Why do we love sugar?

Food is life; food is pleasure, and nothing rivals the taste of sweet.

Sweet tasting foods historically were “safe”. There is probably no food that is both sweet and toxic, therefore we evolved to understand that sweet meant safe. That was fine when we found fresh fruit and berries in summer and fall, but today sugar is overly abundant, high in calories while lacking any nutritional value.

There’s a part of your brain, the pleasure center, that is stimulated by sweet. So over and above stimulating your taste buds, the enjoyment of sweet goes farther and deeper, right into your brain.

We eat 40X more sugar than we used to

Our love affair with sweet has taken a dark and sinister turn. In 1776 each American consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year, this number ballooned to 120 pounds by 1994 and has continued to explode; currently, our intake is estimated to be about 160 pounds.

Concurrently we have seen a shift in the diseases that claim the most lives. At the turn of the 20^th century, it was infectious diseases; now it’s degenerative lifestyle diseases, namely heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disease that are killing the majority of Americans.

Is there a relationship between sugar consumption and degenerative disease?

The answer seems to be a clear affirmative. Even worse, the sugar consumption of our children is putting them at risk of disease younger and younger.

The World Health Organizations urges us to avoid added sugars in foods, attributing 14 million deaths annually from degenerative diseases to the “sweet monster”.

The sugar and soda industry is not happy about research unveiling the unhealthy threat sugar poses. The director-general of a front group, World Sugar Research Organization, was quoted as saying, “Overconsumption of anything is harmful, including water and air.” It’s not surprising that the industry wants to protect itself, but to compare the epidemic sugar problem with the overconsumption of air is pretty ridiculous, I think you’d agree.

Our children consume dangerous amounts of sugar

As parents, it is initially our job to set the stage for our children’s good health.

Sugar has become a “tool” to get children to adopt certain behaviors. We use M&Ms or jelly beans for potty training or to acknowledge a good test score or athletic achievement. Such “rewards” then become a habit as the child gets older.

My mother was a sugar addict and she loved her chocolate. Sugar was used for reward, as a treat or to assuage failures. Had a bad day? Have a piece of chocolate to feel better. It was no wonder that I too became a sugar addict.

The latest American Heart Association’s (AHA) guidelines for sugar consumption call for less than 25 grams, or 6 teaspoons, per day for children aged 2 to 18. That would include no more than a 8 ounces of sugar-sweetened drinks per week – yes, that’s less than a regular 12 ounce can of soda…. per week.

Industry sugar is where the real culprit lies

It’s really not the sugar you personally add to your food that has created the danger. It’s the sugar added to pre-packaged pre-prepared foods and beverages.

Consider the 15 teaspoons of sugar in a single can of soda. Would you ever add 15 teaspoons of sugar to anything? Maybe 1 or 2 in your coffee, another 1 in your oatmeal, but 15? Never. Yet we and our children readily get exposed to these hidden amounts on a daily basis and it’s averaging 34 teaspoons per day per American.

High fructose corn syrup linked to fatty liver disease

High fructose corn syrup is particularly bad and should be avoided completely. Why? One of the biggest reasons is how fructose affects the liver. As high fructose corn sweeteners increased in our diet, so did a condition that basically didn’t exist prior to three decades ago – fatty liver disease.

Fatty livers were associated with alcoholics. Once it was clear that more and more people were developing it, despite no issue with alcohol, a new disease was named – non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a global concern.

High fructose corn syrup linked to leaky gut

High fructose corn syrup is “free fructose” meaning not bound to glucose the way regular sugar is. The nature of free fructose is it is absorbed readily but it requires energy from the gut to do so. This sapping of energy is believed to challenge the very structure of the lining of your intestine.

The result is called leaky gut, where the integrity of the lining of the small intestine is compromised, allowing potential infectious agents, toxins, and partially digested food to leak into your bloodstream. Leaky gut can be the source of autoimmune disease, generalized inflammation, and an initiator of a variety of degenerative diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Children and adults alike can suffer from a leaky gut.

Excess sugar linked to the following:

• Tooth decay and gum disease – linked to heart disease later in life
• Hyperactivity
• Risk of obesity
• Risk of type 2 diabetes -one in four teens have pre-diabetes of type 2 diabetes. Teens with diabetes were unheard of just 30 years ago.
• Risk of cancer
• Weakened immune system
• Cold symptoms – runny nose, excess mucus, cough
• Allergy symptoms
• Croup-like symptoms
• Acid reflux

Sugar in infancy is a predictor of early obesity

A very interesting report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2017 documented studies that revealed sugar-sweetened beverages in infancy was a predictor of obesity by 6 years of age. So too was not breastfeeding for 12 months a predictor of obesity.

