₦airaland Forum

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. “Parents and guardians may just be saving children from diseases by regulating their daily sugar intake,” Sanusi warns.

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.

The authors show evidence that consuming fructose and glucose in excess can have a toxic effect on the liver, just as the metabolism of ethanol. 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.

If you feel that your kid is slim and he/she can take sweets and biscuits as much as he/she likes, you may have to think again. A 2013 study found that liver damage from sugar could occur even without having excess calories or weight gain.

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!
http://www.punchng.com/health/healthwise/before-your-child-goes-for-biscuits-sweets/