EP 26: Added Sugar: The Conversation Every Parent Needs to Have

Is added sugar really the problem, or is it the way it quietly shows up in everyday kid foods? In this episode of Nutrition for the Early Years, Dr. Liz Daniels shares clear, caring guidance for parents who want to understand added sugar without fear or shame. She explains why babies under two do not need added sugar, how sugar can affect teeth, gut health, appetite, and long-term health, and why the weekly donut date may not be the biggest concern. You’ll hear where added sugar often hides, including flavored yogurt, drinks, cereal bars, pouches, applesauce, and snacks. Dr. Liz also shares simple ways to talk with kids about sweets, special treats, and food choices that help their bodies grow and feel good.

Dr. Liz Daniels is a nutrition-focused pediatrician and host of Nutrition for the Early Years. She helps parents feel more confident feeding their babies and kids without shame, guilt, or fear.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why is added sugar not recommended under age two
• How added sugar can affect teeth and cavities
• Why sugary drinks can be especially hard on little mouths
• How added sugar may shift gut health and appetite
• Where added sugar hides in common kid foods
• How to think about treats without labeling foods as “good” or “bad”
• Simple swaps that can lower added sugar without stress
• How to talk with kids about food in a calm, helpful way

Episode highlights:
(1:04) Why added sugar can feel like a tricky parenting topic
(1:36) The weekly donut date question from a parent
(2:42) Added sugar guidelines for babies and toddlers
(4:34) Sugar, cavities, and oral health
(5:58) How added sugar can affect gut health
(7:11) Early sugar habits and possible long-term protection
(8:17) Long-term health risks linked to early sugar patterns
(9:40) Why the full diet matters more than one treat
(14:04) Sugary drinks and hidden added sugar
(15:18) Flavored yogurt as a common source of added sugar
(16:24) Bars, snacks, pouches, and “veggie” labels
(19:21) Honey, maple syrup, and other natural added sugars
(20:31) How to talk to kids about sugar without shame
(21:49) Simple swaps for yogurt, drinks, and snacks
(23:31) How much added sugar older toddlers may be getting
(26:03) Portion size ideas for special treats
(30:22) Talking with school-age kids about sweets and peer foods
(35:00) Why food language matters as much as sugar amount
(36:05) One simple first step for reducing added sugar

NEW COURSE! "Read the Pattern: Feeding Your Baby 0–4 Months" — because a healthy relationship with food starts earlier than most people think. Course Link!

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only, not medical advice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is when you get to have the conversations about how our food is helping us, what it's doing for our bodies, what it's teaching our bodies to do. And those kinds of conversations really steer you away from the all or nothing. This is good for you, this is bad for you, this is toxic. Because that's not the language you want to pass on to your kids. You want to help them understand that sometimes we do these things because it's really fun. And yes, it tastes good, but we have to be careful about taking care of our bodies and make sure that we're also getting all the other stuff that helps us grow and thrive. Welcome back to the Nutrition for the Earliers podcast with me, your host, Dr. Lewis Daniel. I'm a nutrition first kind of pediatrician, and this podcast is for the parent who's second-guessing their grocery cart, worrying if their kid is gonna end up with the same food struggles that they once had. I love getting into the weeds of what kids actually need and then putting it into context of where they're at in growth and development so you can let go of the shame and guilt and focus on what actually moves the needle together. Let's get into it. Welcome back to Nutrition for the Early Years podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Liz Daniels. I'm a nutrition-focused, board-certified pediatrician who's here to bring you guilt-free guidance for feeding your family well. Today I want to talk to you about a special topic that a parent asked me, Hey, can you do a podcast on added sugars? And I thought that was fascinating because I tend to like think this is a little bit of a prickly topic, and one in which we all have different opinions on what's picky. And this one is kind of interesting. Let me start out by telling you that a family asked me to talk about this particular topic because in their household, there was maybe a couple of conversations, maybe heated between her and her husband on what's enough and what's too much. Here's the deal: their son is the first in the family of grandkids, and grandpa wants to take him to a special grandpa date every Saturday morning, which is so fun. The caveat being that it's donuts with grandpa every Saturday. And mom is wondering, okay, at what point is this too much sugar? And she's a really thoughtful parent, and I think this is a fantastic question. And today I'm excited because I want to get into sort of the more nitty-gritty on this. I want to go into the actual recommendations and why we care and really why she was asking is bigger than what she even understood. Because there are very real concerns about added sugars in little kids' diets. And there's also sneaky ways that it's coming in that might surprise you. Because at the end of the day, my recommendation for her was it wasn't about the donut. I'm actually okay with that, knowing everything else