One of the best things you can do for your children is to get them to enjoy drinking water. Some pediatricians recommend about the age of 6 to 12 months when solid food is introduced, you can also start giving 4 to 6 ounces of water to get your child to start enjoying the taste of water.

Obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease risk in your children

Why has the AHA decreased sugar limit guidelines? They state that excess added sugar early in life is linked to obesity, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. And those health problems increase the risk of developing heart disease in our young adults.

The World Health Organization agrees, and not just for children. Adults too, they urge, should restrict added sugar to under 5% of calories, or about 6 teaspoons per day.

Despite such recommendations, the truth is children and teens consume more than 3x the recommended allowance– 16% of children’s and teen’s daily calories come from added sugar.

Hint: When reading labels you need to know that 4 grams of sugar = 1 teaspoon.

Children have small stomachs that fill quickly

The goal is to fill those tummies with healthy food, not the empty and dangerous calories of sugar.

Our toddlers are consuming on average more than 7 teaspoons of added sugar daily. This exceeds the recommendation for adults.

The data came from a study of 800 children under 2 years of age. 85% of all the toddlers were consuming added sugar on any given day.

As they aged, they tended to consume more added sugar until 99% of the children aged 19 to 23 months were exceeding the adult allowance for added sugar.

If a child is under two, he should ingest no sugar.

Sugar increases the risk for disease early in life

According to Dr. Jennifer Baidal professor of pediatrics at Columbia University, excess sugar “can lead to hypertension, dyslipidemia [high cholesterol], fatty liver disease, and diabetes.”

Allow your children to make food choices, but only offer them healthy options. You’ll be delighted with what healthy eaters you’ll create.

Is your child a picky eater?

Picky eaters are a very real situation, but the lack of appetite can come from a variety of sources.

•  Filling up on sugary foods with no nutritive value can lessen appetite
•  Sugar, creating an imbalance of the good bacteria in the gut, can also cause inflammation and irritation such that a child doesn’t feel hungry but doesn’t really know why.
•  There are food sensitivities such as gluten and dairy that can also cause gut irritation and result in picky eaters.

Good news – these are easy conditions to fix. We’ve had many a picky eater become a healthy one with a good appetite.

It sounds odd, but hunger helps

One thing to keep in mind with picky eaters; when you’re very hungry everything tastes better. I’ve always schooled parents in the technique of letting their child miss a meal or two.

Unless there’s a drastic health concern, putting a child to bed without dinner, because they refused to eat it and held a tantrum, will do no harm. What will occur is a very hungry tummy in the morning, more amenable to a healthy breakfast.

Remember, your child takes cues from you. If you want to create a healthy eater, you need to set a good example.

e.g. “Vegetables are delicious”, is what they should hear you say.

Is a special occasion sugar okay?

What about special occasions? Birthdays and holidays can be a reason to indulge in some sugar; it’s just important to keep it isolated to such occasions.

The rest of the time, “treat” good scores on tests or certain milestones with mandarin oranges or a healthy trail mix (homemade is best). You can also make your own “nice cream” with frozen bananas and other healthy ingredients.

What’s a healthy daily amount?

Here at Root Cause Medical, we have a more stringent guideline than WHO. We recommend not more than 12 grams of added sugar per day vs. 25 grams. If your household has been a high sugar one, certainly moving toward 25 grams is a good start, but ideally, 12 added grams will keep your children (and you) that much healthier.

A 12 ounce can of Coke contains more than 9 teaspoons of sugar. You probably already knew that soda contains a ridiculous amount of sugar, but there are hidden sources of added sugar you may not be aware of.

New labeling law helps reveal hidden sugar

Detecting added sugar vs. naturally containing sugar is about to become easier to discern with a 2018 FDA mandate for food labels to clearly state added sugar grams on all food labels.

Processed foods, sports drinks, desserts and fruit juice are some of the worst offenders for hidden sugar. In fact the American Academy of Pediatrics announced that children under 1 year of age shouldn’t drink any fruit juice.

Toddlers, meaning up to age 3, are allowed up to 4 ounces of fruit juice per day, but I wouldn’t recommend such an introduction. It’s much safer to stick with water to drink and eat the whole fruit.

Hidden Sources of Sugar

Pasta sauces:  6-12 gm in ½ cup

Granola bar:  8-12 grams

Fruit flavored yogurt: 7 – 33 gm of sugar in a serving, even in low-fat varieties

Fruit flavored instant oatmeal: 10-15 grams

Salad dressings: 5-7 gm in just 2 tablespoons.

