Weight problems among children continue to escalate. In the United States, nearly seventeen percent have a body mass index (BMI) that constitutes obesity. Boys aged six through nineteen years seem to represent the most vulnerable group. Obese children more often become obese adults and susceptible to a multitude of weight-related health problems.
According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the top five energy (calorie) sources for one to eighteen-year-olds included grain desserts (cookies, cakes, and granola bars), pizza, carbonated beverages, yeast breads, and chicken. Nearly forty percent of total calories excluded nutrient-dense healthful foods. Instead, solid fats and added sugar provided empty calories with little to no nutritive value.
Sweetened carbonated beverages topped the list of sources for added sugar. Those, plus fruit drinks, made up nearly fifty percent of added sugars in the diets of most age and demographic groups. Five-year-old girls who consumed carbonated drinks had higher percentages of body fat, greater waist circumferences, and higher BMIs than their counterpart non-consumers. Diets of those same five-year-olds included fewer foods with essential nutrients, less milk, and higher levels of sugar.
How can trends of escalating high-fat, high-sugar foods among children be changed? Taste, acquired at an early age, is a powerful contributor to high intakes of sugar. Repeated early exposure to specific foods influences choices of infants and children. Preferences in early years prevail in later life.
Adults involved in the care and training of children serve as role models. Their influence on food patterns helps determine whether children will develop food habits to help them become healthier adults.
Initial steps for change begin with education of parents. Second, communities and schools have responsibilities for making healthful foods available. Sweetened beverages shipped to schools increased eighty-eight percent from the 2004-2005 school year to the 2009-2010 school year. Altered policies to limit availability of less-healthy choices in vending machine and access to high-sugar drinks can help reduce the increasing incidence of obesity.
Source: Rae-Ellen W. Kavey. “How Sweet It Is: Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption, Obesity, and Cardiovascular Risk in Childhood.” J Amer Dietetic Assoc. 110:10 (2010): 1456-1460.
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