Curbing Your Child's Sweet Tooth
Sweet Fix Tips
- Don’t use sweets as a reward for things like good behaviour. Consider using stickers, small toys or praise.
- Walk the talk by eating healthy snacks and choosing healthy foods at mealtime.
- Limit the amount of sweets you buy.
- Don’t forbid sweets completely. Doing that will only increase a child’s interest in them outside the home, says Weinberg.
- Limit the amount of sweets your child eats. One or two candies are fine; a whole bag is not.
- Stock healthy snacks such as cheese, fruit, vegetables, whole-grain crackers and nuts.
- Get kids to drink water instead of sweetened beverages.
Angela Pirisi’s own treat-seeking daughter, Brigitte, 3, suggests things like opening the whole chocolate advent calendar in one day!
surprising sweets stats
The World Health Organization recommends that no more than 10 per cent of our calories should come from added sugars. For children, that can mean as little as 10 teaspoons’ worth (lots of room for nutritious foods with some sweetening, but little for sugary treats). To limit added sugars, check nutrition and ingredient labels for sugar and its equivalents, including sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, honey and molasses.
Here are some examples of the sugar content in popular foods. (1 tsp = 4 grams)
Low fat yogurt, plain, 6 oz. - 2 ¼ tsps
Snickers bar, 2.1 oz. - 7 ½ tsps
Low fat fruit-flavoured yogurt, 6 oz. - 6 ¼ tsps
Pepsi, 12 oz. - 10 ¼ tsps
Pancake syrup, ¼ cup - 8 tsps
McDonald’s Vanilla Shake, 21 oz. - 24 tsps
see all contests