Breakfast cereals: 10-20 gm+ per cup

Energy drinks: 25 gm in an 8 oz serving

Packaged fruit: mandarin oranges in syrup have 39 gm in one serving – drain the syrup and you’re still at 16 gm

Coleslaw at fast-food restaurants: 15 gm sugar

Bottled ice tea: the leading brand has 32 gm per bottle

Apple juice: 24 gm in 1 cup. It might not be “added sugar” but it’s still too much considering there’s no fiber and 1 cup equal about 4 whole apples, not something your child would readily eat in a sitting.

Children being drugged unnecessarily

It’s estimated that many children are treated, with medications, for symptoms of allergy, cold, croup and acid reflux, when actually their symptoms are a result of excess sugar.

How does that happen?

According to a pediatric otolaryngologist (ear, nose, throat doctor), too many children are treated for symptoms that have sugar as their underlying cause. I completely agree.

“If we get rid of the symptoms; kids won’t need the medicine,”, Dr. Wei explained.

She noticed an interesting association with children drinking chocolate milk throughout the day [or a combination of dairy and sugar]. The children would go to bed seemingly healthy but awaken in the middle of the night with a barking cough and trouble breathing, typical croup symptoms.

Dairy and sugar – a “sick” combination

Dr. Wei noted that the combination of dairy and sugar is highly acidic and takes a long time to digest. Food can reflux back up the esophagus, touch the vocal cords and cause a spasm, causing a cough and trouble breathing.

Children can be diagnosed with acid reflux and given over the counter medications that block their stomach’s natural acid secretion. The medication can lessen symptoms but, as the pediatrician points out, “We’re not having a whole generation of children who have some rare disease that they’re making more acid than before,” Dr. Wei said. “They are consuming 10 times more acid every single day than they used to.” And this is coming from sugar and dairy products.

Very well said, and it’s exactly what we see here at Root Cause in children and adults as well. Sugar is very acid-forming and it is creating avoidable symptoms. Dairy products, as the doctor mentioned, along with many animal-based foods are also acid-producing, which creates long-term health problems.

Excess acid production can be addressed naturally through dietary change; your child (nor you) should require medication when the correct root cause is identified.

Sugar weakens the immune system

Sugar is known to weaken the immune system. Studies reveal up to 50% decrease ability of the white blood cells to destroy bacteria and kill germs after consuming refined sugar. Such suppression can last up to 5 hours. If your child is eating sugar at most meals; their immune system is constantly suppressed.

Complex carbohydrates found in whole fruit, grains, and beans did not have this negative effect on the immune system. Complex carbohydrates are full of fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and their unrefined nature has them metabolized in a slow, healthy way, unlike added sugars and processed simple carbs which contain no nutritional value, are stripped of all fiber and enter your bloodstream like a freight train.

Fortunately, my children rarely became ill but when they did they knew that zero sugar was coming their way until they were well again.

We taught them that sugar “feeds the bad bugs” and while it was easy to understand the explanation for a child, it’s factually true. Bacteria, yeast, and all inhospitable organisms love sugar, so the last thing you want to do is feed them.

Cancer cells love sugar

Cancer cells too fall in this category. There is irrefutable evidence that sugar promotes cancer cell growth. The pathway the contributes to cancer requires sugar and cancer cells simply love sugar. In fact, if you starve cancer cells of sugar, they die.

Tips to reduce sugar intake:

Swap out sugar for other sweet options. Desserts made from dates, apple sauce, or frozen bananas can still feed the sweet desire without any excess added sugar. Your sweet taste gets less pronounced the less sugar you ingest. The result is food that didn’t taste particularly sweet before now tastes delicious.

Even a little powdered date sugar is acceptable because it’s actually a whole food with all the fiber intact.

Drink water – eat fruit. Getting into the habit of only drinking water is very beneficial for your children. When it comes to fruit; eat the piece of fruit in its whole form. A kid’s juice box may be 100% fruit juice, but all the fiber has been removed, and, though natural, a single kid’s box can contain 22 grams of sugar. It’s equivalent to eating about 4 apples, certainly a feat no child could easily accomplish.

Water to drink, no soda, sports drinks, or even orange juice.

The only drink I approve of is healthy smoothies that are blended fruits and vegetables, not juiced. What’s the difference? The fiber is intact vs a juice removes all the fiber and with it, much of the healthy nutrients.

Read the labels carefully. It can be a surprise to learn the high sugar content of yogurt, cereal, ketchup, or salad dressing, but becoming a label reader will alert you to where sugar can hide. As mentioned earlier the labeling laws changed recently, mandating that “added sugars” be delineated on all ingredient labels. This is very helpful as it ends the confusion of natural sugar from fruit vs added sugar.

Insidiously, kids’ cereals have 40% more added sugar than adults’, based on a report from the Environmental Working Group.

Is sugar addiction a real thing?

Animal studies have proven that sugar addiction is very real. As a former addict myself, I can attest that it is real in humans as well.

