Beat Sugar Addiction Now!

for Kids The Cutting Edge

Program That Gets Kids Off Sugar Safely, Easily, and Without
Fights and Drama

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3 Step 2: Revamp Breakfast
Start your children off the right way to avoid sugar highs and lows

Parent Pull-Out Sheets:

Revamp Breakfast Goal Sheet
Build Your Breakfast
Sugar Disorder Checklist
Breakfast Spy Facts

4 Step 3: Limit Sweets to One per Day and Enjoy Healthy Snacks
How too many discretionary calories and food-based rewards set your
child up for a lifelong sugar addiction

Parent Pull-Out Sheets:

Daily Snack Tracking Tool
How to Create a Healthy Snack
Fruit Checklist

5 Step 4: Make Over Dessert

Set rules and consequences and create healthy, tasty alternatives

Parent Pull-Out Sheets:

Make Over Dessert Goal Sheet
Healthy Dessert Options

6 Step 5: Find and Replace Hidden Sugars

Get rid of sneaky sugar and teach your children to do the same

Parent Pull-Out Sheets:

Points Calendar for Tracking Hidden Sugars
Ten-Point Healthy Foods Buying Pocket Guide
Conclusion: Where Do You Go from Here?
Tips to continue following a low-sugar diet every day

Parent Pull-Out Sheets:

Sugar Maintenance Pledge
Total Points Calculation for BSAN for Kids Program

Resources
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Index
Introduction
Does your children’s day with food look something like this: juice
and cereal, a doughnut or a toaster cake for breakfast; chocolate milk, a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a granola bar for lunch; soda or a
juice box with cookies after school; and white pasta with spaghetti
sauce, no vegetables, and dessert for dinner? If so, they most likely are
addicted to sugar or, at the very least, strongly prefer sweet-tasting
processed items to such a degree that they eat small amounts, if any, of
the whole grains, vegetables, and protein they need to grow up healthy
and strong.
Some of you know for sure that your child is addicted to sugar;
some of you may think that your child has an issue with eating too
much sugar but are not sure whether you would call him or her an
addict. This book applies to either situation, especially if any of the
following are true for your child.

• Your child drinks more than one sweet beverage a day (including
juice, soda, flavored milk, sports and energy drinks, flavored water,
sweetened teas or coffee) Or
• Your child’s breakfast usually centers on something sweet, such as
sugar-sweetened cereal, a doughnut, a toaster cake, a breakfast bar,
pancakes, or waffles Or
• Your child eats more than one or two sweet treats a day (candy,
cookies, pies, yogurt sticks, fruit roll-ups or gummy fruit, cake,
cupcakes, or frozen desserts like ice cream) Or
• Your child eats little for dinner (and may eat few to no vegetables)
but always has room for a sweet dessert Or
• Your child has trouble stopping at one serving of a sweet food and
screams for more Or
 • Your child’s mood seems to be determined by diet; he or she gets full
of energy after a sweet treat and crashes an hour or two later

You have picked up this book because you have a child who consumes
lots of items high in sugar. The good news is that by following the steps in
this book, you will be able to reverse his or her preference for highly
sweetened foods.
Are you ready now to start your children on a five-step journey toward
turning their sugar addiction around? We hope so. We have, between us
seven, children and more than fifty years of experience in dealing with
children and their diets.
We developed this step-by-step program with these essential elements:

