Dear parents, biscuits and sweets now fall among
the 21 most dangerous treats you can give to
children. In fact, nutritionists have said giving
biscuits or sweets to children regularly is
comparable to poisoning them at an early age.
Sadly, biscuits, which many know contain a lot of
unhealthy substances and have little or no
nutritional value — except the fact that they are a
readymade treat that calms children down — are
very popular snacks among kids.
A nutritionist, Dr. James Sanusi, warns that if
parents can avoid giving their kids biscuits and
sweets, they should; and adds that by doing so,
they are reducing their kids’ chances of
developing Type-2 diabetes, obesity and high
blood pressure before they are 30.
Sanusi says many studies have fingered the high
sugar and salt contents in biscuits and sweets as
major factors in increasing childhood obesity and
diabetes.
As toddlers grow older, the lure to give kids
sweets and biscuits may become impossible to
ignore; but experts say the way out is to resist and
look for alternatives.
Also, a 2010 study of children found that excess
fructose — which is very high in biscuits and
sweets — actually causes visceral fat cells to
mature, setting the stage for a big belly and even
bigger future risk for heart disease and diabetes in
kids that were studied in the United States of
America.
According to the study which involved 5,000 kids in
the US, adolescent obesity rates have tripled in the
past 30 years, while childhood obesity rates have
doubled due to unregulated sugar intake in kids.
Sanusi adds, “One only needs to visit an
amusement park, school or day care to truly see
what is happening. More children are becoming
obese and accumulating fat around their belly, a
factor for Type-2 diabetes and hypertension.
Why is this so? Experts say it’s because more kids
are consuming fructose and high sugar-loaded
beverages than they burn.
Sanusi notes that when parents give their children
biscuits or sweets, they should know that they are
giving them sugar in another form.
Need more reasons to reduce your kids’ biscuits or
sweet rations? Well, scientists say sugar, which is
usually used in making these candies and cookies,
encourage the production of cancer cells, thus
reducing one’s chances of surviving cancer.
A more recent study in 2013 found that sugars in
the intestine triggered the formation of a hormone
called GIP, controlled by a protein called β-catenin
that is completely dependent on sugar levels.
Experts say this GIP increases the production of
cancerous cells. The researchers also found that
β-catenin may, in fact, affect cells’ susceptibility to
cancer formation.
Other studies have also found negative
associations between high sugar and starch intake
and survival rates in both breast cancer patients
and colon cancer patients.
The scientists likened parents giving kids biscuits
and sweets to giving children ‘soft’ alcohol, which
could be addictive.
A 2012 paper in the journal Nature , brought forth
the idea that warnings placed on biscuits should be
similar to warnings placed on alcohol bottles. They say the ethanol contained in
alcoholic beverages has similarities to the
metabolic pathways with fructose in sweets.
The study further shows that sugar increases
one’s risk for several of the same chronic
conditions that alcohol was responsible for.
Finally, sugar could age your child quickly. A 2009
study found a positive relationship between
glucose consumption and the ageing of cells. The
study states that sugary foods slow down the
ability to learn; and links excess sugar
consumption to deficiencies in memory and overall
cognitive health.
It states, “Ageing of the cells, consequently, can be
the cause of something as simple as not
remembering lessons or words; or something as
dire as chronic disease. But there is alarming
evidence that sugar may affect the ageing of kids’
brain.”
The advice is not for parents to throw biscuits
away. Rather, let it just be what it should always
be — a treat, and not an alternative to food.
source- PUNCH