Our brains are hardwired to love sweet. The pleasure center in your brain becomes activated just anticipating a sugary treat. Sweet triggers the reward system of your brain through the production of a brain chemical called dopamine.

There are genetic variants of dopamine where some individuals require more of a substance to feel pleasure. There are ways to naturally work with these genetic variations successfully, but for those who don’t know they have it, addictive tendencies to sugar or drugs, is more prevalent.

It’s an insidious cycle of craving pleasure, but in order to satiate the craving, more food, sugar, or drugs is required. If this is you, let me know. We can work with your genetics.

If we could stop at just a little sugar it would be fine, but the reward center needs more and more to be satisfied, hence cravings and the addictive nature of sugar.

Sugar is more addictive than cocaine

Sugar has been proven to as addictive as drugs such as cocaine or heroin. But unlike illegal drugs, sugar is everywhere and it’s cheap to access.

It may sound unbelievable but sugar is MORE addictive than cocaine. They’ve performed studies on animals where they get them hooked on cocaine and then offer them sugar. Not only will the animals switch to the sugar and away from the cocaine, but they’ll work much harder to get the sugar, willingly.

Is your child addicted to sugar?

As a parent, it’s good to observe if your child exhibits withdrawal symptoms if you have them avoid sugar for a couple of days.

Symptoms include:

• Mood changes such as irritability
• Tremors
• Change in activity level, including lethargy or overactivity

Artificial sweeteners are not a solution

I’ve always said if I were forced to choose I’d pick sugar over artificial sweeteners in a heartbeat. With everything we’ve just reviewed regarding the dangers of sugar, you likely appreciate I’d rather not have to make that choice, but artificial sweeteners are worse than sugar.

They alter the gut microbiome in dangerous ways, are known to affect the nervous system, and are linked to obesity because they result in you ingesting more calories.

Stevia, which is not artificial, seems to be a fairly safe choice but you should consume it in a product that is 100% stevia, not the “new” variants that blend Stevia with other alcohol sugars that are not healthy.

Stevia, IN MODERATION, seems safe. Just don’t overdo it and over-stimulate your sweet receptors. My favorite company is SweetLeaf. I have no vested interest in this company. I have found their liquid drops do not have the bitter aftertaste so common in the powder.

Test your children’s taste buds

Here’s a little trick to prove to your child how sugar alters their taste buds.  Find a piece of fruit they agree on tastes sweet to them. Then give them a couple of bites of a dessert or chocolate bar. Now have them go back to the same piece of fruit and observe how it tastes. It no longer tastes sweet and may even seem bitter in comparison.

This is an excellent experiment to prove that the taste of sweet is relative and added sugar “ruins” the sweet taste of natural, healthy foods.

More seriously, studies reveal that too much sugar overloading in children can literally prevent their taste buds from maturing, making them less likely to enjoy a variety of healthy foods.

I well remember meeting a young man at Church who avoided vegetables at all costs. I asked him if he ever ate them as a child and he told me that he grew up on a lot of sugar and his parents informed him that he would hate vegetables when young but might get to like them when he was an adult. He found the taste of vegetables intolerable.

Don’t get a kids’ menus

Avoid kid’s menus in restaurants; they are pure junk food. Don’t ask for a kid’s menu and further, ask for it to be removed if it’s offered.

In countries where the populace is healthy, there is no such thing as a kid's menu.

Little changes yield big results

If you begin with small changes in your child’s diet, you’ll be pleasantly surprised how quickly a sweet tooth lessens. In just 3 days with zero sugar, typical sweet cravings go away. Try it on yourself too!

This is never about forcing food on your child or making him or her so miserable that he’s raiding a neighbor’s cookie jar. It’s about gradual changes and continuing to find the foods they enjoy.

If they’re “in love” with a super sweet cereal, start mixing it with a low or no sugar variety. You will gradually lessen their sweet tooth and it should be fairly effortless to wean them off the sugary one.

A little creativity with flavors can go a long way. If you enjoy pancakes on Sunday morning, ditch the syrup and add almond butter and fruit jam (zero added sugar varieties are delicious). Further, consider some sweet spices such as cinnamon and vanilla.

Your kids will be happier because they’ll feel better, and the whole family will appreciate the more stable mood and energy level of a truly healthy child.

Are you frustrated that your child isn’t as healthy as you’d like?

If your child isn’t happy, healthy, energetic, and drug-free, something isn’t right.

Young bodies respond beautifully, and rapidly, to the correct help. If your child keeps getting sick, is a picky eater or moody, the solution is not difficult.

If you’ve tried several things unsuccessfully, don’t worry. We’ve been doing this for over two decades and our success rate with children is incredibly high.

The family has to be on the same page as regards dietary and lifestyle changes, but the underlying root cause of a child’s symptoms is quite easy to fix.