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Sugar, sugar

The not-so-sweet truth

By
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Originally published in Today's Parent February 2006

When a well-meaning relative offered a heart-shaped box of Valentine treats to her child, Judy Turner was aghast. Two pounds of sweetness was not what she wanted her preschool daughter to binge on. But when the Aurora, Ont., mother and psychologist tactfully declined it, she was surprised by her relative’s strong reaction.

“I’ve been called ruthless and mean for supposedly ‘depriving’ my child of sugar,” says Turner. “People get very mad at me.” But Turner wonders if it’s not the other way around. Have we gone bonkers over sugar?

“Canadians eat far too much sugar,” says Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., nutrition coach Linda Barton. “I work with overweight children and one of the first things I challenge the family on is sugar.”

Part of the problem with sugar is its hazy definition. Unlike those clear-cut four food groups, sugar falls under the nebulous descriptor “other foods” in Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating, which instructs us to eat it in moderation. But does 13 percent of our calories represent moderation? That’s what the Canadian Sugar Institute estimates the average Canadian consumes, which translates into about 16 teaspoons of total added (not naturally occurring) sugars per day.

How much is too much?
Registered dietitian Cathy Richards of Kelowna, BC, says that’s too much. She’d like families to adhere to the World Health Organization recommendation of no more than 10 percent of calories. Richards says the average child consumes about 1,600 calories a day, so sugar should be limited to about 10 teaspoons a day.

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