that's going on in their household and in their food and lifestyle situations. So there actually is low risk with some of those things. It's really the sneakier ways that the added sugar is coming in our diets that I want to shed light onto today. And I'm not interested in vilifying any particular food. It's really more that I just like to bring it up. So, what are the recommendations? It might surprise you, but under the age of two, zero, zilch, nada, no added sugar is recommended. And I'm going to qualify that by saying what I mean with added sugar. If you look on this on the nutrition label, you'll see under carbohydrates, there's sugar, which is our natural source of sugar, and then there's added sugar, which is by definition was added to the product for sweetness, maybe texture, maybe for preservation on the shelf. It serves a lot of purposes. And sugar is actually a very important component in nutrition and in food manufacturing. So I'm not here to vilify all of that. The point is simply that in little kids, there doesn't seem to be any benefit. So the recommendation is to avoid added sugars until we're two. And then after two, the recommendation is less than 10%, depending on the criteria that you're looking at and the guidelines. Sometimes it's less than 5%. But by and large, you can imagine that in North America, we often get a lot more. So that's the tricky part is what is the long-term risk of this? And why is this a concern? So I think there's a really good movement and attention towards added sugar, but it's not because I'm worried that it's toxic and inflammatory. I actually don't like those words for sugar. Yes, sugar can have some impact on inflammatory pathways when we're talking about biological pathways. But with kids, really what I want to kind of mention here is there are some essential ways that extra added sugar or excess added sugar can influence their health in some concerning ways long term. And as a pediatrician, my opportunity is to be able to care for the family from day one until they're grown and, you know, going on to college. And so I have the long view insight even in the beginning. And I like that the question was asked because it points to what in the long view are we trying to prevent? And one of those actually is the mouth. When kids have extra sugar, added sugar, then one of the biggest things we see actually are lots of cavities. Dental caries or cavities are actually really common. About 25% of kids walk into kindergarten with cavities. And that's not just because they didn't brush necessarily, but sometimes because the sugars themselves can get access to the teeth. And the teeth, when they're really early and then we're really little, are very porous. And so little mouths are especially prone to that. There's other factors that influence this. And some of it is that the oral microbiome is influenced by sugar as well. So I really suggest no added sugars, especially in the form of beverages, because that's a great way for cavities. They love that. The bacteria that make cavities in our mouths especially love sugary drinks, and they'll sit straight on those teeth, and that's an opportunity for them to grow, proliferate, and create decay. The other area this happens actually is in the middle of the night. Like if we're nursing in the middle of the night, or we have a bottle in the middle of the night and we have teeth, especially, and there's no hygiene afterward, right? So your kid wakes up, we nurse all night long, or we, you know, are routinely getting a bottle in the middle of the night, especially after teeth have erupted. That's an opportunity for cavities to develop. And I tend to see this quite often. And when we do see that, the challenge is that sometimes that can actually create decay that ascends up through the gum tissue. So it's not just impacting little mouth, but it's impacting adult mouth too. And these are really important things to consider because our oral health and our oral care actually is very important long term. Now, I mentioned the microbiome, and that's actually where I want to go to next, because when kids have extra added sugar in their diet, we know that it actually can shift their microbiome. If you think of it like a seesaw, just to be very simplistic about it, there are sort of, you know, your good gut health bacteria and your sort of bad gut health bacteria. And we're gonna have all of them, but it's the balance of where they're at. And simple sugars, especially added sugars, really are feeding those bacteria that are deemed unhealthy in the gut microbiome. And the shift here is that that if they're allowed to proliferate and to grow, then it makes it harder for the other ones to grow, right? The really good bacteria. And what do those really good bacteria need? Well, they need things that are long complex carbohydrates in the form of, you know, beans and nuts and seeds, as well as fruits and veggies or um resistant starch and grains. And those are the actual foods that your kid may not be hungry for if they're having a lot of added sugar. So not only is the added sugar changing part of their microbiome, but it's shifting their appetite in such a way that they maybe don't fill up on some of the other stuff. So we want to be really careful and conscientious because it doesn't take a whole lot of added sugar to shift this in a way that can increase risk. Now, the other piece to this, which I find really interesting, is is there on the flip side protection from not having added sugar early on? And fascinatingly, there's a study where they looked at individuals who during the war in Britain in