WHILE many parents might be heedful of the intake of oil and salt in their children’s diets, health experts remind parents that they should also pay extra attention to sugar consumption, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

Xiong Jingfan, chief physician with the Shenzhen Center for Chronic Disease Control and Prevention, said healthy eating is particularly important for primary and secondary school students, which enables them to learn better and be well-nourished.

However, the harm of sugar has not attracted enough attention, the chief physician said.

Xiong said that sugar consumption of Chinese people remains high in recent years. The country has been calling for a reduction in sugar intake among children.

“Obesity is only one of the downsides of sugar,” said Li Yanyan, an obesity and metabolic diseases specialist with the center. “The sugar we usually mention refers to added sugar, specifically, sugars added during the processing of foods.”

Li warned that having a high-sugar diet in childhood for a long time will aggravate the burden of pancreatic islets, cause insulin resistance, and increase the risk of diabetes in adulthood.

Too much sugar, especially sugary drinks, will easily lead to the formation of endogenous uric acid in the human body, which will cause gout in severe cases, Li said.

Moreover, too much sugar can also affect children’s intelligence, vision and the absorption of calcium in foods, according to Li.

Ruan Shihong, director of stomatology department with the center, analyzed the harm of sugar from the perspective of tooth health.

Ruan said children like to drink carbonated drinks that contain a lot of sugar and acid substances. Teeth will be demineralized and will decay if they soak in an acidic solution for a long time.

“It’s important to learn to read food labels,” Li suggests.

Children are advised to eat less cake, bread, preserved meat, plums and other foods with high sugar, and reduce the consumption of biscuits, ice cream, candy, pastry, jam and candied dried fruit.

(Zhang Yu)