Pediatric nurse Julián Ojanguren has shared the photo of a poster he made himself to hang on your query about the amount of sugar hidden in some of the foods that children usually eat.
It indicates the amount of sugar that each of them contains, adding at the end of the day an excessive daily intake, which is very dangerous for the health of the little ones. The best thing about the poster is that under each food we have a healthy alternative with zero sugars.
Sugary cereals, industrial pastries, juices and yogurts are displacing essential foods for the diet of our little ones such as fruits, snacks, nuts or prepared foods at home. The current pace of life does not help much, and the food industry does not, but we are the parents responsible for choosing which are the healthiest alternatives for them.
The WHO recommends that the daily amount of sugar should not exceed 10% of the calories ingested in both adults and children. In the case of children, should never exceed 37 grams daily (for a diet of 1,750 calories), the equivalent of nine teaspoons of coffee.
How to get it?
This graphic example that Julian has done shows us that we need to drastically reduce the sugar in our children's diet. It is urgent. The danger is fundamentally in breakfast, in snacks and in desserts, but the good news is that we have healthy alternatives.
So, How can we prevent them from eating too much sugar? We give you some simple guidelines:
Do not replace a piece of fruit with a juice, not even a natural juice. The juice will metabolize it much faster, our body will spend much less energy to do it, it will satisfy us much less, it will have more calories than a piece of fruit and we will save them as sugar.
Avoid packaged juices and soft drinks: whether homemade or industrial, fruit juices have a high sugar content that favors childhood obesity and promotes the appearance of type 2 diabetes. Even when it carries the warning of "no added sugars", it contains almost as much sugar as a can of soda.
Increase the amount of fruit what they eat: offer them in the snack in segments or whole pieces. We can make it more attractive by preparing a small fruit salad or pricking pieces of various fruits as skewers.
Avoid industrial pastries and cookies. They are not healthy products and contain a large amount of fats and sugars, empty calories that contribute nothing to your body. Instead, you can occasionally prepare homemade biscuits or cookies.
Give them more water: Too many children quench their thirst with drinks that are not water. They are replaced by industrial juices or soft drinks, increasing not only the risk of obesity, but also caries.
Avoid the industrial yogurts: contain approximately 15-18 grams of sugar per 125 ml, nobody in their right mind would put 4 tablespoons of sugar to a child.
Come back to classic sandwich: It is much healthier and gives game to incorporate new foods. We can offer them whole grain bread with stuffed egg and tuna, ham and natural tomato, avocado and hard boiled egg, etc.
Don't forget the nuts: they are usually the forgotten ones, but they are an interesting option of contribution of essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Always controlling the way in which we offer them to avoid risk of allergies and choking (never whole in children under five years old)
