Eating less of foods without additional nutrients or fiber, like fruits, vegetables, and beans does not help either. Children's natural taste predispositions draw them to these processed foods that taste sweet.Įating a diet rich in added sugar affects a child's or teen's risk for obesity, and subsequent high blood pressure, diabetes, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels. Food is everywhere, not scarce-it is inexpensive, good and sweet tasting, and served in large portions. In other words, there is a mismatch between children's biology and the food environment. These processed foods become preferred compared to healthy sweet foods like fruits. Today it makes them vulnerable to food environments abundant in processed foods rich in added sugars or sugar substitutes (chemicals that produce sweet taste with little or no calories). This "sweet" attraction served children well in a feast-or-famine setting, attracting them to energy rich foods like breast milk and fruits in the era before mass produced food. Well, it's true! Another reason children are attracted to foods with added sugars is because sugars get rid of the bad tastes. I am sure you have heard of the Mary Poppins song "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine goes down'. For babies and older children, tasting something sweet provides pleasure and blunts pain. For children, the bliss point requires more sugar, five more teaspoons for a total of 12 teaspoons in an eight ounce glass of water!īut that's not the only reason children like sweets.
The bliss point for sweetness for adults is about seven teaspoons in eight ounces of water which is about the level of sweetness in a cola. The preferred amount of sweetness is called the bliss point.
The preference for sweet tastes is heightened throughout all of childhood, attracting children to sources of calories (typically fruits rich in carbohydrates), especially when they are growing. Through research, we now know that the preference for the taste of sweet is inborn, attracting newborns to the predominant taste quality of what once was their only first food-their mother's milk. What has science taught us about understanding this problem? Our taste system evolved to prefer energy-rich foods that taste sweet and reject potential poisons, which often taste bitter. Children in the United States typically take in two to three times the recommended amount of added sugar which is less than six teaspoons a day. From the age of two, on any given day, an American is more likely to eat a processed sweet than a fruit or vegetable. DuPont Hospital for Children.ĭid you ever wonder why children typically like candy more than broccoli? Why they like to eat foods and drink beverages rich in added sugars? Added sugars, not the sugars found in fruits, are sweeteners that have calories that are added to prepared foods and beverages.
Mennella, PhD, Monell Chemical Senses Center and Samuel S.
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