Raising Kids Without Sugar: Is It Possible … or Even Necessary?
If you’re venturing into the realm of parenthood, you’ve likely asked yourself this question before. It’s easy to imagine yourself effortlessly whipping up organic vegetable purees for your toddler and scoffing at your friends who cave in to handing out candy to theirs. But what happens when you have your own real live mini-human that lives in a world where sugar, candy, and cakes are as firmly woven into our cultural fabric as red, white, and blue?
As a bonafide 90s kid, sugar was never really talked about outside of the dentist’s office. Fat was more the “enemy” back then. My parents eschewed whole milk and bacon in favor of Wheat Thins and Snackwells. In general, though, no food was really forbidden for us kids - including sugar. I ate homemade nutritious meals each day, but I also drank Ssips and snacked on Cheez-its. This didn’t go without consequences; I had acne as a teen, my stomach frequently ached, and I accrued my fair share of cavities. On the positive side, I developed a healthy relationship with food and eating, learned how to naturally moderate, and I never obsessed about food – all behaviors I’ve been thankful to carry into adulthood.
I know many people (men and women) whose parents restricted them from these types of foods growing up and for good reason. In many of them, though, these restrictions backfired. These foods became a forbidden fruit. Naturally, they wanted what they couldn’t have. When they did get their hands on them, whether at school or a friend’s house, birthday parties, or college, they binged. And, they often were racked with guilt after consuming them. Since they weren’t allowed to have them, they didn’t develop the ability to moderate or control impulses around food.
As a nutritionist, I cringe at the thought of feeding my future children any kind of junk food. It’s been well researched that refined sugar and processed foods are toxic to our bodies and brains, and regular consumption of them results in cognitive, behavioral, and physical diseases(1,2,3). Why would I open even a narrow window for those possibilities to enter and impact my child’s health and future?
But does having such tight control - even though it’s my responsibility to protect them - result in unhealthy behaviors in the long run? I struggle with these questions, and I know many conscious parents and parents-to-be do too.
Here’s my take to help you loosen the reins a bit while still fostering positive, healthy eating behaviors.
THE CRITICAL PERIOD
The first thousand days of life, starting with gestation, represent a sensitive and critical period for developing healthy eating habits.
So, if you want to focus your efforts anywhere, focus them from conception to two years of age.
Development of a baby’s taste and smell receptors starts at 7-8 weeks of gestation. Fetuses first experience taste through amniotic fluid; its flavor changes according to what their mother eats. At around the 23rd week of gestation, taste signals are transmitted to the central nervous system, and the growing baby can react to these flavor changes. In fact, ultrasounds show them reacting positively to sweet tastes by protruding their tongue or perking their lips(4).
Their next experience with taste is through mother’s milk which also changes according to maternal diet. Babies that are formula-fed don’t benefit from the ever-changing flavors and macronutrient profiles breastmilk provides.
As humans, we have a positive inborn response to sugar and salt. Conversely, we have a hard-wired negative response to bitter and sour foods, like vegetables. This negative response is thought to be an adaptive mechanism, protecting us from foods that are spoiled or contain toxins. This can explain why children, when first exposed to vegetables or other bitter foods, usually dislike them. However, preferences for salty and sugary foods can be curbed early on through repeated exposure to different flavor profiles in amniotic fluid, breastmilk, and solid foods introduced during the complementary period, which I’ll dive into shortly(5).
Repeated exposure to the types of foods you’d love your children to eat via amniotic fluid and breastmilk can explain why babies of women who had a more varied, healthy diet are generally less picky and more willing to try new foods as children. And this effect endures past infancy and toddlerhood; children aged 2-8 years old who were breastfed for at least three months are more likely to eat vegetables and explore different types of foods(5).
the complementary period
The complementary period is the time when babies are transitioning from breastmilk/formula feeding to a solid diet from 6 to 24 months of age. They’re discovering the textures, tastes, and energy densities of foods for the first time on their own. Research shows that exposing children to a wide variety of foods in the first year has the ability to modulate acceptance of new foods into their diet over the long term(6). Exposure to new foods in the second year has a more limited impact than exposure in the first year.
So, exposure to a variety of foods from 6 months to 1 year is key!
Parents will frustratingly find that, even though they are exposing their child to a variety of novel, delicious and healthy foods, they often reject them. This is especially true with kids who are 2 to 5 years old. This age is known for food neophobia, where they’re unwilling to eat novel foods. It is thought to be an adaptive behavior - a way of ensuring they are only eating foods that are familiar and safe(7).
Once a child rejects a food, parents tend to throw their hands up and stop trying to give it to them altogether. Understandable. Several studies have shown, though, that children must be exposed to a novel food between 6 and 15 times before preference and intake of it increases(7). So, keep trying and trying and trying! It’s especially helpful if these exposures occur in a positive social environment and are offered and modeled - not forced.
environmental and social influences
Mothers can influence their baby’s taste preferences early on by consuming an array of healthy meals that alter the flavor profile of their amniotic fluid and breastmilk, and then later in the complementary period by feeding their baby a wide variety of nutritious foods. Outside of consuming and feeding, there are other variables that factor into the equation.
