I am a Sugar addict. I love sugar. As a young child, I climbed the counter tops to reach the highest cabinet to pull out the sugar to eat it by the spoonful. I am a Health addict. I love living a healthy lifestyle full of eating good quality foods and exercising. I am an oxymoron. For the most part, I have given up my sugar addiction as I've learned that there are many other ingredients in the candies and treats that I love so much, that cause me to have allergic type reactions (corn, soy, cow dairy). On occasion I still indulge myself (probably more than I would like to admit) and then I have to suffer the bodily consequences.
What's my point? I can proudly say that my children have never had baby food out of a jar. I took on making all of their mush and solid foods. I was adamant about not adding any sugar, or salt, to their foods until their first birthday. Truly, there is no nutritional benefit to adding sugar to food, especially for a little one. I don't keep juice in our home, with the exception of the occasional orange or green juice purchase. Fruit Juice is basically pure sugar. Eating an apple is a better choice then drinking apple juice. On standard, a 1 cup serving/8oz of 100% Apple Juice contains 114 calories, 0 grams of fiber, and 24 grams of sugar!!! Whereas, one small apple contains only 77 calories, at least 4 grams of fiber, and 17 grams of sugar. Besides, a child will easily down more than one cup of apple juice and often not even finish one apple. Think about the difference in sugar. Preschoolers are only recommended to have approx. 4 teaspoons of sugar per day/170 calories. One small cup of apple juice almost hits the mark. Eating whole fruits not only gives your child less sugar/fructose, it provides fiber and many other nutrients (varies based on fruit) that the juicing process often diminishes.
Don't be fooled by labels! I almost had a heart attack two Christmases ago as my mother tried to give my then 1.5 year old daughter Hansens Soda. Luckily I caught her in the act and prevented it. My mothers defense was, "It's all natural" Yup, all natural cane sugar...sugar sugar sugar.! All natural does NOT mean good for you! MSG is all natural! MSG is HORRIBLE for you! Oh and electrolytes, if you don't know what they are then why does your body need them (Gatorade)? Save that stuff for professional athletes, not children.
I hate to admit this, but I will, I am sometimes horrified by what I see other children eating, or not eating. Sugar should not be the number one ingredient in anything that a young child eats (BTW, corn syrup is sugar, and a genetically modified version of it as well). Don't get me wrong, my girls are given more sugar than even I would like (Daddy has a thing for dessert). Which is why it is so important, to me, that more often than not the girls are eating whole foods, real foods. After all, we are what we eat...I'd like my girls to be whole, real people, not chemically altered, sugar enhanced stuff.
I came across a great comparison chart of drinks from a Harvard Study. Here is the link
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/how-sweet-is-it/
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