the 50s, they experienced sugar rationing as a result of the war. And so in this particular cohort of individuals, they didn't have access to sugar during the parents' pregnancy and then during the first couple of years of life. And those individuals, it seemed, based on their analysis and studies, actually carried a decreased risk for diabetes by 35%, hypertension by 20%. And then the question becomes is there actual protection that not having added sugar is offering? So not just is sugar concerning, but is there protection from not having sugar, which I think is really fascinating. And I'm sure that more follow-up studies need to be done to really make that claim and understand that better. So we simply put that out there as like that's a really important consideration. The other thing that I think about, and this is a little bit more grim, but the reality is that increased sugar early on in life tends to continue. So if the pattern is set really young, then those tend to be kiddos who continue to get lots of sugar in their diet as they grow and mature. And even by our preteen and teen age, we are seeing a lot higher numbers of metabolic disease like OPC type 2 diabetes, of course, and actually non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is a specific type of liver disease from excess fat accumulation in the liver. And that is simply from too much sugar and carbohydrate. And this is a tricky thing because it's not easy to diagnose right away. Um, and it's actually really tricky to treat too. And so if we can prevent that, if we can do things early on that set our kids up for success, then I know that's your goal. And that's my goal too. So to summarize, there is real risk with extra sugar. Now, how do you balance this, right? Because the reality is that by the time your kid is two, you've already made it through lots of, you know, birthday parties or holiday events. And so your kids had sugar, right? And that's not a crime. But the question becomes really, where are they getting it that we could maybe make changes? Because with the particular family that I was talking to, I wasn't so much worried about the donut date. Before I answered her question, my my curiosity was what else is going on in our diet? And that's where I want to lead us now. The places that kids tend to get added sugar are in areas that can be a little bit sneaky. When we think about extra sugar in kids' diets, it's a twofold conversation. Number one, yes, it's the food, but it's also how we think about the food and the purpose and what it's being used for. Sometimes what I'll hear is a parent say something like, Well, you know, I want to be balanced about it. I know that if we restrict it so much, then they're gonna like crave it every time they see something. And I don't want that. I don't want them to like rebound and then just be addicted to it. And then I'll hear them say also in the same breath, but I also don't know how much is too much. Like a lot of young women I know, the generation before us often experience a diet culture where one minute you're on a new diet and then you switch and go to the next one, and then you fail that diet, and you, you know, have a whole weekend where you eat nothing but chocolate cake. And I kind of jokingly think about the the show Um The Nanny. If you haven't seen it, it has Frange Rusher, who's amazing. But in that particular show, there are lots of scenarios where the kind of it's it exemplifies this, you know, not gonna eat lunch so that I can eat the chocolate cake, or I'm not, you know, those kinds of behaviors where they're very all or nothing and thinking about it. And I think sometimes that kind of thought process still travels down into the realm of um sweets with our kids and sugary foods with our kids because it can be really complicated. And so before you answer the question for yourself, what is moderate? I think the really important thing to ask is, you know, is there something that makes you uncomfortable? Because that threshold of comfort is going to be different for different people. Like personally, I don't like having a lot of sweets in my home because I just it ends up being things that my kids want to eat. And then it becomes a conversation we have to have over and over. So we just ended up, okay, we eventually got to a point where we had it on a schedule of like, this is how often we'll get X thing and we'll enjoy it when it's there and when it's gone, it's gone. And I just didn't buy it again for a long time. And for some families, it's hard because you might be in a household where other people are in the home that are not interested in making those same health conscious decisions. And so um, it can feel really sticky. And I think that's an important consideration. And really, she didn't, this mom, you know, didn't ask me about that. But that's actually underlying part of the question of why did dad not feel comfortable with the donut every week where mom was a little bit more comfortable, but still wanted to seek a middle ground. And those kinds of conversations sometimes aren't easy to have, but I would encourage you to do that. Sometimes that means journaling, sometimes it means being open with your spouse about where your limitations and comforts are with it, because the reason why we feel uncomfortable about it may not necessarily be just a nutritional one, right? It may be emotional as well. And I want to just mention that because especially with sugar, it becomes there's an emotional relationship there for a lot of people. And what I like to draw some attention to and ask questions before I just give everybody