Sugar cubes: how many is too many?
Recently there has been questioning of what should be the limited amount of sugar in a day for both children and adults, at a time where tooth extractions in children is still at an alarmingly high rate. This week's blog-post discusses a mobile app you can use to help you monitor the sugar you put in your child's diet.
A really good app is currently available that tells you how much sugar is in your everyday shopping bag. Sugar Smart can be downloaded through the App Store or Google play and lets you scan barcodes to find out how many sugar cubes that item has inside it. This is a great time saving way of letting you see in real terms rather than imaginary weights or percentages, of how much sugar you are potentially having and giving to your children. You may be surprised by what you find as even what you think is healthy can end up having a lot more sugar than you would expect.
So how many sugar cubes should be the daily maximum? Information from the NHS Change4life campaign shows that using the estimate of 1 cube of sugar as 4 grams, that:
4-6 yrs - 5 cubes max or 19 grams
7-10 yrs - 6 cubes max or 24 grams
11+ yrs - 7 cubes max or 30 grams
With this information in mind, there are a few ways you can help your children to have slightly less sugar in the day. One measure is to reduce the amount and frequency of sugary snacks they have, and apart from the normal sugar-containing food items, this can include:
Dried fruits
Fruit juices/smoothies (of concentrate or pressed
Jam
Sugary breakfast cereals, bars and yoghurts.
Although it is healthy to have the nutrition these provide, you must remember that they do still count as sugary items, and should be only kept to mealtimes if possible as the natural sugars in them can still cause damage to the lovely teeth of your children.
One last thing to remember is that you are a role model to your children and they will imitate what they see, so if you demonstrate these habits in your own diet, then they will more easily translate to your child's diet. It's a win-win event.
Hope you've enjoyed this week's blog post.
Pippasha Khan
KCL Smile Soc
References:
https://www.bda.org/cutsugar
https://www.nhs.uk/change4life-beta/campaigns/sugar-smart/home
