What is for a baby sweets? Are they a useful supplement to the diet or are they causing significant harm? Today pediatricians find it difficult to answer unequivocally, but they tend to believe that, of course, sweets are primarily unhealthy food, resulting in weight gain, diabetes, caries, intestinal disorders and even inadequate behavior.
But, nevertheless, there is another side to the coin. The sweet taste is monosaccharides, glucose, fructose, galactose, disaccharides, lactose, polysaccharides, useful for the child's body.
Why Carbohydrates
Any carbohydrate, getting into the body, eventually turns into glucose, which is the main source of energy. Carbohydrates have the ability to become glycogen, which is necessary for the synthesis of enzymes and hormones. The fact that the sweet carries energy to the baby's body can be called positive, but the use of sugars affects negatively the absorption of vitamins and essential substances.
The rate of conversion of carbohydrates to monosaccharides plays a large and important role, because if the rate is moderate, glucose is absorbed slowly by the body and the pancreas works in normal mode, releasing the usual amount of insulin. If the process of glucose assimilation occurs quickly, then the body needs a larger volume of insulin, so the pancreas is forced to work with the voltage.
It is not possible to completely remove sugar from baby food, but it's not worth doing. Even in the mother's milk, there is lactose. Berries, fruits, cereals contain fructose and glucose. But how much do children need sweets over these, that is, chocolate, ice cream, jam? This question remains open.
The benefits and harms of carbohydrates for children
A growing body of carbohydrates is necessary, and as much as necessary, their deficiency will definitely lead to health problems, expressed in disturbed metabolism, energy metabolism. The need for carbohydrates can increase from stress, a disease with a high temperature.
If carbohydrates enter the body too actively and in large quantities, then diabetes, obesity, teeth begin to break down, cases of allergic skin rashes are frequent, and, based on the data of the latest studies, pediatricians are sure that the excess of sweet is the cause of aggressionand hyperactivity in children.
It is not necessary to carry out experiments even with a healthy child's organism, in which overloading with carbohydrates does not usually cause a deterioration in health. But this does not always happen. You can not know when the pancreas will fail, and the consequences will be serious. Playing a huge role of the child's lifestyle, whether he is active or likes sitting quiet games, on this depends his reaction to carbohydrate excess. If a child spends a lot of physical strength, energy, he sports, is mobile, then quality natural sweets will be useful to him.
It should be borne in mind that for a baby sweets, it is, first of all, pleasure. If the child is healthy and sweet - not the only way to bring the child joy, it is permissible to indulge him with some quality sweets. But parents should remember that sweet for the baby is the easiest and fleeting pleasure. It can be replaced by various interesting activities, circles, dances, fitness, all this will create a much more useful, long and positive emotions for the child.
Sweets on the table are the choice and responsibility for the health of the child of the parents themselves. Only on them depends, whether the kid will grow healthy and mobile.