AIBU to bag up cereal with pre-portioned sugar to stop the kids wasting it?

[TheOnlyColditz]

I mean a sandwich bag of cereal with another little bag of sugar inside? Currently I'm scraping glued on cereal and sugar off the bottoms of bowls every day! Kids are 7, 10 and 14

[welovepancakes]

I would measure out enough cereal / sugar for a week & leave them to control their own portion size, so that they take some responsibility

Measuring out tiny portions sounds a lot of work. Buying sachets is expensive.

[PollyPerky]

Ok here is a RL example.

My mum was diagnosed with pre-diabetes a couple of years ago in her 80s. She weighs about 8.5st . Her friend who weighed less than that was blue-lighted to A&E not long ago and was found to have an off the scale blood sugar level- severe diabetes.

Both Type 2 and pre type 2.

Clearly, old age has a bearing because the pancreas becomes less efficient. But my mum was told to cut right back on sugar- not that she ate much anyway - the occasional piece of cake and a biscuit. Her friend is on insulin injections daily now.

My mum's blood sugar is now normal and was sorted with diet and taking more exercise.

Some people are diabetic by being overweight, mainly if their diet is full of refined carbs. Some people become diabetic when they are not overweight.

[HellonHeels]

I looked at the NHS website for diabetes info. It doesn't really mention sugar at all!

It does list the major risk factors which include being overweight, not exercising, exceeding certain waist measurements. And it notes that some populations are genetically more inclined to develop t2 diabetes. Interesting reading.

[motherinferior]

Yes, we should all be cutting our sugar intake because of the link to obesity. Not because the sugar itself courses around the bloodstream causing diabetes of its own accord.

Nobody is saying sugar is madly good for you. Plenty of us are saying that (a) it is not the Worst Possible Thing On The Planet - given a choice between Trump and a bag of granulated I'll take my tooth-rotting chances any day (b) the diabetes issue is more complicated (c) sweet stuff tastes nice, and we like the odd piece of cake.

[Batteriesallgone]

Well when I was at uni I was told glucose is the primary energy source for the brain. But apparently it's the work of the devil! You learn something new every day.

[Fanciedachange17]

Took a look at the diabetes.org site as recommended above;

Here is an extract.

How much sugar should I be eating?
We all should be cutting our sugar intake by half to around 25g a day – which works out at just five teaspoons a day. Given that a tablespoon of ketchup contains around one teaspoon of sugar, a chocolate biscuit has up to two, and a small serving of baked beans almost three – you can see how quickly the teaspoons tot up.

[Idefix]

I think the food wasting has been comprehensively covered over the last 19 pages Daisy and it really isn't going cause an ED helping children to recognise healthy portion sizes.

The thing with the media and the myths that get perpetuated by many on mn is that it fits their agenda. Nobody wanted to be told that fat was bad and recommendations were, we shouldn't eat so much, especially animal fat.

One study later showing the links were perhaps less clear on the negative effect of fat intake on long term health and you suddenly get loads of people insisting that it is alright to eat a high level of fat. The actual advice has not changed about fat in take, it is like all foods about moderation.

[Champagneformyrealfriends]

Just RTFT. Very entertaining

Yanbu op - stick it in sandwich bags. I do agree the sachets seem expensive though.

[daisypond]

OP is concerned about how to stop the DC wasting food, not how much sugar they have

[motherinferior]

Booboostwo, quite.

Every time I've interviewed a diabetes specialist they've said the same.

[pigeondujour]

Someone earlier in the thread said "At 14 my DB used to have 14 weetabix microwed with milk. Now aged 45 he is not and never has been the slightest bit overweight."

I'm not bloody surprised 😳 hahaha

[Booboostwo]

Hope you feel better soon Idefix!

Sarah I hope you do have some time to look for the peer reviewed publications as the story you relate is exactly the one that is making the rounds of media outlets but has not been supported by medical studies. All major organisations, like diabetes.org, have now updated their websites to state quite clearly that there is no direct link between sugar consumption and type 2 diabetes. Never the less the myth persists, perhaps because it ties into the diet fad du jour.

[tommytippedup]

When I was a kid it was totally normal to put sugar on cereal. In my year at primary school (3 classes of probably just over 30 in each), there was one fat kid. By current standards he wouldn't actually even be that fat.

[jdoe8]

any kind of rationing of sugar will probably lead to ED. I'd just put the sugar bowl out and let them have as much as they like, this means their bodies will very quickly tire of sugar and self moderate.

[OhSoggyBiscuit]

Just because you read a book by some doctor somewhere doesn't make you an expert on nutrition, just saying...