permission to have donuts all the time is, you know, if you're noticing patterns or behaviors that worry you about your child. Because interestingly, emotional eating can happen very early for kids, um, you know, and and that association can be uh developed so early and so deeply that it's very difficult to maneuver if you don't recognize it as that. So it's important to have that conversation in that lens before we think about what does really occasional or moderate mean, because moderation is just another name for one more level of restriction when you have to think about it really hard. Like it's really challenging. And that's not easy to navigate. So when I think about occasional situations, instead of just like thinking back, okay, once a week or twice a week and creating a boundary on it, because again, that structure can sometimes feel a little bit more restrictive for families, again, depending on your diet history, but that's the purpose. Like, why are we doing this? Right? Is it because it's it's tied to an occasion or a relationship? And if it becomes so regular that it's uncomfortable for you, then we can think about ways that we can adjust that so that you're still getting that connection without it being centered around food. Um, or maybe it's food in a different way and a different purpose. And so I think that that's really important. You know, like on the flip side, when things become routine and they're always in the home and we're accustomed to having donuts in the home every day, it can be really kind of a different conversation, right? So, where does the added sugar really seem to come in? And in a lot of kids' diets, yes, sugary beverages are the first thing to think about. And interestingly, that seems to be kind of coming down a little bit. I think there's awareness around sugary beverages. And a lot of manufacturers have changed things. Like I think back about the days when I had Kool-Aid or I, you know, there were lots of you go to a sporting event and it's nothing but sugary drinks. And now it's shifted because a lot of those manufacturers are making their low sugar options or their, you know, no sugar added options or things like that. And, you know, at the end of the day, it's still added sugar a lot of the time. So still not a great recommendation. But the calories and the added sugar from beverages is the easiest place to cut back on that, right? I had a family not that long ago who shared with me that, you know, their children really didn't drink juice and they drank milk and water. Um, and when I, you know, asked more about water and asked what was in, and she goes, Oh, that's her water. And I asked what the water was, because it wasn't clear. And she goes, Oh, it's pediolite. And and so in her mind, that was water. Well, that's actually a lot of added sugar. And so it can come in in sneaky ways if you're not thinking about that as a source of added sugar. But our beverages still can be a source of that. Now, the other place that is often a big area is actually yogurt, flavored yogurt for kids. And this is something that in our house is bought too. So I'm not saying that you shouldn't do this or can't do this, but it's important to be aware that that is a very large portion of added sugar in toddler diets. In fact, like one tube of yogurt, like the squeeze yogurts, is the same amount of added sugar as an Oreo cookie. And we reframe it in our head because it's yogurt, so we think it's good for our gut health because that means it's healthy. And in reality, it's just sweetened yogurt and there's a lot of added sugar in that. Not all yogurts have that, but most of the ones that are marketed towards kids really have a fair amount of added sugar to them. And that adds up, especially if that becomes a pretty large portion of what your child is enjoying eating. And it's especially tricky because this is convenient, it's easy, and it's got good protein in it. So naturally, parents think, oh, this is a really good food for my kid. And again, I'm not here to vilify that. I just like to draw attention to that's actually a location that added sugar can be hidden or be like kind of a sneaky way that it's coming in without us even thinking about it in that frame. The other area actually are our convenience foods like our bars, like granola bars or our breakfast bars, cereal bars, those kinds of things. And especially the ones for adults too or bigger kids, because it can add up quickly. And even our beverages that have veggie in there, and I see this a lot in kid products where it'll say vegetable on the on the label, and there can still be added sugar in there because you can get away with calling it vegetable even if it's got a little bit of carrot juice in the bottom of it. But the majority of it is still juice or added sugar. And this is a tricky area because, again, we see vegetables, so we think assume it's going to be really healthy. Um, but if you can just kind of train yourself to see added sugar if you have a little one and think about avoiding those, it's really key. Even applesauce can be an opportunity for this to happen. Again, when we think fruits and veggies, we think healthy food, but it can sneak its way in simply because it's shelf stable that way and um, you know, also changes the texture. So important to understand that that's one of the easiest ways that that comes in their diet. And it's not just in the cookies, right? The other place that I tend to see this, and it's a little bit more nuanced because I'm a huge fan of chocolate milk, simply because number one, yes, it tastes good, but also because it's a really good