1. Easy to follow. Your child focuses on making just one change at a time
until he or she reaches the goal. You can follow the steps in the order they
are presented or jump to whichever step you determine is most important.
2. Easy on your child. We take it slowly to lessen and limit the negative
side effects on your child that often occur when reducing sugar intake. It
took your child a long time to develop these unhealthy eating habits, and we
allow for as much time as is necessary to turn them around.
3. Easier for you. We give you enough information, tools, and practical
advice to make sure that your child follows the program. At the end of the
day, getting your child on board is essential for turning around his or her
sugar addiction.
Convincing Your Child
What is the harm in giving your children a couple of cookies every day?
None. We are not here to completely eliminate sweets from your children’s
diet; rather, we invite you to limit the amount of added sugar they consume
in a day. In most cases, that cookie is not the only source of added sugar in
a typical day. They most likely start off with a sugar-laden breakfast, drink
chocolate milk, juice boxes, or soda throughout the day, grab a granola bar
or fruit gummies as a snack, and eat dessert after dinner.
These added sugar sources add up to increased risks of your child
becoming overweight or obese and developing diabetes, heart disease,
certain cancers, and behavioral and learning disorders. In addition, they
may get more cavities, build softer bones, which may lead to osteoporosis
and fractures, and develop a weakened immune system. The hard truth is
that allowing your children to eat an unhealthy diet with lots of added sugar
means they may not reach their full potential for growth and intelligence or
develop a strong immune system. Those are high stakes!
Sometimes, it helps to put these potential consequences in terms that are
more real to children who normally (and healthfully) feel immortal.
Examples include:

• Research has shown that a low-sugar, high-protein diet cut acne by half
after 12 weeks. The good news? Chocolate did not worsen the acne.
• A high intake of sugar was associated with a dramatic increase in bone
fractures in children.
• High sugar intake results in nutritional deficiencies that not only leave
children less able to compete in sports or school, but also may cause a
delay in sexual maturation during puberty.
Twenty-Three Spoonfuls of Sugar a Day
Our kids consume 28 percent more sugar than they did only sixteen years
ago, and this rate is rising. In the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, based on data from 2003 and
2004, American children averaged about 23 teaspoons (92 g) of sugar a day,
or 175 cups (35 kg) a year! Twenty-three teaspoons (92 g) of added sugar a
day equals about 78 pounds (35 kg) a year, which is equal to the average
weight of a nine-year-old girl. Many younger children consume their
weight, or more, in added sugar every year!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture advises limiting the amount

of added sugar to no more than 8 teaspoons (32 g) a day in a
2,000-calorie diet. Our kids are getting double to almost triple
that amount.

To put it in perspective, the USDA advises limiting the amount of added

sugar and total fat calories to no more than 260 calories a day, which would
translate to about 8 teaspoons (32 g) a day of added sugar in a 2,000-calorie
diet, with half the remaining calories being reserved for solid fats. Our kids
are getting double to almost triple that amount—and this is a conservative
estimate. Data suggests that children are not the only ones consuming too
much sugar. The average adult consumes 140 to 150 pounds (64 to 68 kg)
of sugar added to their diet each year from processed food and beverages.
To determine your child’s average daily consumption of added sugar, go
to the “sugar calculator” on www.BuildHealthyKids.com. Here, you can
input the amount of food and beverages your child commonly consumes
and get a readout of how much that equals over a year’s time. We have also
provided a sugar tracking sheet at the end of chapter 1.

Average Added Sugar Intake in Kids’ Diets During 2003–2004

 Age Added sugar Added sugar per Added sugar per
Kcal/per day year year

2 to 3 years 197 94 cups (19 kg) 42 lbs (19 kg)

4 to 8 years 329 156 cups (31 kg) 69 lbs (31 kg)

9 to 13 years 381 181 cups (36 kg) 80 lbs (36 kg)

14 to 18 years 444 211 cups (42 kg) 94 lbs (42 kg)

Source: National Cancer Institute

The 23 teaspoons (92 g) a day of added sugar does not include sugar in
its natural form, like that found in fruit, grains, or milk products. It includes
white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, raw sugar, malt
syrup, maple syrup, pancake syrup, fructose sweetener, liquid fructose,
honey, molasses, anhydrous dextrose, high-fructose corn syrup (which
manufacturers may change to “corn syrup” because it has received such a
bad rap), and crystal dextrose.
Where are our kids getting most of these sugars from? The answer is
found in the following table. The top three sources of added sugar in our
children’s diets are soda, fruit drinks, and grain-based desserts (cake,
cookies, pie, cobbler, sweet rolls, pastries, and doughnuts).

