American Heart Association rolls out new sugar intake guidelines for children, teens

Health officials are issuing a warning to parents about how much added sugar their children should consume on a daily basis. According to the American Heart Association, children ages 2 to 18 should

News 12 Staff

Aug 24, 2016, 2:38 AM

Updated 2,811 days ago

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American Heart Association rolls out new sugar intake guidelines for children, teens
Health officials are issuing a warning to parents about how much added sugar their children should consume on a daily basis.
According to the American Heart Association, children ages 2 to 18 should eat or drink less than 25 grams of added sugar a day. Children under 2 years old should avoid added sugars all together, according to officials.
Officials say that too much added sugar can lead to obesity, hypertension and heart disease. 
Some New Jersey parents say that they try to monitor what their children consume, but it can be difficult.
"Once [my daughter] turned 2 and started talking, and we started eating out more...those juice boxes really put us on the bad side," says mother April Park.
Other parents say that it is hard to know how much added sugar is in processed foods. According to the Food and Drug Administration, the amount of sugar posted on nutrition labels includes naturally occurring and added sugar.
Health officials say that foods with naturally occurring sugar, like fruit, are OK to eat. They say that added sugars are also fine in small amounts.


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