Hidden sugars in common foods pose silent risk to children's health

Scientists and dietitians constantly appeal to limit sugar in the diet. This warning largely concerns parents, who are responsible for what their children eat. Unfortunately, to this day, many of us forget that sugar is not only found in sweets but also in other seemingly harmless products. It's not so bad if children eat them only occasionally. Worse if they reach for them daily. Sorry — reach for them? We give them to them ourselves, convinced we're doing nothing wrong. Appearances are very deceptive in this case.

We recently wrote about what happens in the human body when sugar is overused in another article. The effects of overusing the sweet substance are not hard to come by. Sweetening tea is just the tip of the iceberg. Sugar is a common addition even in food products where we wouldn't expect it.

The first example of this is ketchup, loved by both children and adults. We often forget: we spend a lot of time choosing the best quality hot dogs, only to serve them to children with ketchup containing an alarming amount of sugar. Government sites even inform about this danger. On the portal pacjent.gov.pl, it was calculated that one tablespoon of ketchup contains even... half a teaspoon of sugar. Terrifying, right? And this isn't the end of this alarming list.

The second product children reach for regularly, which contains huge doses of sweet substances, is breakfast cereals. Cereal products are considered healthy (and they are), but what manufacturers do with their composition is outrageous. Sit down before you read this. In one serving of cornflakes, there are even... 7 teaspoons of sugar.

It's said that habit is second nature to man. This proverb should be considered when setting the daily menu for children. The sooner kids get used to large amounts of sugar in their diet, the greater the likelihood of, first, addiction to this substance, and second — associated health conditions.

It's worth remembering that a large amount of sugar in a child's diet can lead to diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and even cancers in the future. There is also something else. Overusing sugar causes a loss of appetite for other dishes from which the youngest derive essential nutrients. This, in turn, is associated with further potential health risks!