Sugar is sweet and so are you

Children crave sweets for energy since they are more active typically than adults and because their bodies are growing. Once growth is complete, sugar can do more harm than good to our bodies so as adults we need to curb our sugar consumption.

Here in lies the issue we all struggle with. Since children are influenced easily liking what is what is familiar to them and tastes good especially when given as a reward or treat by an adult, the child forms a positive emotional connection with what they eat and it lasts for a lifetime. As adults, we want to limit sweets to kids because we don't want them to "learn" to eat empty calories and associate this behavior with being good to themselves when in fact, eaten in excess can be quite negative. We want our children to be healthy and be good to themselves which means being able to say no to sweets if they are overweight. Too much of anything isn't being good to oneself. So too much of a positive experience can turn negative. The crux of the issue is teaching our children how to set limits so we are eating appropriately and ultimately being good to ourselves. Since food is always around us we need to learn from an early age about how much to eat, moderation and making good choices.