Twenty years ago, I met a couple with a young son who decided not to let the kid have sugar. I wonder how that might have worked out for the kid now that he’s grown.
I assume the kid hit 18 and went on a sugar binge as soon as he tasted it the first time.
Anyone have experience with this?
We did no added sugar until our kids were 2. We don’t regulate much anymore but it seems like they still love sweet things but don’t crave it or overindulge like I used to when I was their age. A lot of neural development happens early on
I feel like this is a reasonable response. Early childhood is an easier time to regulate sugar intake and definitely developmentally crucial so you don’t want any extra unhealthy foods complicating things.
I was raised similarly and have a pretty healthy relationship with sugar today. I just always worried about the kids whose parents freaked out about them having a soda at a birthday party when they were like 8 or something. I understand policing sugar up to maybe grade school, but past that definitely has a negative effect emotionally and can lead to kids bingeing when they’re cut loose.
Neural pathways alone, the difference between “I LOVE sugar” being written into your source code to “I like sugar” as a browser extension.
We’re all fat and our teeth have been mostly replaced with crowns. And even though we’re in our fifties, our attitude towards sugary food is incredibly unhealthy, because we didn’t learn to eat it in moderation, we learned to take advantage of any opportunity that offered us sugary food.
Happy, uh, cake day
You also lived during the “fat” craze. Fat was deemed bad so manufacturers filled their food with sugar so they could market it as low fat.
It’s Capitalism all the way down
Fuck Kellogg and the Seventh Day Adventists.
Religious zealots ruin everything.
Well, religions ruin everything but they require puppets to do the work.
I mean I agree with the sentiment, but the seventh day Adventists were specifically making really low sugar, very bland cereals because they thought that would make people less horny or something. I don’t think they are to blame for high sugar content
What did the Seventh Day Adventists do?
They’re directly responsible for the demonization of meat and fats which led to carb heavy diet recommendations which, in turn, caused the obesity epidemic.
Also, they’re a bunch of religious zealots which are categorically a threat to egalitarian democratic societies.
I’m thinking there must be a study somewhere.
And indeed there is, where they studied people who were born just before and after the end of WW2 sugar rationing in the UK:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39480913/
Those people are into their 70s and 80s now, so the long term health outcomes are well documented:
…we found that early-life rationing reduced type 2 diabetes and hypertension risk by about 35 and 20% and delayed disease onset by 4 and 2 years, respectively. Protection was evident with in utero exposure and increased with postnatal sugar restriction, especially after 6 months, when eating of solid foods likely began. In utero sugar rationing alone accounted for about one-third of the risk reduction.
Thank you. I know I shouldn’t be surprised this doesn’t have more than 10% of the upvotes for anecdotal “I didn’t get sugar when I was a kid, so my adult onset diabetes and obesity is clearly my parents fault.” But, I’m a little disappointed.
But, it’s not really what I asked. I asked for experience, not studies. I like the anecdotes.
There’s whole news ecosystems based on information based on anecdotes, as opposed to data driven studies.
Surprised Hershey isn’t astro turfiing us with made-up horrors of sugar deprivation.
It’s just Puritanism and has all of the drawbacks of an overreaching authority.
Those kids usally binge on sugar once they hit adolescence and are away from thier parents. Great way to create a substance abuse issue. It’s what happens every time you do shit like this.
Prohibition is a method of control that requires a hell of a lot of restrictions to work. And even then it has a high failure rate.
Counterpoint, I see parents giving sodas to toddlers all the time. Reminiscent of that scene in Idiocracy where a parent tries to get their baby to drink Brawndo.
But sugar can cause a slew of problems in kids like childhood obesity, diabetes and
hyperactivitymood swings due to changes in blood sugar levels. The sugar industry has done its best to convince people it’s harmless while packing cheap foods full of it to make it taste better. Countries that consume large amounts of cheap foods like the US have higher obesity rates.Blah blah moderation and all that, but when all you can afford is the cheap shit it’s harder to avoid sugars. Kids finding they might have a sweet tooth when they get older is a tiny concern.
FWIW, it’s a myth that sugar causes hyperactivity. But it’s been shown in studies that parents who believe the myth are more likely to perceive their children’s behaviour as hyperactive when they’ve had sugar.
I think there is evidence that some artificial food additives can have that effect in some people, though.
You’re right, it should probably say mood swings due to changes in blood sugar levels instead as that’s more accurate
Backstory: I’m not strict. I’m not a task master. I don’t helicopter. I don’t spank. I don’t yell. I rarely punish, and they are always meant to build, not tear-down.
My kids got a little candy as a desert after dinner when they were small, no sodas. After 5 or so they were allowed a little candy as desert after dinner and lunch. We always stocked big bulk versions of their favorite candies. They got to choose these bulk candies.
I rationed till 6 and then they were allowed to just grab whatever they wanted after a meal, with the understanding that if they consistently went wild with it then I would go back to the job to help them regain control.
They also understood that if they tore through the candy or snuck candy, that was understandable, but we would have to stop getting the bulk candy because too much candy hurts us and we would do what we needed to ensure we are safe and healthy. If control can’t be gained with it home, it can be gained once a month at the store by simply not buying it. We would still get candy, but far less often, maybe at a stop for gas or whatever.
They were allowed to eat as much as they ever wanted on special occasions, Halloween, parties, last day of school, vacations, etc. They learned early on how unpleasant it was to go too far with this.
Finally, they were allowed any time to say "I think I want a little candy, can I grab a few (candy type)? And I would make a judgement call based on the days intake and other factors. Surprisingly, they very very rarely used this, even though I mostly always agreed.
Other than having to say “ooh that was a bit much, be more careful next time” sometimes early-on, they became completely hands off with candy and always kept it within reason for their size. If they were unsure, they would ask me to look at what they got. If it was to much, they still got it, always with a “that’s ok, next time get less. remember it’s not what we do on occasion that matters much, it’s what we do every day. So let’s make sure we don’t do this every day.”
I anchored all this to measurable metrics they could understand and see, calories. IDGAF what dessert you eat, you get ~100 calories each meal to spend. That’s 6 pieces of gum whenever and however you want them, 6 jolly ranchers, two Oreos, etc.
I essentially mirrored control for them while still letting them have control and a wide choice themselves to exercise within that dynamic.
I knew they would be good when we were at the grocery with my best friend picking up meat for bbq and games all day. When we got to the register he said
“ooh, hey guys get whatever you want” gesturing to the prodigious impulse buy candy display
“We have candy at home”
“But there is so much stuff here. You can get different candy”
“Hmm”Shocked, I chime in “guys, this is a special occasion, you can eat as much of whatever you want. And, (friend) is paying.” Thinking maybe they didn’t realize it was a party day, or they were worried about cost.
“Well, we have what we want at home. So, we’ll just get some there.”
“You can have that too, and get something here. it’s a party.”
“We’re good, but thank you.”He was just, floored. I was beaming. Not because they executed control, they were well into that, but because I knew I had their needs beyond met, and through their lives even when I cease to be able to help them, they would be able to meet their needs better than I ever could.
My oldest is in their 20s. My youngest in their teens. All of them regulate junk of any kind, sugar, media, etc, easily. This is one area I fucking aced as a parent.
What’s helicopter?
