Twenty years ago, I met a couple with a young son who decided not to let the kid have sugar. I wonder how that might have worked out for the kid now that he’s grown.
I assume the kid hit 18 and went on a sugar binge as soon as he tasted it the first time.
Anyone have experience with this?
We’re all fat and our teeth have been mostly replaced with crowns. And even though we’re in our fifties, our attitude towards sugary food is incredibly unhealthy, because we didn’t learn to eat it in moderation, we learned to take advantage of any opportunity that offered us sugary food.
How dare you call me out like that.
We did no added sugar until our kids were 2. We don’t regulate much anymore but it seems like they still love sweet things but don’t crave it or overindulge like I used to when I was their age. A lot of neural development happens early on
It’s just Puritanism and has all of the drawbacks of an overreaching authority.
Those kids usally binge on sugar once they hit adolescence and are away from thier parents. Great way to create a substance abuse issue. It’s what happens every time you do shit like this.
Prohibition is a method of control that requires a hell of a lot of restrictions to work. And even then it has a high failure rate.
Counterpoint, I see parents giving sodas to toddlers all the time. Reminiscent of that scene in Idiocracy where a parent tries to get their baby to drink Brawndo.
But sugar can cause a slew of problems in kids like childhood obesity, diabetes and
hyperactivitymood swings due to changes in blood sugar levels. The sugar industry has done its best to convince people it’s harmless while packing cheap foods full of it to make it taste better. Countries that consume large amounts of cheap foods like the US have higher obesity rates.Blah blah moderation and all that, but when all you can afford is the cheap shit it’s harder to avoid sugars. Kids finding they might have a sweet tooth when they get older is a tiny concern.
My mom kept the fridge stocked with sodas when I was a kid, mostly because I had friends over often and she wanted them to feel welcome. I usually drank soda because it was convenient; quick, cold, no dishes. Over years I downed thousands of sodas. It didn’t even occur to me that I didn’t even like it that much.
Now I drink so much water. I’ll have a soda a few times a year, but if I’m thirsty water is king. I feel like a kid who got caught smoking forced to smoke a whole pack.
My family growing up went to having 1l of coke for everyone to share on Sundays, when shit was super expensive, to 600ml or more per person per meal over about 10 years when it got cheaper. I got myself to the point that I would go to a friend’s house, and feel thirsty and refuse to drink water, which was the only thing available. That’s when I noticed my family had a problem.
I didn’t quit cold turkey, but when I reached 26 I remember drinking soft drinks less than once per year. Best decision ever. My mum didn’t go over weight not sure how, but developed diabetes. Only then she switched to diet coke, but kept drinking that like I drink water.
Zero calorie soda tastes good, which makes me not trust it at all.
Well that doesn’t sound like a good faith argument.
Dosent to me at all
They didnt even really counter your point, they gave another perspective to form a stronger argument of what your message was already saying
Parents should teach and guide their children moderation, especially for such common and addictive substances like sugar, especially when without moderation serious health and quality of life damages can apply
If a parents goal is to raise healthy humans with a high quality of life - they should be teaching and guiding children into moderation, not prohibition and the shame that goes with it, not hedonism and the shamelessness that goes with that
Its not that sugar is some fearful substance that should be prohobited outright, but its also not a substance without issue and should be moderated and controlled if modersation is not yet possible for such a still-developing human
There are many such substances that need this parental guidance, sugar is just the most obvious one to younh parents - a toddler probably/hopefully isnt hitting a 40 or a roach
They didn’t address my point at all and went for the extreme opposite. As if it was a gotcha.
One of the things that makes me ignore my mastodon account is how quickly people take offence there, even going so far as to try to shut down conversation threads on their posts as though they don’t expect any depth or variant viewpoints. While there are lots of “reply guy” types over there, even the hint of disagreement, perceived or real, is seen as objectionable.
This response is similar.
Removed by mod
Nah man, I just dislike when people do shit like he did thinking they have a point.
Also nice knee jerk reaction.
Edit: in what world is a counterpoint agreement?
This is so frustrating
The commenter was building on top of your argument
You said prohibition wasnt healthy
They said total absence of control wasnt healthy
They implicitly agreed with you that prohibition wasnt healthy
I then spell it out for you that the message being built, that almost certainly you also agree with, is that moderation is the answer.
A counterpoint turns a random point into a line, a line into a polygon, a polygon into a solid, etc.
That counterpoint gave your message an extra and important dimmension. They thought your message was correct but lacking neccisary nuance.
For some reason you got peeved with that, and i think that looks poorly on you, not anyone else.
I’ve seen the opposite be true. Family members that grew up with Candy/Sugar never left it behind and have impulse control issues that led to substance problems.
Those that had very limited sweet stuff, are able to moderate, or don’t enjoy sweets as much, and haven’t had substance issues.
