A recent study in the journal Diabetes Care has shown that even one soft drink per day can increase your risk of developing diabetes. This study looked at several other studies about ADULTS, and compiled the results. Now that sounds bad, but I'm of the opinion that it is even worse for your child, and here's why.
The average 2 year old girl weighs almost 30 pounds. The average woman weighs around 150 pounds. The study above, when studying adults, found that one sugar-sweetened drink daily increased their risk of Diabetes. Don't ever forget that, as a parent, you also need to always do some math. If your 2 year old daughter drinks a can of Coke, that is the same, pound-for-pound, as her mom drinking 5 cans of Coke, due to the weight difference! I regret to say there are probably many young children in our community who drink 2-3 cans of regular soda every day; that's the same as their mom drinking 10-15 cans of Coke every day. So the obvious conclusion we must reach is that if one can of sugar-sweetened drink per day can increase the risk of Diabetes in adults, then 1-2 cans daily (equivalent to 5-10 cans) must cause the risk in small children to sky-rocket. This is a big deal, and every parent should be aware of this study, and also aware of the need to consider the difference in weight when giving their small child sugar-sweetened drinks or snacks. Although this study looked at drinks, don't you think the concept would apply to any sugary junk food? Here is another great book, and a disturbing video.
Another Math Problem: If that same little girl ate 3 cookies, that is the same as the mom eating how many cookies? We are suffering from an epidemic of both obesity and diabetes in young people and pretending we don't know why...You are not being a bad parent by strictly limiting junk food, you are doing a wonderful thing for your child. Preventing Obesity and Diabetes in children is what every parent should be about.
kb.
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