Published Articles
We are in the grip of a national nutritional crisis that claims hundreds of thousands of lives every year and threatens the health and well-being of all our children: The obesity epidemic. About one in three of our children will become obese by adulthood.
One of the key engines of this epidemic is what our kids drink. About 10-15% of all the calories that children in the United States take into their body during their childhood comes from juice and soda, a rise of 30% in the last ten years.
Research shows that as kids drink more juices and sodas, they eat less good food. Thus, a greater portion of their caloric intake comes from sugar, which gets stored as fat, and their risk of obesity and of diabetes sharply rises. Conversely, decreasing the use of juice and soda reduces the risk of obesity and diabetes and improves health.
Perhaps the most clear signal that juice and soda threaten your child is the recently published finding that for every glass or can of juice or soda that a child adds to their average daily intake, their risk of obesity goes up 60%!
It is with the desire to make sure your children grow up healthy that Advanced Pediatrics urges all families to only offer water or skim milk to their children. We suggest that you do not buy any juices or sodas for your home. This is a better way to stop their use than by buying them and trying to negotiate decreased usage. The latter approach only causes conflict. If you do not purchase juices or soda at all, then everyone can adapt to drinking water far more easily.
So please only offer water to your family. Everyone will be far healthier for your decision.
One of the key engines of this epidemic is what our kids drink. About 10-15% of all the calories that children in the United States take into their body during their childhood comes from juice and soda, a rise of 30% in the last ten years.
Research shows that as kids drink more juices and sodas, they eat less good food. Thus, a greater portion of their caloric intake comes from sugar, which gets stored as fat, and their risk of obesity and of diabetes sharply rises. Conversely, decreasing the use of juice and soda reduces the risk of obesity and diabetes and improves health.
Perhaps the most clear signal that juice and soda threaten your child is the recently published finding that for every glass or can of juice or soda that a child adds to their average daily intake, their risk of obesity goes up 60%!
It is with the desire to make sure your children grow up healthy that Advanced Pediatrics urges all families to only offer water or skim milk to their children. We suggest that you do not buy any juices or sodas for your home. This is a better way to stop their use than by buying them and trying to negotiate decreased usage. The latter approach only causes conflict. If you do not purchase juices or soda at all, then everyone can adapt to drinking water far more easily.
So please only offer water to your family. Everyone will be far healthier for your decision.