Sources of Added Sugar in the Diets of American Children and

Adolescents, 2003–2004

Rank Food item Percent contribution

1 Soda, energy and sports drinks 31.8 percent

2 Fruit drinks 15.0 percent

3 Grain-based desserts 10.9 percent

4 Dairy desserts 7.9 percent

5 Candy 6.8 percent

6 Ready-to-eat cereal 6.4 percent

 7 Syrups/toppings 2.8 percent

8 Tea 2.1 percent

9 Yeast breads 1.9 percent

10 Whole milk 1.7 percent

Source: National Cancer Institute
Negative Effects Associated with Eating a Diet
High in Sugar
Studies have shown that children who eat a diet high in sugar are more
at risk for the following:

• Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and other learning and

behavioral disorders
• Anxiety and depression
• Bone fractures
• Cavities
• Candida (yeast)
• Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia
• Chronic sinusitis and ear infections
• Decreased immune function, and increased susceptability to
infections and serious diseases like cancer
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Irritable bowel syndrome and spastic colon (which accounts for 50
percent of abdominal pains)
• Metabolic syndrome
The Roller-Coaster Ride of Sugar and Insulin
If you wonder how sugar can affect so many aspects of health, let us
explain. When children eat sugar, their blood sugar level rises. How much
depends on what type of sugar they ate and what else they ate with the
sugar. For example, eating a piece of fruit that has fiber in it will cause less
of a rise in blood sugar than ingesting a lollipop, juice, or soda, which is
just straight sugar. Also, if your child eats protein or fat along with sugar,
her blood sugar level will not rise as quickly or as high compared to if she
ate sugar alone.
As blood sugar levels rise, your child’s pancreas releases insulin, which
is the key that lets sugar into the cells so that it can provide energy. If there
is no insulin or just not enough insulin around (called insulin resistance or
in type 1 diabetes) or the insulin stopped letting the sugar into the cells (as
in type 2 diabetes), your child’s blood sugar level rises beyond the normal
range, and this is when a lot of damage can happen. The body tightly
regulates blood sugar levels because extra sugar in the blood can damage
the kidneys, eyes, blood vessels, and just about everything else. It is not
healthy to have a level of sugar in the blood that is either too low
(hypoglycemia) or too high (diabetes).
Several factors increase your child’s chances of developing type 2
diabetes: being overweight and not exercising are the top two, but having an
unhealthy eating pattern that includes too much fat and/or sugar also puts
your child at risk. Beverages and foods with a lot of added sugar constantly
require your child’s pancreas to pump out insulin. Over time, the pancreas
can become exhausted and not do a good job releasing enough insulin that
the cells need, or the cells themselves can become resistant to letting the
sugar in, which is what you see with obesity. Are our kids eating the amount
of sugar that will cause their pancreas to say “enough” or will make them
gain so much weight that their cells become resistant? You bet. Type 2
diabetes is on the rise. Children born today have a one in three chance of
developing diabetes in their lifetime, and this goes up to a one in two
chance if they are African American or Hispanic. The result of insulin
resistance is far reaching. In individuals who have insulin resistance, sugar
raises their levels of triglycerides, which can lead to heart disease.
 Sugar can drive your child’s immune system into both underfunction
and overdrive, with neither working to your child’s advantage. Research has
shown that the function of white blood cells, called macrophages, which
patrol the body to prevent outside invasion, is decreased by more than 30
percent for three hours after consuming the amount of sugar in a can of
soda. Meanwhile, other parts of the immune system that regulate
inflammation are put into overdrive, increasing the risk of autoimmune
conditions. This can occur from exhausting the immune-modulating adrenal
hormones as well as from immune deficiencies (especially of inflammation-
calming omega-3 oils) caused by sugar’s empty calories.
When children eat and drink so much sugar in lieu of eating a well-
balanced diet, they don’t get enough of the nutrients they need for optimal
health and growth, such as fiber, vitamins A, C, and E, and folate,
magnesium, and calcium. Children replace milk, the number one source of
calcium in their diet, with soft drinks. Because of this, their intake of the
calcium needed to build bones is insufficient, which can lead to softer bone
development and result in fractures and osteoporosis. It is also likely that
the minerals in their bones are lost to buffer the high acidity in sodas, which
also leads to softer bones.
Sugar can cause behavioral havoc, with both immediate and long-term
consequences. For example, most parents are familiar with the effects of
rapid shifts in blood sugar that occur after eating a lot of sugar: kids initially
run on overdrive for a few hours, then become irritable, and finally, drop
into couch potato mode. These behaviors correspond to an initial spike in
sugar (the high), followed by irritability as the body senses blood sugar
dropping, and then fatigue when the blood sugar is low.