source of calcium and vitamin D, is to think about what are the other areas of added sugar in the kid's diet. Just last week I actually gave a recommendation for a kid to transition into drinking chocolate milk, but we had, again, a conversation about what else is going on in the diet. And I think that's the takeaway, right? It's like, what else is there? And when you are trying to reduce added sugar in the diet, it's important to consider how much you're getting from those other sources that you maybe weren't realizing had a lot of sugar added to them. And then believe it or not, so fruit pouches can do this too. Sometimes it's actually because of how it's produced or how it's made that it enables that sugar to be added to it. But being conscientious that just because it says vegetable on it or just because it's marketed towards a kid does not mean that it doesn't have added sugars. There are thresholds. And so it's important to consider even even flavored waters often have added sugars to them. You know, in summary, the places where our foods tend to actually get excess sugar that we want to be attentive of are, yes, our fruit-flavored beverages or our um beverages that have some type of sweetening in them. Even if it's small amounts, it can add up pretty quickly. Flavored yogurt is a big one. Cereal bars and our crackers and grains in that way, where they're um trying to add flavoring in them. And then, you know, our um cookies and pastries and puffs that way. So you kind of have to be your own advocate in this way because on the label it can say no added sugar. But then when you actually look at the ingredients, it might actually still have some in there. And you have to be conscientious and knowing that that's what you need to look for, which is of course an added step of fatigue. But the reason this matters is yes, it's because we worry about their the risks that I discussed earlier, but it's also about the protection that not having added sugar offers. So then sometimes families will ask me questions along that same line of like, well, what about natural sugars? What about maple syrup or honey? Aren't those okay? And those, my friends, are still added sugars. And yes, they are natural, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're not still playing a similar effect on our body. Sometimes parents will also say, well, they can burn it off and I can't. So they really can let them enjoy it until they're bigger. And I want to be careful here because sometimes we overestimate their capacity to burn it off and underestimate how much activity we might be getting. We also underestimate how much they need. In a little kiddo, a toddler, they're getting around a thousand calories a day. So only a hundred calories of added sugar is actually enough to push them well past their recommended amount. And so we have to be conscientious of the fact that a single donut is gonna be two and a half weeks worth of that added sugar, depending on how big we are. So as our kids get bigger and they do get a little bit of space for added sugar, how much is okay? How much do we want to be careful with? Well, really, again, the guidelines suggest as little as possible that you can get away with. But it's important to understand that we want to have conversations as our kids get older about the why. So this is when you get to have the conversations about how our food is helping us, what it's doing for our bodies, what it's teaching our bodies to do. And those kinds of conversations really steer you away from the all or nothing. This is good for you, this is bad for you, this is toxic, because that's not the language you want to pass on to your kids. You want to help them understand that sometimes we do these things because it's really fun. And yes, it tastes good, but we have to be careful about taking care of our bodies and make sure that we're also getting all the other stuff that helps us grow and thrive. To kind of summarize and pull it all together, in this particular conversation with this family, which I loved, I really said I think that the donut's probably okay. Now, would it be reasonable to every once in a while think about a donut hole instead of a full donut, or think about having a picnic somewhere, or going to a playground together, or doing something else that isn't necessarily that's bonding, but not necessarily over the same exact thing? Might be really a great opportunity to connect in a new way. And that can happen still with food or not, but the point is more that you're you're drawing attention to it and you're understanding that there are long-term complications. But I loved and appreciated that this question was even brought up. My hope is that this has been encouraging to kind of think through some of the ways that we get sugar in our diet and we maybe don't realize, and ways that we can make simple adjustments because there are simple ways that you can shift that. Okay, so what are some of the swaps that I would do if I was in a situation that needed to make some changes? Trust me, guys, I've been there. Like this is a conversation I have with my own children. So one of my kids really likes. The super sugary yogurt. So what do we do? Well, this is where we actually have a conversation. He's old enough now that we can have conversations about this, but when we were younger, I would just buy it not that often. I'd buy it every once in a while. And in between, we would drink milk and water. So he wasn't getting a lot of yogurt when I knew it was something he loved. And that was the only one he wanted to have because he wouldn't eat my Greek yogurt. Then we