That was the first time we realized just what sugar does to a child and even now several years later we notice a change in our kids behavior when they have a treat, it is really something.

About sugar: I am sure you have heard that sugar is not really that good for you to eat especially high fructose corn syrup I personally would choose real sugar over HFCS any day. Read your labels if you have to by something sweet make sure there is at least real sugar in it.

I noticed one day that a can of soda has about 25 grams of high fructose corn syrup, and one yoplay yogurt as well as other brands has as much sugar or high fructose corn syrup as one soda!
Instead you can buy a good plain yogurt organic is best and at home blend fresh or frozen fruit in a blender with a little honey and add it to your yogurt as you need it this way you can control the sweetness and flavor of your yogurt.

Artificial sugar is not good either and in my opinion real sugar is better, you just don't need to be eating chemical sugars that affect the body in negative ways. I will post more in detail about these things later.

I do like to bake treats and actually I like baking more than cooking, but my favorite treats are healthy treats and I love to find recipes for treats that do not use butter, eggs, refined or artificial sugars, although I do use sugar for somethings I bake but always cut the sugar in half.
I will post some of my favorite recipes like this another day.

Instead of refined sugar, artificial sugar or brown sugar you can use honey, 100% pure maple syrup and brown rice syrup. My favorite is 100% maple syrup, these foods do contain sugar but in a more natural form, they may not be good for diabetics. I do not know how to sub these things for sugar in a recipe, I just find great recipes that already call for these things and there are many out there.

I find that these treats do not affect my kids like refined sugar does and without eggs and butter these treats are very healthy, but they are still treats. Also 100% maple syrup and raw honey have a nutritional content of minerals that we need for a healthy body.

Check out the Hazards Of Sugar post made by Why Homeschool.blogspot.com watch the interesting video please comment if you can.

1 comment:

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Joanne .. yes kids and people of today seem to get hyped up, or seriously affected as your son does, by sugars. I've seen it and heard about it - not having kids I don't know much more. Honey sounds good to me.

Fruit and veg sticks instead of baking have always seemed sensible to me .. eating fresh seems to be the way to good health for all of us. I'm lucky .. but know that bread doesn't like me much .. and I don't eat cakes, biscuits etc very often ..

I hope once the habit kicks in for the kids and they understand they'll feel better for it - it'll keep away from the unhealthy foods.

I've a friend whose child is incredibly allergic to peanuts specifically .. now Simon goes round with his kit all the time to ensure if he's caught short - he'll know what to do. One time a few years ago when he was still young and we were going out .. he said Hilly don't worry I know what to do and we'll do it together .. administer the dose! Not my cup of tea .. but he was so sanguine .. it was fine & we didn't have an encounter thankfully.

I heard something recently .. that said it's easier when kids can analyse and work things out for themselves and that seems to come around aged 8 - 10 & onwards. A difficult time for you - and I hope all goes well.

I just posted a post (sounds silly doesn't it!) on British birds .. the kids might be interested .. and making the 'cake' etc helping the birds out in the garden .. hope you and they enjoy. - Hilary

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