Low blood sugar triggers the same signals as suffocation: a

heavy adrenaline release followed by irritability and sugar-
craving behavior.

This doesn’t occur with whole foods because the body absorbs sugars in
these foods over two to three hours, causing a mild rise in blood sugar. The
body is designed to read that rise in sugar and put out just enough insulin to
carry the sugar from the blood into your cells. It presumes that the sugar
will continue to be coming into the blood over three hours as the food
digests.
With processed sugars, however, it all gets absorbed into the
bloodstream in minutes. The body sees this sugar spike and presumes you
ate a massive amount, so it pours out insulin, enough for its usual two to
three hours. An hour later, the sugar is gone but the insulin is still pouring
out, driving blood sugar way down. The low blood sugar triggers the same
signals as suffocation: a heavy adrenaline release followed by irritability
and sugar-craving behavior. If your child then eats more sugar, the pattern
repeats, sending him or her on an emotional sugar roller-coaster ride. If not,
your child’s energy crashes.
The long-term problems can be even more severe: nutritional
deficiencies, and the social impact of the short-term behavioral problems,
catch up with the child. A new study suggests that a high sugar intake poses
a danger not only to the child but also to others around him. Specifically, in
a large survey of Boston high school students, those who drank more soda
(five or more cans per week) were markedly more likely to act violently
toward peers, siblings, and people they were dating. They were also much
more likely to carry weapons.
A frightening thought? Drinking soda, even one can a day, was as likely
to be associated with student violence as underage drinking and smoking.
And the more soda the children drank, the more violent they became. This
suggests that even moderate cutbacks in soda intake can make a big
difference.
Developing a Taste for Processed Food
We have never seen a child eat too much fruit, vegetables, or whole grains
in our practices, but we have seen many who consume a lot of juice, soda,
candy, doughnuts, cookies, and other highly processed items. You have
probably observed the same with your children.
Did you ever wonder why that is? Most likely this preference for
processed foods started when food became engineered in a laboratory
instead of baked in a kitchen or picked in a field. Once food became highly
processed and food scientists entered the picture, food went from, to put it
simply, a food to a drug for some. Scientists refer to these highly processed
foods as hyperpalatable—they taste super yummy. They are sweeter, saltier,
and fattier than most foods found in nature, so they fool your taste buds.
Foods found in nature can’t compete with processed foods for the same
taste satisfaction.
When children start to eat solid food, they love fruits and vegetables,
legumes, and the straight-from-nature foods. It is only when they are
exposed to these highly sweet, savory, and salty tastes that they develop a
preference for foods and beverages high in these tastes. This preference for
artificially sweet-tasting food is learned, which is a good thing, because it
means it can be unlearned.

No one is immune to becoming addicted to sugar because we are

all born preferring a sweet taste, which has been shown to soothe
us even in infancy.

