Sugar, the main enemy of children's health
The intake of foods and beverages rich in free sugars harms the health of the little ones and increases the risk of overweight at these early ages. A WHO report estimated the number of children under five years of overweight or obese in the world at 42 million in 2015. Parental awareness of this issue is essential to provide children with food that is appealing to them and, same time, healthy.
With the mind set on April 7, the date on which the World Health Day, the role played by the dietary habits of the youngest ones in their health and wellbeing both present and future becomes more relevant. In this sense, childhood obesity is positioned as one of the main dangers for children today. And precisely in Spain this problem is especially worrisome because, according to the ALADINO 2015 Study (presented in November 2016), the excess weight in our country affects 41.3% of children between 6 and 9 years of age.
Food and drinks rich in sugars
The intake of foods and beverages rich in free sugars is one of the main prejudices for children's health, since the smallest tend to be large consumers of sugary products without any notion of the consequences they may have for them. Precisely sugar is one of the substances that contributes the most to the overweight of children. This issue becomes more serious when you deepen the report "Fiscal policies for Diet and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) "carried out by the WHO and in which it is estimated that, in 2015, 42 million children under five were overweight or obese around the world and that, in just 15 years, this figure has increased by almost 11 million.
In view of this situation, the WHO recommends reducing the intake of free sugars to less than 10% of the total caloric intake. To give a solution to this conflict between the tasty and healthy, in recent years have been released to the market numerous foods that behind a nice appearance or even fun for children, hide properties that are not harmful to your health. "We can not forget the generalized taste of children for sweet and sugary foods, analyzing the scenario of children's health, we decided to create a product with the same taste as traditional sweets but without sugar or fat," says Juan Perteguer, one of the the founding partners of Yummeat, a pioneer in our country for marketing these candies 0%.
Sugar and tooth decay
We must not forget that there is also a positive association between the level of intake of free sugars and dental caries, one of the main reasons for the constant visits of minors to dentists to take care of their dental health. Different scientific tests suggest higher rates of dental caries when the level of sugar intake is higher than 10% of the total caloric intake compared to what happens when it is lower. Sugar-free products are excellent formulas against tooth decay and against the feared childhood obesity. In addition, in the case of Yummeat, there is a wide variety of sweets without sugar to offer to the little ones.
With all these data, Health Day seeks to claim health as a right of every human being and not a privilege for the lucky ones, as well as to mobilize people from all over the world about the need to follow healthy habits of food and lifestyle. .
Alfonso López
