We’ve always known too much sugar is bad for kids. But more and more research tells us that too much sugar early in life may be much worse than we thought. A recent study in the journal Science found that exposure to sugar in early childhood can significantly increase the risk of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes in adulthood. The results of this study and others make clear the sweet spot for sugar is well below what many kids currently consume.

While too much sugar is harmful for adults, it seems to be even more problematic at an age when we form our food preferences. “If you were exposed to sweet foods early in life, it’s likely that you’re going to prefer them throughout your life more than someone who was not,” says Tadeja Gracner, a scientist at the University of Southern California, who coauthored the research.

Sugar that naturally occurs in foods like fruit are fine. The sugar that’s added to foods during processing and preparation is the problem. The average child in the U.S. consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day (almost 300 calories). This is well above the 10 percent of added calories in sugars recommended by dietary officials for children over age two. Ten percent is roughly 100 to 200 calories, depending on the age of the child. Children under two should eat no added sugar.

Lowering sugar consumption in kids is challenging in a society where sugar is rampant—and not just at the checkout line. It’s in breakfast cereals, processed foods and snacks, and even in baby foods. It’s not like you should never give your kids a treat, but reducing added sugar may be one of the most important things you can do to impact their long-term health.

Sugar Rationing in World War II

In January 1940, the British government began rationing certain foods, including sugar. Adults were limited to roughly 40 grams of sugar per day. After rationing ended in September 1953, people began consuming roughly twice the amount of sugar they ate during the rationing period.

Tadeja Gracner and her colleagues at USC wanted to understand how sugar rationing may have affected children. They compared children born just before the end of the rationing with those conceived or born soon after. Since sugar consumption doubled soon after rationing ended, they could confidently assume the latter group was fed a lot more sugar in their first few years.

They used an extensive U.K. government health database to track the health of 60,000 of these kids decades later. Those exposed to the rationed amount had a 35% lower risk of diabetes and a 20% lower risk of hypertension than those who were born when sugar consumption was unrestricted.

These results confirmed what a study published by The New England Journal of Medicine confirmed in 2008: what happens nutritionally in the womb and early in life sets the stage for later health or disease.

Sugar Harms Kids While They Are Still Kids

Excessive sugar consumption also affects kids while they are still kids. Sugary foods are dense in calories, which contributes to the fact that one in five children in the U.S. are obese. Even worse—13% of kids ages two to five are obese.

Too much added sugar is also linked to the increased rate of type 2 diabetes in kids. This disease that has always been referred to as “adult-onset diabetes” now affects nearly 50,000 children.

A study published in May 2024 found that an eight ounce serving of a sugary beverage (including 100 percent fruit juices) is associated with a 34% increase in insulin resistance in boys and a slightly lower increase in girls. The same study found that eating whole fruits had no effect on insulin resistance.

A study published in the journal Obesity found that high insulin levels in children with obesity dropped just nine days after reducing their sugar intake to 10% of total calories. Those same kids saw their liver fat significantly decrease after the reduction in sugar consumption. That’s important because fat can impede liver function and lead to cancer and other diseases.

Sugar is also now associated with girls getting their first periods earlier than normal.

Small Amounts of Sugar Can Cause Big Problems

When young adults consumed various amounts of sugar-sweetened beverages over two weeks, those getting 25% of their daily calories from added sugar saw the most increases in liver fat and blood cholesterol levels; but problems also appeared in people consuming just 10%.

High fructose corn syrup seems to cause the most problems for the liver. We have an enzyme that limits the amount of glucose that can be sent to the liver from the intestines at one time. There’s no corresponding enzyme for fructose. So, when we drink beverages sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (most of them are) a significant amount of the fructose ends up getting stored in the liver as fat.

Become A Sugar Detective

You pretty much need to be a Sherlock Holmes to find sugar in today’s processed foods. Reading labels is helpful, but you have to realize that food manufactures are sneaky. They hide sugar by giving it unusual names on ingredients lists: maltose, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, and even natural fruit concentrate are all code names for sugar. In fact, food manufacturers now have over  56 different names for sugar.

Why? Sugar makes any food irresistible and highly addictive. If they can put sugar on the label, and you don’t know it’s sugar, you’ll be more likely to buy, eat, and become addicted to the food. And so will your kids.

Become familiar with at least 30 of the most common names for sugar. If any of those names are one of the first three ingredients in the food, don’t eat it. Ingredients are listed on food labels in order of volume.

Also, if any food contains more than one type of sugar, don’t eat it. Food manufacturers will hide the amount of sugar in a food by using three or four different types of sugar that appear further down the ingredients list.

Stick With Real Foods

At the end of the day, your best bet is to eat as many real whole foods as possible. And more importantly, make sure your kids and/or grandkids eat as many real whole foods as possible.

In one of the studies mentioned above, eating whole fruits had no effect on insulin resistance. We also know that eating fruits and vegetables leads to a reduction of sugar intake for children who are at risk for childhood obesity.

Following the guidelines in our Simple 9^© nutritional program will put anyone on the path of less sugar.

Stay Strong,

Bo Railey