Imagine that babies’ tongues are blank canvases that will be painted on
with different tastes from the foods they are given as they age. What you
feed them over and over again is what they learn to like: give them
vegetables and they will learn to like vegetables; allow them to eat lots of
sugary food and they will prefer sweet items. This also applies to older
children and adults. If you eat a diet high in sugar, you get used to that
super-sweet taste and, therefore, “need” a high sugar taste to be satisfied.
Once you reduce your intake of sugar, your taste buds will reacclimate to a
preference for a natural (less) sweet taste.
Research is finally supporting what many nutritionists and
psychologists have known for years: food can be addictive, especially
sweet-tasting foods and drinks. Twenty-eight scientific studies and papers
on food addiction were published in the first ten months of 2011 alone.
“The data is so overwhelming, the field has to accept it,” said Nora
Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “We are finding
tremendous overlap between drugs in the brain and food in the brain.”
There are many similarities between hyperpalatable foods (which
include foods high in sugar) and addictive drugs on eating behavior and the
brain’s response to sweets. Studies that looked at the brain found similar
responses in certain areas between those addicted to food and those
addicted to drugs and alcohol. There are also many studies in the animal
literature supporting the addictive quality of sugar.
Who is susceptible to this addiction? Those with a family history of
addiction are susceptible, but no one is immune to becoming addicted to
sugar because we are all born preferring a sweet taste, which has been
shown to soothe us even in infancy. Even if your family history does not
include addiction, your children can still develop a problem with sugar.
Whether or not they can be technically classified as having an addiction is
not really the issue. If your children’s diet consists of so much added sugar
that they are not eating the healthy nutrients they need to grow up big and
strong, then their sugar intake is a problem.
The creation of these hyperpalatable foods have made it extremely
difficult for parents to put limits on their children’s intake of sugar. Before
the industrial revolution, we would have cake when mom took the time to
bake it herself. If it wasn’t there, we didn’t have hundreds of other items to
choose from at the store, or our friend’s house, or in school. Nowadays,
even if we take the time to prepare a great healthy meal for our children,
they often refuse to eat it because they prefer the taste of processed items
instead. Most of us have heard the excuse “I’m full” at the dinner table only
to hear screams of hunger for dessert, crackers, chips, or ice cream minutes
later.
If you follow the advice of your child’s pediatrician and most dieticians,
you are told not to insist, push, or even encourage your children to eat. You
are told that any interference from you will have negative consequences and
that it is your job to decide where your children will eat and what to feed
them, and it is your children’s job to decide whether they want to eat and
how much they want to eat. That sounds like good advice, but in the real
world it has disempowered a generation or two of parents, who are told to
back off at the kitchen table.

If we, as parents, cannot encourage or enforce rules at the dinner

table, then we have lost the battle before it has even started, and
our kids will pay the price with their health.

Kids learn to play this system of what and where/whether and how much
with ease and often refuse to eat what is in front of them and insist on only
eating what they want to eat later on. Most times what they want are not the
healthy vegetables and whole grains but processed white flour and added-
sugar items. This advice gives children’s taste buds free rein, leading them
down a path where a large chunk of their diet comes from white processed
foods high in sugar, with the majority not meeting their daily requirements
for vegetables, fiber, and calcium.
Eating is a behavior that we teach our children like any other—healthy
sleep habits, getting along with others, good hygiene. How many of our
kids would voluntarily put themselves to bed because we told them to once
and then backed off? If we were not permitted to enforce or encourage them
to get to bed on time, not many would. The same holds true for eating. If we
as parents cannot encourage or enforce rules at the dinner table, then we
have lost the battle before it has even started, and our kids will pay the price
with their health.
It doesn’t need to be a power struggle, though. Rights naturally come
with responsibilities. Certain privileges (the amount of their allowance,
being able to go to a movie or a friend’s house, getting to stay up sometimes
for “special nights,” getting a special toy or even a cell phone or phone
minutes) come with certain actions (such as getting good grades, eating
healthfully, and so on).
We are giving you permission to set rules and consequences at the
dinner table. We are asking you to use methods that are tried and true over
the eons for most behaviors that we want to encourage in our children. Take
back your power. It is time to teach this generation of children how to
follow a healthy diet. You will receive tips and tools throughout the five
steps in this book to help you do just that. Encouragement, setting rules,
enforcing consequences, and especially out-and-out bribery are all allowed.
Let’s begin!