just didn't offer it as much. And we shifted to other sources of calcium in our diet. And thinking about fruit juice, it doesn't need to be there. Flavored waters that have sugar components in there doesn't need to be there. If we're talking about infused water where you're literally taking fruit and um, you know, putting it in the water to flavor it, that's fine. Um, I think that the other options really don't seem to benefit babies. Now, other cookies, cereal bars, and grain products, it we want to be careful and thoughtful. I think that's part of the reason we kind of go back to the classic Cheerios option is because really when we look at some of the simple cereals, a lot of them will have added sugars. But if you're conscientious about which one you're getting, you can avoid some of the added sugars now, which I think has that's one benefit that's kind of come along the way in in terms of manufacturing more recently. Some of our baby foods have added sugars in them. And so it's it's important to even look on those and understand if it's, you know, even if it's one gram and it's something that your kid eats a lot of, that can really add up for your little babies because they're not eating a whole lot of the food. And so proportionally, that can put them over the edge of where they need to be. Now, in our older kids, two to three, really we're looking at, you know, that 10% of their discretionary calories. That kind of means like if your toddler from two to three is eating somewhere around 1200 to 1400 calories, which is kind of typical for a lot of kids, or at least that's what they need for growth, may not be what they're getting. They may be eating a lot more than that, or they may be eating a little bit under that, but 10% of that would put them closer to about like 120 to 140 calories a day of sugar. That comes up to about three to four teaspoons of sugar. That's it. Teaspoons, meaning one tablespoon of sugar. That's actually not a whole lot. So less than 25 grams. And again, if we're thinking about yogurt tubes, that's two yogurt tubes. I mean, it doesn't take much to get there. Added sugar cereal, you're there. And when you are layering these conversations on, this can be something that you can actually look at in retrospect on your grocery list. If you're using an app to get groceries or deliver groceries, it's one of the easier ways that I tend to recommend families, especially when you have young kids, is doing grocery pickups. So you're not tempted as you're walking through the aisle to pick out something that your kids are really gonna scream and throw a fit about because they want to see it. They see it on the shelf and they want to get it, right? Like it can be a little bit of that practical combination of how do you you get to control what comes in the home and then they get to control whether or not they're hungry. And if so, how much they want to eat. You're also in charge of the distribution, right? Like you're in charge of where you eat and how you structure those meals. So if you are enjoying that together as a family and you're all trying to make healthy decisions with what you eat, I would encourage you to make these decisions for everybody in the home, not just for your little one. As your kid gets a little bit older, that amount can increase. So our school age kids, we're still recommending no more than really about 25 grams of added sugar a day, but age adjusted because their caloric intake increases, their kind of sealing can increase a little bit to about four to five teaspoons a day. And then as kids get older, actually two to 10, interestingly, the brand new guidelines that just came out about, you know, our new nutrition guidelines in America really say no added sugars at all, which I don't totally disagree with, but I just think it's not very practical given that so many of our foods have added sugars in them. And I think the bigger question is how can we encourage families to get access to fruits and vegetables? How can we support families like this in this kind of conversation to navigate alternatives when they are needing quick foods that are convenient, that are easy to prepare, that are shelf stable, and still avoid those added sugars. So, again, going back to the example in the very beginning of the episode with the toddler whose grandpa wanted to go and do donut dates, it's a reasonable consideration to even just think about the portion size. And so just a quick reminder that the size of their hand or the size of their fist is really kind of about the size of their belly. And so it's reasonable to think about when you're serving ice cream. Do you have to get a big scoop at the ice cream store? Or is it something that you can do and you can curate that experience a little bit more where you get a really special ice cream and you have a special bowl with some special sprinkles, and you can actually make that, you know, at home in a smaller bowl where you can control the portion size so it looks really big. There are certainly cones that have a lot of added sugar in them, and there's some that have a lot less added sugar. So that's one other way that can be really fun where you can make something special and you can reduce the amount of added sugar in something that's a really special treat. Actually, also really cool on the market, there are a lot of new sprinkles that exist on the market now that don't have added sugar in them or that don't even have food dye in them and are brilliant colors and taste wonderful. You can think about things like a ninja creamy, which is really fun. I don't know if you've seen this, but cool