As with many things children learn, parents’ modeling of healthy eating behavior is a big way to influence how your child interacts with food. As a parent, you can model healthy eating behaviors, taste preferences, and food choices. You can also create the food environment in which your child eats. Likes and dislikes are learned early on and are impacted by sociocultural attitudes(5).
As a personal anecdote that attests to this, my mother doesn’t like fish. In fact, she hates it and can’t stand the smell. She never ate it when she was pregnant with me, never made it for us for dinner, and when it was offered to her on social occasions, she would decline. I picked up on these behaviors as a child, as I refused fish when it was offered to me, and said I didn’t like it (even though I never tried it). I’m a much more adventurous eater today, but it took a while to get past the seafood programming. Kids absorb everything you do, so it’s best to be mindful!
how to model healthy eating behaviors
Modeling acceptance of and excitement for a wide variety of healthy foods is instrumental in shaping how your child eats. This doesn’t mean you have to eat perfectly. It doesn’t mean your child has to eat perfectly either. Instead of having a rigid or controlling approach of “good” or “bad” foods, it’s important to model that you love healthy foods and eat them most of the time. If you have something that’s “unhealthy,” it’s okay – it’s just not something you do all the time. And, don’t label it as anything or talk about how it’s unhealthy or “bad.”
Restricting a child’s access to particular foods increases rather than decreases their preference for that food(8), so it’s a delicate balance. Give them the option and educate them in an encouraging way. For example, if Halloween is coming up and they ask about trick-or-treating, I say to allow them whatever candy they want. The holiday is fun! You want to keep the fun around it, around the costumes, and the parties, and the act of trick-or-treating with their friends - not about the candy. You’ve already explained to them that having too much sugar is not good for their teeth and their belly, they already know it’s not something they regularly have, but allow them to have their candy on Halloween and for the next few days. Then, you can donate what’s left and look forward to next year.
I wouldn’t keep any processed foods or sugar-laden snacks in your house. Create a positive environment in which you, the parent, don’t have to think about restricting or controlling anything. What’s available there is only healthy items and that’s what they learn is the norm. You can take the more laissez-faire approach outside of your house and on special occasions – at school functions, celebrations, holidays, etc.
the microbiome
Our microbiome, which refers to all of the organisms that live within and on our body, can influence food intake from a young age. There’s a diverse array of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and even worms (both good and bad) that live in harmony like an ecosystem in our digestive tract. While its composition is unique to each individual like one’s fingerprint, its overall robustness is influenced by a number of factors – including our diet, our mode of birth delivery, whether we were breastfed, a recent round of antibiotics, stress, and exposure to chemicals. When there’s an unfavorable balance of pathogenic microbes, these bad guys can manipulate your child’s food intake by encouraging cravings of sugar-rich foods that will help maintain their colonization in the gut(4).
By positively shifting your child’s microbiome, you can curtail their preoccupation with sugar-rich foods and sweets. For tips on how to do this, download my free infosheet, “Everyday Ways to Boost and Balance Your Child’s Microbiome” here.
What if I don’t want to breastfeed and I was too sick to eat anything but crackers during pregnancy? Am I doomed?
No! Of course not. First of all, the best baby is a fed baby. Period.
Since you won’t be breastfeeding, your baby won’t benefit from the shifting flavor and macronutrient composition of breastmilk. Another major benefit of breastmilk is its impact on the microbiome. Breastmilk is filled with mom’s antibodies, natural prebiotics, and beneficial bacteria that coat the baby’s digestive system with each feeding and becomes the foundation of their microbial diversity.
Not to worry. You can provide similar benefits to the baby through supplementary probiotics. A 2017 randomized clinical trial(9) compared the intestinal health markers of three groups of babies: the first group was breastfed, the second group was formula fed, and the third group was fed formula that contained prebiotics and probiotics. At 12 months, the babies fed formula with prebiotics and probiotics showed gut health markers and a microbial composition that was closer to breastfed babies than those babies given traditional formula without prebiotics and probiotics.
Plus, don’t forget about the complementary feeding period and modeling behavior. These are highly influential factors and are not to be underestimated in their bearing on your child’s food preferences and eating patterns.
in summary
From a literature review(5), the strongest predictors of what foods young children will eat can be summed up by the following:
Whether they like the taste
How long the child was breastfed and what their mother’s diet was like during gestation and lactation
Whether they were introduced to these foods at an early age (Hello, complementary period!)
After 3 to 4 years of age, dietary patterns and food habits remain relatively stable, which emphasizes the importance of getting them on the right track from the initial stages of learning to eat.
So, should you raise your kids without sugar? Ultimately, it’s up to you. I hope this article has at least provided information on how to positively influence your child’s eating behaviors and preferences so they don’t ONLY want sugar. I hope you also gleaned some helpful tips on how you can loosen the reins by focusing your efforts on the most critical periods and the most impactful interventions.