The sweet and sour on sugar
BY Fiona Baker Parenting & pregnancy expert
Does sugar makes kids hyperactive? And how much is okay?
Sugar: it makes you fat, rots your teeth and we all eat too much of it. But does it make your kid go hyper?
Not according to the research that's out there at the moment. The majority of studies to date haven't found a connection between sugar and hyperactivity. But tell that to a parent who's just picked up their child from a sugar-loaded birthday party.
Paediatric dietitian Kate Di Prima, author of More Peas Please says even if the studies haven't found a link, she can explain why large doses of sugar can seem to have an impact on children and their behaviour.
"Sugar is a carbohydrate that can be absorbed very quickly by the body and converted into energy," she says. "I liken it to putting a V8 motor into a mini minor – there's a whole lot energy that's going to be expelled."
How much is okay?
It can be very difficult to work out how much sugar is in your child's diet because forms of sugar are in many foods including dairy (lactose), fruit (fructose) as well as other sugars like glucose and sucrose.
As a guide, children from toddler through to teens shouldn't be having any more than about four to five teaspoons of added sugar a day. For comparison, there is about 10 teaspoons of sugar in a can of soft drink and eight in a similar amount of orange juice, so it doesn't take much to exceed the recommended daily intake.
A study by the American Heart Association found children in the US between 12 months and three years are consuming about 12 teaspoons of sugar a day. By the time a child is aged between four and eight years, sugar consumption jumps to an average whopping 21 teaspoons a day. In Australia, our intake would be similar.
To keep sugar intake at healthy levels, Kate suggests parents ensure their child eats a healthy and balanced diet (i.e. 5 serves of vegetables, 2 serves of fruit, 3 serves of dairy and healthy grains and proteins) and keep those foods containing refined sugars to a minimum.
"With my kids I have 'Treat Tuesday' – every Tuesday after school they each get $1 to spend on a sweet treat and then we try to burn off that energy with a walk home. My kids look forward to it," she says.
Kate's best kids' party tip
Don't want a roomful of kids on a sugar high at your next birthday party? Work the protein, says Kate.
"Protein delays the stomach from emptying and therefore slows the sugar hit down. So before you bring out the sweet treats, get the kids eating some protein in the form of sausage rolls and party pies, hummus, cheese and biccies or even a smoothie," she advises.
"With the protein in their tummies, they're less likely to go as crazy."
Protein-rich foods, which include red meat, chicken, fish, legumes and dairy products, also help kids (as adults) beat those sugar cravings.