fun tip a ninja creamy is a great way to make ice cream at home and you can control what kind of goes in there and make that a healthier option for you too. But the take home here isn't that sugar is terrible, that sugar is toxic, that we shouldn't be eating it. That's really not where I'm going with this. I want to shed light on, you know, what the recommendations are because we don't talk about it very often. And I would say that on average, like most kids get way more exposure to added sugars than they really need. And sometimes it's coming in in the ways that we least expect it. So think about the snacks that you're offering. Think about, you know, the types of yogurts that you have in your home. And one of the areas that this also creeps in is our breakfasts. And so, really, if you think about all of those things together that I mentioned, it's like our sugary drinks, our yogurt, and some of our cereals and grains. Part of the reason that kids love breakfast so much is that it's really tasty. It tends to be sweeter than some of the other meals. Again, that's not to vilify that. That's not to say that that's bad, but are there ways that we can be creative that make that a really fun experience that can also reduce the sugar, reduce the added sugar that's there? The more we practice this ourselves for us as parents, the more that we are able to support our kids in making those healthy decisions. Because we want to do this together. We want to support them and we want to impart to our kids that eating well and taking care of our bodies helps us long term. It helps us feel better, it helps us sleep better, it helps us be the, you know, exciting, energetic, really fast runner that we want to be. And when we can do that together, it feels so much better knowing that you're enjoying it and it's serving a purpose. You have your memories and you get to enjoy making Christmas cookies together, you get to enjoy doing some of these activities together. But the challenge becomes when our baseline diet has so much added sugar in it that all of those occasional treats become so much more. And if we're not noticing if a kid is so accustomed to that in their diet that it's really hard for them to shift or hard to pivot from that, it really is worth looking into deeper. Now, one other thing I like to share is, you know, sometimes families will tell me, gosh, we did all of these things and they really, you know, were great eaters in the beginning. We did veggies first, and we really focused on making sure that veggies were in their diet when they were toddlers, but now that they're bigger and they've gone to school, they just eat so much sugar and they they get the school lunch or they get, you know, they see what their friends are eating and they're just getting so much more sugar now that we're in school. And, you know, that's an area where sometimes it takes a little bit deeper conversation. And in our home, my kids were born, you know, at the time before COVID. And then my youngest was growing up during some of the COVID years. And we had to, based on where we lived, do homeschooling for kind of an extended period of time. And so when we moved, a lot of things changed for us. And our schedule changed, our events and activities changed, who we were around changed, our peers changed, and our school changed. We went from being in a co-ops and where you bring your own lunch to being in a public setting. And when that transition occurred, our kids were suddenly like, oh, I really want Pop Tarts and I really want these things that my friends are eating. And then what do you do there? Or what do you do when your kid goes to a friend's house or they you're co-parenting and they go to another parent's house and you don't have control over those days. Now, in this one, it's kind of tricky to do in the beginning. But as your kid gets older, once you start entering school age, these are the foundational conversations you get to have. And don't be afraid of them. They're really so valuable because the more we can draw on what our body's feeling. So for example, my kid says, I'm really, I really want that Pop Tart, or I really want that that brownie that my kid, this was the thing. My kids loved the little mini muffins. I've never bought them. Like, I don't think that I've ever bought them once. And that's not a statement of pride. It's just that that was something that never entered my home. And anyway, they really wanted to try them. And so we kind of talked about it one day. And the question became well, what was fun about it? Because I wanted to know who was eating it, what they said. I wanted to know more about that scenario, which gave us an opportunity to have a conversation. And then we looked at them. We talked about a little bit of some of the things that were in there. And again, not from the standpoint of you can't have this. This is really bad for you. This is gonna make you fill in the blank. It is an opportunity to compare those products and some other products on the shelf and bring in a little bit of health literacy. And we looked at what does our body need? Sometimes we have food that makes us feel really good and taste really good. If you're feeling really hungry, this might not be something that's gonna make you feel really full afterward, but we can try it and then you can see how your body feels and we can learn from it. And I got to build on that conversation a little bit more. We got to try, experiment, see what, see what happened. And and he realized, you know what? It's okay. I think for him, what he realized is that he really enjoyed what his friend was eating