I think the key factor in substance issues tgough is the persons genetic predisposition and trama.
What is trama?
Like trauma but U weren’t involved
Thank god!
I’d be interested to read some real literature on this. Obviously moderation is the best behavioral choice in the context of life and society, while no refined sugar is obviously the best choice for health.
But if you had two groups of kids, one who was given no sugar and one who was given too much sugar, I bet the former group ends up healthier the vast majority of the time.
I think the real issue is simply that excess calories (and sugary foods are highly dense in calories) leads to obesity. And obesity in childhood lends itself to continued obesity through adulthood, thus higher rates of things like diabetes and high blood pressure.
I think the whole argument about sugar itself is a bit of a moot point. It all comes down to whether or not you let your child become obese while you are still under their care.
I grew up in a household with a lot of sugar. I turned out just fine. Two of my siblings struggle a lot with obesity, and one has been overweight since childhood.
Those kids usally binge on sugar once they hit adolescence and are away from thier parents
Was an absolute soda chugging fiend in college, until a root canal brought me down to earth.
Bingo!
Backstory: I’m not strict. I’m not a task master. I don’t helicopter. I don’t spank. I don’t yell. I rarely punish, and they are always meant to build, not tear-down.
My kids got a little candy as a desert after dinner when they were small, no sodas. After 5 or so they were allowed a little candy as desert after dinner and lunch. We always stocked big bulk versions of their favorite candies. They got to choose these bulk candies.
I rationed till 6 and then they were allowed to just grab whatever they wanted after a meal, with the understanding that if they consistently went wild with it then I would go back to the job to help them regain control.
They also understood that if they tore through the candy or snuck candy, that was understandable, but we would have to stop getting the bulk candy because too much candy hurts us and we would do what we needed to ensure we are safe and healthy. If control can’t be gained with it home, it can be gained once a month at the store by simply not buying it. We would still get candy, but far less often, maybe at a stop for gas or whatever.
They were allowed to eat as much as they ever wanted on special occasions, Halloween, parties, last day of school, vacations, etc. They learned early on how unpleasant it was to go too far with this.
Finally, they were allowed any time to say "I think I want a little candy, can I grab a few (candy type)? And I would make a judgement call based on the days intake and other factors. Surprisingly, they very very rarely used this, even though I mostly always agreed.
Other than having to say “ooh that was a bit much, be more careful next time” sometimes early-on, they became completely hands off with candy and always kept it within reason for their size. If they were unsure, they would ask me to look at what they got. If it was to much, they still got it, always with a “that’s ok, next time get less. remember it’s not what we do on occasion that matters much, it’s what we do every day. So let’s make sure we don’t do this every day.”
I anchored all this to measurable metrics they could understand and see, calories. IDGAF what dessert you eat, you get ~100 calories each meal to spend. That’s 6 pieces of gum whenever and however you want them, 6 jolly ranchers, two Oreos, etc.
I essentially mirrored control for them while still letting them have control and a wide choice themselves to exercise within that dynamic.
I knew they would be good when we were at the grocery with my best friend picking up meat for bbq and games all day. When we got to the register he said
“ooh, hey guys get whatever you want” gesturing to the prodigious impulse buy candy display
“We have candy at home”
“But there is so much stuff here. You can get different candy”
“Hmm”Shocked, I chime in “guys, this is a special occasion, you can eat as much of whatever you want. And, (friend) is paying.” Thinking maybe they didn’t realize it was a party day, or they were worried about cost.
“Well, we have what we want at home. So, we’ll just get some there.”
“You can have that too, and get something here. it’s a party.”
“We’re good, but thank you.”He was just, floored. I was beaming. Not because they executed control, they were well into that, but because I knew I had their needs beyond met, and through their lives even when I cease to be able to help them, they would be able to meet their needs better than I ever could.
My oldest is in their 20s. My youngest in their teens. All of them regulate junk of any kind, sugar, media, etc, easily. This is one area I fucking aced as a parent.
A pretty big area to ace :)
Thank you, genuinely.
You have to pick where you spend your resource points. We only get so many. Add to the good stuff you were given, minimize the bad stuff you were given, and pass it on. You’ll never get everything, but that’s ok, the next generation will do this too.
Look 7 generations out, each direction. You’re small, but be a reliable stitch.
My good friend was heavily guilted growing up when they wanted any food their parents deemed unhealthy, especially sweets. Guess what, they developed an eating disorder and nearly died from it.
Orthorexia is real and highly inherited like other eating disorders
My parents were very anti-sugar/processed foods and extremely controlling of our diet, there was a lock on the pantry door and everything (which is how I learned to pick locks 😉). All of us went wild in adulthood. All of us are obese except my sister who runs a half marathon per day. The funny thing is my parents never ate healthy, they would devour desserts at work and hide candy in their bedroom closet. My dad still drinks a gallon of chocolate milk per week
Yeah, that’s usually what bans do for you in the long run. And while the bans are in effect, the policy makers are hoarding all of it to themselves.
