Childhood obesity is on the rise and a number of factors are to blame, one of them being an overabundance of sugar in childrens’ diets. Here are some hints to subtly cut back.
1) If you allow your kids to have regular dessert, choose some that have some nutritional value (i.e. ice cream, yogurt covered raisins)
2) Replace soda with water. Add orange or lemon slices. The extra color is enticing and can get them to eat a little extra fresh fruit
3) Instead of buying high-sugar fruit drinks, make your own Kool-aid. Instead of putting in one cup of sugar per pitcher as recommended, cut down to 2/3 a cup. Gradually knock it down to ½ cup. Making your own allows you to control how much sugar goes in.
4) When buying candy, get miniature candy bars, rather than full size.
5) Avoid artificial sweeteners. Not only have they been linked to health problems, including cancer, they taste sweeter than regular sugar and can intensify a sweet tooth.
6) Replace cookies with graham crackers.
7) If you kids like canned fruit, be sure to get those that are packed in water or light syrup, rather than heavy syrup.
8) Buy whole grain cereals with very little sugar so that you can control how much goes onto the sugar.
9) Let kids make their own fresh squeezed orange juice rather than buying store versions with lots of added sugar.
10) Add sprinkles. Ok, I realize I’m encouraging you to add sugar, but you don’t need to add much to make it appealing. Some kids would eat Brussel Sprouts if you put a few sprinkles on top. If you want your child to eat more oatmeal or yogurt, put a tiny bit of sprinkles on top and it should do the trick. Who knows? Maybe it will even work on spinach.
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