The Globe and Mail – Dave McGinn
“The American Heart Association, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Diabetes Canada and the Childhood Obesity Foundation, among others, have all joined the World Health Organization in calling on parents to reduce their children’s sugar consumption. “The evidence is extremely clear that excess sugar is harmful to you,” says Dr. Tom Warshawski, chair of the Vancouver-based Childhood Obesity Foundation. “Bottom line, almost everyone is eating unhealthy levels of sugar.” According to data from the most recent Canadian Community Health Survey, kids consume 33 teaspoons of sugar a day, far above the World Health Organization’s recommendation that sugars ideally make up 5 per cent but no more than 10 per cent of a person’s daily calories. The health consequences are troubling, to say the least, including an increased likelihood of everything from high blood pressure or heart disease to type-2 diabetes, sleep apnea and depression, as well as bone and joint problems. Obesity rates for children in Canada between the ages of 2 and 17 have tripled in the last 30 years, according to Statistics Canada.”(more)