There are cultures where sweet foods are less common or less extreme. They eat American sweets and complain that they don’t like it because it tastes too sweet, or they will complain that America sweetens foods that they normally don’t expect to be sweet.
I grew up having constant access to sweets. While I have never been obese, I do struggle with addiction to sweets and it is a constant challenge to try not to overdo it.
Sweet American bread. Ugh.
Don’t talk shit about my Hawaiian Buns.
It’s not that. Hawaiian buns are a product meant to taste sweet. We’re talking store brand wheat bread type breads.
And on that note, sweetened peanut butter is dessert food, not a sandwich filling. Unsweetened is the best.
I’m an American and yeah, bread shouldn’t be this sweet. Aldi has a good whole wheat that isnt sweet though
I got some, but my parents wouldn’t buy me junk food or sugary cereal. I had sweets on special occasions or at other people’s houses.
My sweet consumption is still pretty low, but not zero. I over-indulged a bit in my early twenties but i got over it. I have internalized their lessons and am now teaching my kids the same.
I wasn’t raised without sugar but with very little and with the understanding it’s not food.
When I was given some marshmallows as a kid I wasn’t sure if this edible or Styrofoam type packaging material.
Doing fine today, for a couple years I am not eating candy. No jam no snacks, black coffee, soda in the zero version here and there. Fruit is the only way perhaps I get sugar.
Late 20s I got some tooth issues despite not eating sugar. Not sure how that happens, carbs I guess.
I never missed anything prefer salty spicy foods or umami.
Do you drink a lot of sparkling water. I’ve heard the carbonation is part of what causes tooth decay.
My understanding is that carbonation isn’t a problem, it’s the acidity that you get in colas, even the sugar-free variety, that can damage teeth.
In that carbonic acid is present, sure. Seltzer water is 100 to 1000 times less acidic than typical cola and doesn’t feed the cavity-causing bacteria so it’s a pretty small part of the problem.
Saliva breaks down starch in your mouth to sugar! Spit has the enzyme amylase, so the longer u chew starchy foods the more sugary it becomes before u swallow!
I wasn’t allowed much sugar as a kid and I still have all of my teeth and no fillings at 48. Only repair work is from not wearing a gum shield when kickboxing.
I was allowed sugar, but it was cut way back. For example: my parents would take a box of lucky charms for the appeal, then cut it with a Costco size box of Cheerios. Shitload of Cheerios in a bowl, one sad marshmallow. When I got to college and they had bins of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, etc., I went to town and got hit with what I call the Freshman 40. No diabetes, thank god, but my upbringing’s food control fucked me up and continues to do so.
Freshman 40? It used to be the freshman 15. Inflation is everywhere.
My understanding is that, less than the sugar itself, a big issue with early exposure for children is more the presentation and marketing - sugary food is rarely beige.
The colorful presentations, often with cartoons and rainbows, tends to attract kids, pump dopamine and breed addiction until you need all the junky foods to compulsively feed the monkey. Bad early habits turning into lifelong health issues.
Opposite here. I was born in 1969, so I was a kid in the seventies. My mom was a stay-at-home housewife who packed my school lunches. Often it would consist of a sandwich made of just margarine and sugar on Wonder Bread with the crust cut off (cut diagonally), with either a Jello chocolate pudding or a Ding Dong back when they were wrapped in foil.
I’m four years older than you. I got better lunches than you, but not too much better. Margarine was supposed to be better than butter, so that’s what we got, too. Coffee was thought to be bad, so my mom switched to Postum. She worried that I was eating too many eggs when I learned to make them myself. My mom somewhat tried to be good about food for us. We didn’t get the sugary cereals, we got corn flakes, and rice crispies, but we put sugar on the cereal anyway, and she didn’t stop us. She didn’t keep soda, candy, or other snacks in the house as a rule, that was just for “special occasions”, etc.
What we had was playing outside.
I gave up sugar completely about eight years ago, it was the single best health choice I made.
My parents (80s/90s kid) thought that sugar caused hyperactivity so I was very severely limited on what I could have. Candy for rewards at school was always sugar free and provided by my folks, when I trick or treated I was only given Halloween night to go buck wild and then the remainder was set aside as a one-a-day treat after dinner assuming I was good that day. I think the whole sugar>hyperactivity thing was debunked but they never really changed their tune on it. Once I was able to buy my own food I developed a bit of a sweet tooth, but I ironically am far more dependent on caffeine than sugar in my daily consumption. In my 40s now, not unhealthy or overweight and if I ever get around to improving my diet it will be reducing my alcohol intake.
I have a healthy relationship with sugar following a childhood with limited access because sugary things taste too sweet to me now, as well things like almonds and carrots taste sweet to me.
