(Take this quiz about sugar.)
How to become a sugar sleuth
Reducing your child’s consumption of added sugars is tough. It starts by putting on your Sherlock Holmes hat, says Joshua Tarkoff, a pediatric endocrinologist at Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Miami, who frequently counsels parents on how to cut back. Reading labels is helpful only when you realize that sugar goes by dozens of names on product ingredient lists, including maltose, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, and even natural fruit juice concentrate, “which can sound good even though it isn’t.”
Requiring companies to make labels clearer could help. One study found placing simple pictorial warnings on sugar sweetened beverages reduced parents’ purchases by 17 percent. But in the meantime, focusing on certain types of food could help parents navigate sugar dilemmas. Cookies and candy are obvious ones, but other foods are loaded with added sugar, too.
Encourage kids to drink more water and fewer sugar-sweetened beverages, especially since nearly two-thirds drink one or more of these beverages daily. “If they have juice with breakfast, chocolate milk with lunch, Gatorade after school, and soda with dinner, that’s hundreds of calories—and it doesn’t make them feel full,” Tarkoff says. Don’t fall for labels stating a juice drink is 100 percent natural or high in vitamin C, which research finds misleads parents into thinking the beverage is less harmful than it is.
Breakfast is also a common culprit. The packaged breakfast cereals many kids eat are actually “a semi-liquid dessert,” says Tarkoff. Opting for plain (not instant) oatmeal with fruit can cut sugar in the morning.
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