[Sara107]

Type 2 diabetes is caused by excessive sugar consumption, I don't understand why this is being touted as a myth. I'm not going hunting for peer reviewed publications because it's bedtime but: When you eat sugar (table sugar, golden syrup, honey, or indeed complex carbohydrates such as starch) they are digested to give glucose. This is absorbed into your bloodstream, and is the fuel we need to keep us going. However, your body cannot have glucose swilling around in the blood, it is toxic. So, in response to the glucose arriving, insulin is released to deal with it and get it to where it needs to be. Big sugar spike, big insulin spike. Little sugar spike, little insulin spike. ( This is the basis of low GI diets which were actually developed to help diabetics control their illness, low GI food release sugars slowly into the bloodstream so you don't get the big sugar / insulin spike). Over years of having big insulin spikes, your body can develop insulin resistance, it no longer responds to the insulin by tidying away the glucose, leaving toxic levels in the bloodstream. This is the first step in the development of type 2 diabetes. This can happen in lean people, you don't have to be overweight. This used to be a disease of the elderly, it took a lifetime to develop. But doctors are now seeing it appearing in younger patients, even teenagers. Because of increasing levels of dietary sugar. And by the way, there are researchers who now refer to dementia as type 3 diabetes, there is a school of thought that the development of the amyloid plaques in the brain is the result of too much sugar in the bloodstream ( over a lifetime) causing glycation of proteins which then misfold.
Obesity is not the cause of diabetes, it is the result of excessive calorie consumption which may well arise from high sugar consumption so obesity and diabetes are co- morbidites of high sugar consumption.
Type 1 diabetes is a completely different illness, caused by a lack of insulin production. Controlling sugar intake is important in managing the disease, but it is not the primary cause of it.
Other sugars, which don't break down to glucose can be tolerated by diabetics eg fructose, xylitol etc as they don't require the insulin response. Fructose however is seen by some as even more dangerous than glucose, as it tends to be mopped up and converted into liver fat which is also a bad thing.

[Idefix]

Sorry Boo was getting tired, 2 weeks post major op

Link was to recommendations for added sugar to diet.

But yy there is plenty of evidence out there regarding there being no direct link between sugar consumption and diabetes type 2.

In the main obesity appears to be the biggest factor in developing type 2 and whilst that maybe a result of a diet that is high in fat and sugar it doesn't mean eating sugar is bad. So I am with you

[FeliciaJollygoodfellow]

Well this has extended into the surreal.

OP YANBU to be annoyed about the sugar. I also get annoyed at the weetabix left all day to congeal, but DH does the washing up so I'm not that bothered.

Get them to rinse the bowls as the last thing they do before they leave the house.

[Booboostwo]

Idefix I may have misunderstood your post but you give a link that says nothing about sugar and diabetes, while suggesting an organisation which clearly states that sugar does not cause diabetes.

www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Enjoy-food/Eating-with-diabetes/Diabetes-food-myths/Myth-sugar-causes-diabetes/

So were you saying you agree with me in some way that I didn't quite get?

[LynetteScavo]

I purchased small bowls to stop the cereal & milk wastage. I've never given mine sugar to put on cereal, although I have let them have cereal with sugar in. A weekly allowance of sugar is actually a really good idea, except my DC would probably pour any left at the end of the week straight into their mouths.

[Solo]

Ah yes! I see it has been suggested.

[Solo]

Don't know if anyone else has put this idea forward, but why not give each child a sugar allowance each week. Buy a small pot and put their allowance into it and tell them how long it has to last them. I used to do this with my Ds who was and probably still is a sugar fiend (left home now) and once it ran out it wasn't replaced until I decided to replace it.
I'm lucky with Dd and the yoghurt.

[Idefix]

With regards to free sugar in a balanced diet WHO has some clear advice Boo
www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs394/en/

Wrt diabetes the diabetes.org.uk is a good source of evidence based information.

[Booboostwo]

There is no direct link between sugar and diabetes. Sugar consumption contributes to obesity which can lead to diabetes (not the only route to diabetes but the only one that involves sugar). This point has been persistently misrepresented in the media so if anyone knows otherwise I would be grateful for links to published, peer reviewed literature, not random websites.

[Whatsshe0naboutnow]

This is AIBU - a well-known forum for people to pile in with whatever comments come to mind.

The OP was basically along the lines of -

"I do not and will not supervise my kids breakfast because I am getting myself ready upstairs. I need to leave sugar out for my DC every morning. I don't care about them eating this sugar - at least they aren't having Cookie Crisp - but I really can't be arsed scraping it out of their bowls when it's gone hard in the evening. Due to this inconvenience, I'm thinking about putting it in small bags or containers, thereby making MY life easier".

And then, ON MN, some people are actually surprised when some posters feel that the portioning and/or container is hardly the issue?

If you didn't see the responses coming, you must be living in a bubble.