WHAT IS TOOO MUCH SUGAR ?

[pugsmum]

HI ALL .
ds is 18 months and i try to keep him as healthy as i can.. he eats a massive variety of food and i don't think there is a food he has yet to try .
He absolutly loves fruit so i give him quite a lot and last week two people on seperate ocassions made a face and said "ooh there is a lot of sugar in fruit "

so i am confused I give my son as much fruit as he can eat
(blueberrys, strawberrys, raisens and grapes, bannas , apples, pears, melon whateva is in season really )and like i said he has a massive variety of other foods in his diet also and the ocassional treat every now and again ..

his general day goes like this

breaky
wholemeanl / seeded toast and a cup of milk
( is not keen on cereal althought i try him with it around 3/4 times a week )
bowl of fruit

snack
unsalted rice cakes with cream cheese / unsalted peanut butter etc
and fruit

lunch
something healthy eg pasta, sandwhich, toast ,fish cakes scramblesd eggs , lasagne etc (always tryingg new dishes as i am a cooking and food lover )
and yougart

snack=
fruit and prob a bit of whats left over from lunch

dinner = somthing healthy similar to lunch . and mayb a cheeky treat for pud not everyday or yougart etc ,

he will often wonder about eating an apple until he drop it on the floor and i chuck it .

he has some sort of veg with all his meals i put it on his plate so he learns that all meals have veg on the side ... he loves peas, sweetcorn (he calls peas lol ), carrots (we call yummy yummys ). and will mostly eat his veg .

he has fruit juce somethimes with meals prob only once if that a day and water in between .

Also i wondered how health pre packaged fich cakes (jamie oliver ) or fishfinger as i find he has these a couple of times a week for my convenience and he really loves his fish .
I try to pick the good ones but how healthy are they really ? ??

The adage 'moderation in everything' isn't a bad one. Too much fruit can be a problem. Not simply the sugar content but, because fruit tends to be quite acid, excessive amounts can be tough on little teeth and too much fibre can be problematic for children's digestion systems. If food is whistling through too rapidly due to a very high fibre content this can mean they don't absorb all the nutrients from their food. Two or three pieces (or portions) of fruit a day is plenty.

As for how healthy other things are remember that there are very few 'bad foods' in isolation, but there are quite a lot of bad diets. Processed foods tend to be lacking in nutrition and heavy on preservatives like salt and sugar but, in small quantities and as part of a balanced & varied diet, they are not unhealthy.

I honestly wouldnt worry. Many children a much fussier and more faddy than your DS. A taste for fruit is a good thing, surely.

Be thorough with his dental hygiene and keep up the varied diet and dont worry!

I don't know how the myth that fruit is bad for you because of its sugar content got going, but it is ridiculous. Fruit is healthy. Vegetables are healthy. You're doing the right thing.

too much fruit and carbs are what is encorouging obsesity. Fruit like any food stuff needs to be eaten in moderation and its not a myth. Fruit contains natural sugar and when combined with high carbs (in western world) is making us fatter and hungrier. Strictly speaking you dont need fruit as veg contains more nutrients, fibre and vits. Fruit juice included - you can water this down.

I would ensure a child gets a varied diet that revolves around the 5 portions of veg - the veg isnt additional it is what you have to revolve around. I use quality fish fingers, the odd frozen bag of chips but in general my boys eat what we eat and I cook from scratch and do batch cooking too. Quality good meat and fish - fill your freezer!

His diet looks great there are many different foodstuffs just keep pushing the different foods, a few mild spices, textures like couscous, noodles etc. Working on the principle that veg are the biggest section of the plate - next meat/fish followed by carbs.

Too much fruit is NOT the cause oftheobrsity epidemic in the Western world, bacon, dont be ridiculous.

Too much processed food, salty fatty ready meals and convenience foods, refined carbs and sugary snacks are thecause.

Nobody ever got fat or diabetic from eating too much fruit FGS

Sounds like he's eating really well, and his diet sounds varied and healthy.

I really don't think that at 18 months you need to worry too much about the sugar in fruit. Just make sure you brush his teeth really well at least twice a day and keep doing what you're doing!

One tip re fruit acid and teeth (I know it's not his teeth you're worried about, but still...) is to give a few small cubes of cheese after he's eaten fruit. It will help to protect his tooth enamel.

I would be delighted he's eating fruit or veg - I know many a kid who love veg, but won't touch any fruit. Completely agree with macaroni - processed food, fatty meals etc are so much more of a concern than eating an apple or grapes or whatever.

It's great that he likes fruit, but it can cause problems for his digestion-basically what Cogito said. Fruit juice is a bit pointless tbh, it has no fibre and probably not that many vitamins after it's been processed. Too much fruit and especially juice can lead to so-called 'toddler diarrhoea'.

I would think that 2-3 pieces of fruit a day plus water and milk to drink would be perfect. Re: fishfingers etc, if they don't contain zillions of additives, then I think it's totally fine (what's wrong with fish and breadcrumbs) and even if they are not of the healthiest variety, as part of healthy and varied diet, they are ok.

It's really when kids are fed a monotonous diet of pasta and burgers and crisps with no fruit and veg that there is a reason to worry- well done on introducing all those flavours to your DS

Would it be better if some of his fruit snack become veg snacks? Raw carrots, cucumber, baby corn, mange tout etc?

bacon

too much fruit and carbs are what is encorouging obsesity.

Yeah, can't be anything to do with all those pasties. Must be fruit.