and he wanted that connection with his friend. And in a similar way, sometimes when a kid has a repeated exposure to a certain food in an environment and they really liked that environment, like going to a grandpa date every Saturday, sometimes it's that connection that actually makes the food appealing. And if our kid has a behavior that worries us about the food, we don't need to zero in on the food. We want to ask questions, we want to be curious. And this is totally an opportunity to explore that with your kid. Open-ended questions are wonderful. Questions like, I want to know more about what you were feeling. What about the food that seemed interesting? Was it the smell? Was it the taste? Was it the color? If you can offer a conversation that isn't saying this is good or this is bad, it takes the attraction and the like lure of something that you know you can't have off the table. And you know what? That's part of the challenge for a lot of people who struggle with the all-or-nothing thinking is that it's a food I can't have. It's a forbidden food, so I can't have it. And so I can't have ice cream or a Snicker's bar. And because of that, I like, you know, you dream about it, you think about it. And when our kids get the opportunity to try something, if they really like it, then sometimes it's the opportunity to say, okay, well, how can we make something taste kind of like that in a little better way or a healthier way? And then suddenly you now have a new opportunity to explore that. You have a new way to kind of go down that aisle. And we did that with a ninja, creamy. So in our household, my husband loves ice cream. Um, I'm not as big a fan of ice cream. I have total, I'm a chips and queso kind of girl. And um, so you know, when he we kept seeing ice cream in the shopping cart, you know, he was like, oh, but it's a Friday night with the boys and I really love doing this. And and he does, he totally loves doing that with our boys. But I wasn't worried about that from a growth standpoint, right? My kids are not in a place on the growth curve where I'm worried about their they're and but it's the behavior that I'm actually more interested in. And so it became a conversation between my husband and I where we got to, you know, talk about why he liked ice cream so much. And it turns out he really enjoyed being able to do blockbuster nights with his dad on Friday nights, and they got to stay up really late and have, you know, something really kind of fun. Well, okay. So we can recreate that experience and maybe in a little different way. So for a time period, we were doing pudding instead. For a time period, we were doing yogurt with toppings, and for another time period, we rotated and shifted back over to the store-bought ice cream. You know, I mean, it kind of can rotate. And that's just an example of how you can ask yourself, what is it about the experience that will feel like the connection and the depth that you're really looking for? Because sometimes it's not really about the food. And when we do need to make adjustments because there's habitual behavior or habitually, you know, we are getting so much in our diet and other areas that we really do need to cut back, or there's something in our health that says we need to be really thoughtful about this, then it's important. And then the language that we use around the food is probably, you know, as a human being, I would say maybe even more important than just that volume of sugar that we get, because those narratives are the things that really stick with us and they carry so much weight. And, you know, and I want you to feel totally confident navigating this conversation, knowing that you don't have to get it right from the beginning. You don't have to get it right, even if your kids in school and you're like, man, I wish I'd done it differently when they were younger. That's okay. You know, honestly, I've had parents who are her grandparents listen to this show and they'll tell me that, man, I really enjoy it because I get to, I get to do things differently. I feel so like I just wish I'd done it differently for my for my grown kid. And that is okay. So I want you to know that you are always doing the best you can. So instead of trying to restrict people or make them feel like they need to cut things out, the question becomes how can we shift this to support our health in a better way? And what really are the most important goals for us? What is moderation for us? And what do we feel like are easy things that we can do? And one thing at a time. We're not looking to overhaul everything. So usually when I have a family and we have things to talk about, the one thing I'm offering to them is asking, what is one thing you might be able to shift that's pretty simple? Like, is it easy enough to shift over to just water from PD Light or from an electrolyte solution to just have water in the home? So in closing, I think it's really helpful to have a framework for knowing how much added sugar is really more than we need. And again, in those little bitty ones, not a real benefit. So we don't really need added sugar under two. And then as we get a little bit older, being careful to increase that only incrementally and really trying to make sure that we're thinking about that structure of when we're offering it, how often we're offering it. And if it's something that we can help them manage and scaffold as they get older, it really does help support them in the long run for making those decisions on their own when it's time for them to do so. That's it for today. Thanks so much for listening. See you guys next week.