Lower your child's sugar load

Tips to cut down the sugars in your child's diet

It is important to choose your foods wisely. Otherwise, it's easy to overload your child's blood sugar. Here are some tips:

• Replace sodas, sports drinks and fruit juice with water  
• Natural fruit juice has just as much sugar as sodas—grape juice has even more – better choice water: or fizzy water. You can even add strawberries. other fruits, cucumber or flavor drops to give it extra flavor
• Smoothies that have juice—make your own with fresh or frozen fruit, maybe some spinach, and ice or just eat the fruit
• Try crunchy vegetable, popcorn, nuts or trail mix in place of candies and sweets (be careful with toddlers and young children) 
• Low fat yogurts with flavoring—get plain yogurt or cottage cheese and add fruits or veggies 
• Serve bananas or strawberries instead of jelly with peanut butter, or just eat one of the nut butters from a spoon
• Shop smartly. Read the labels on cereals and granola bars or go to our Food Index to find out how many grams of sugar are in a serving. Choose those with low levels (less than 4 grams is often recommended) and if you can, top cereal off with a fistful of fruit

Do try to make sure they get they fiber they need and the foods with healthy starches.