Educating tastes and moderation in sweet and salty consumption
For a balanced diet, it is important to teach our children the pleasure of a Sweet or salty taste, enjoyed in moderation.
We have been producing sweets for almost two decades. We know it’s tempting for parents to reward children’s behavior with sweets, and we’re very happy when we see children choosing Tecsa sweets from the shelves.
Cât de mult zahăr este în regulă?
Doctors’ recommendations suggest giving children between 2 and 18 years of age less than 25 grams (6 teaspoons) of sugar per day. This value includes both sugar-sweetened beverages and sweets. Children younger than 2 should not try sugar at all. Early life consumption of products with added sugar leads to obesity, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. And these problems put children and young adults at risk for heart disease. Excessive consumption of desserts made from ingredients such as eggs, butter, milk, cream, flour and sugar syrup can lead over time to raising the level of harmful cholesterol in the blood, an alarming risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.
The World Health Organization informs that sugar intake should provide only 10% of energy intake, regardless of age. Experts claim that the body recognizes it and can process it and use it. Instead, refined and extra-refined commercial sugar is transformed by the body into fat, which is then deposited on certain tissues.
Choosing sweets as a dietary preference does not allow children to enjoy a healthy intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products. Our advice to parents is to read food labels, and where sugar appears do the math – every 4 grams of sugar equals a teaspoon.
The most problematic sugars are in processed foods, sports drinks, carbonated drinks, desserts and fruit juices, and these sugars have no nutritional value. We are obliged, as manufacturers, to clearly mention added sugars on food labels, including their substitutes – fructose, fruit flavors, etc.
We recommend that parents offer children healthy choices at every meal and let them choose what their bodies tell them they need. It may be meat or vegetables for breakfast in the morning rather than lunch or dinner – and that’s okay. Their bodies can self-regulate when they need proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
When you’re hungry, everything tastes good
Both children and adults are programmed to be guided by their own hunger and satiety cues to regulate their food intake.
Sweet snacks can have a place in children’s diets, but they shouldn’t be every day.
Parents should know that sweets can be offered strictly as a periodic treat, in reasonable portions, for special occasions or holidays. Children cannot choose a balanced diet on their own because they do not have all the necessary information, and the tastes of sweets condition them to eat more and more, even after they have reached the threshold of satiety.
We’re here to help educate little ones’ tastes in the virtues of moderation to enjoy sublime tastes in the healthiest of ways.
