Eating more sugar leads to weight gain and obesity. This can cause serious health problems such as heart disease and diabetes. Sugar can cause cavities in your teeth. Remember to always brush after cosumming sugary foods and beverages.
Eating too much sugar makes it harder for your white blood cells to kill germs That means that eating too much added sugar can lead to getting sick more often.
A lot of the added sugar people consume can be found in sweetened drinks. Look at the number of teaspoons of sugar each of these popular drinks contain.
Juice Box: 2 1/2
Horizon Organic Choc. Drink: 4 1/2
Pepsi: 8 1/4
Arizona Sweet Tea: 4 1/2
Minute Maid O'Juice: 9
RedBull: 7 3/4
Jumex Guava Nectar: 6 3/4
Dasani Water: 0
New government guidelines say that no more than 10% of our daily calories should come from added sugar. For kids that is less than about 10 teaspoons per day.
The American Heart Association recommends a maximum of 3 teaspoons (12 grams) of added sugar per day for kids. Use Nutrition Facts labels to track the amount of sugar your kids are consuming each day. Note that food labels do not distinguish between natural and added sugar.