Steps To Reduce Sugar Drinks From Your Child's Routine
The concern in our society today it that these sweetened beverages become the norm or daily beverage choice.
Certainly, a decaffeinated soda at a pizza party once in awhile really won’t do that much harm to your child. However, if you go home and add in the ice cream that day, and the high sugar cereal from the morning and the hard candy sweet form a quick stop at the store, you have a lot of empty calories and sugar being consumed in just one day.
Also, remember if you are drinking soda throughout the day, eventually your teenage will do so too (role modeling does have a huge impact).
Most of these sweet drinks provide very little nutrition. It can either fill the child up so he doesn’t want to eat later, missing out on other beneficial food like sliced fruit, or it can actual add unnecessary calories.
For a child or even an adult needing to lose weight, this can be easy just by changing beverages. It is possible to fall back on good ol’ water. Many companies now offer flavored water such as lemon and raspberry.
At home, add fresh mint or sliced oranges or cucumbers into a glass of ice water. For a special event, serve club soda with sliced lemons. The best benefit of water – there are zero calories
If your child has been drinking sugary drinks almost daily, you may need to actually wean them off of the sugar over a period of time.
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Start by talking to your child and helping them understand why so much sugar is not really good for their diet.
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You can show them by using packets of sugar, how much sugar is in a typical sugary drink. They might be surprised.
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If you do a little math exercise, you can show your child just how much sugar they are actually putting in their body by multiplying the daily number of packs by 365 days in a year. Again, they might be shocked!
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You can begin by cutting the juice they drink by 1/4 water and 3/4s juice. Slowly increase the amount of water and they will get used to having juice with less sugar.
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Have children satisfy their sweet tooth with fruit
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Offer plain water at every meal first.
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If you child is a heavy soda drinker (or sugary beverage like sports drinks) you may have to start with small goals. Limit soda to once a day and then gradually decrease until they are once a week. Continue until you have eliminated the soda or sugary beverage from their daily routine.
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Teach your child to read food labels, the sugar content is right on the package.
Healthy Eating
Healthy Child
Written by Anne Kolker
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Written on Mar 03, 2011
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Last updated on Oct 16, 2013
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