Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar • Hacker News Board

Re: Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar

#91

Post by walterstucco » Wed, Jan 02, 2019, 5:02 PM UTC

flareback wrote: post #19

will_brown wrote: post #8

All this money, time and effort in an attempt to market new low sugar cereals , these are the same company’s who: 1. Have been marketing their product as part of a balanced breakfast for decades, and 2. Continued increasing the amount of sugar while actively lobbying against any attempts to regulate marketing their sugary products to kids. Here is an idea...get rid of the sugary cereals and sugary milk entirely and f…

I love the idea of having bacon and eggs for breakfast in the morning. The reality is though that bacon and eggs take time and effort while pouring a bowl of cereal is quick and easy.

The reality is also that 90% of the world population find it unbearable for more than a few days, like during the holidays

I still prefer having bread, butter and jam

Or milk and biscuits

Many here in Italy skip breakfast or have a cornetto (croissant with no butter) and cappuccino at the bar

It's the dose that makes the poison

The opposite of too much sugar it's the right amount of sugar to go through the morning till lunch, not completely avoid sugar

Re: Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar

#92

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 02, 2019, 5:04 PM UTC

neom wrote: post #39

Very grateful to my parents for not allowing me sugar added foods when I was a kid, even though I thought it was so lame and had the worst packed lunch out of my friends. I actually ended up being 300lbs in my late teens early 20s because all I did was IRC all day. That said, it didn't take much effort to get to the 150/160 I am today. I'm not sure if it's correlated but coincidently I can't stand anything sweet as a…

[deleted]

Re: Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar

#93

Post by PenguinCoder » Wed, Jan 02, 2019, 5:06 PM UTC

ericd wrote: post #73

PenguinCoder wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about other families, but my child won't eat bacon and eggs or other non sugar laden breakfast. I eat bacon and eggs every morning. My child wants cereal, or poptarts, or frozen waffles/pancakes etc. When I removed these items in an effort to have him eat other healthier foods, he decided to not eat anything at home - he'd go to school and instead eat their sugar and carb breakfast. So while I can unders…

He'd rather pay his own money for a sugary breakfast at school? Or do they provide it for free?

Neither. He'd rather have the school sugary breakfast than to eat at home. The school will not refuse him (or any child) food. So they'll send a bill home that we now owe them money for the breakfast. I have repeatedly asked and responded to them to deny him breakfast at school, which... did not go over well and caused some other issues. So he eats sugar at school, because he won't eat at home, and I'm required to pay for it as his guardian, although I do not want it.

Re: Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar

#94

Post by crescentfresh » Wed, Jan 02, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

mikewhy wrote: post #87

neom wrote: post #39

Very grateful to my parents for not allowing me sugar added foods when I was a kid, even though I thought it was so lame and had the worst packed lunch out of my friends. I actually ended up being 300lbs in my late teens early 20s because all I did was IRC all day. That said, it didn't take much effort to get to the 150/160 I am today. I'm not sure if it's correlated but coincidently I can't stand anything sweet as a…

My mother was the same. Any treat she made had half sugar half salt, no cereal if sugar was in the first 3 ingredients, and would rarely buy candy. I went on to work in a bulk candy store, and usually have some bag of candy nearby.

What was her take on halloween?

Re: Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar

#95

Post by PenguinCoder » Wed, Jan 02, 2019, 5:10 PM UTC

hombre_fatal wrote: post #76

PenguinCoder wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about other families, but my child won't eat bacon and eggs or other non sugar laden breakfast. I eat bacon and eggs every morning. My child wants cereal, or poptarts, or frozen waffles/pancakes etc. When I removed these items in an effort to have him eat other healthier foods, he decided to not eat anything at home - he'd go to school and instead eat their sugar and carb breakfast. So while I can unders…

> a non parent attempting to give advice on parenting Let's not suggest that parents don't have almost complete control over their kids at this age. I can reconcile your anecdote against how I was raised: My school didn't have free food, so I didn't have a choice and your scenario was impossible. I either ate breakfast and packed a lunch or went the day hungry. I preferred the former. My parents didn't buy poptarts.…

I was raised differently as well; food in front of you is what you're eating. However in this day and age, it's tantamount to neglect or abuse to refuse a child something to eat. IE "Chicken is what is for dinner, no you can't eat pizza" -> "You can't not feed your kid, let him eat". I commented to another poster about the school breakfast/lunch situation. TLDR: I have no choice in the matter. The kid wins.

Re: Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar

#96

Post by will_brown » Wed, Jan 02, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #89

will_brown wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the law...but in practice the farmers (like athletes trying to pass drugs tests) cheat. So here is an article about the FDA catching antibiotics in both meat and dairy products, and the farmers were successful before they were caught because they began using antibiotics and other drugs the FDA tests don’t scan for because they aren’t supposed to be used in animals at all. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2…

You could make the exact same argument for the organic food industry

Well in one instance the FDA caught farmers put milk with antibiotic and other drug residue into the stream of commerce, so it’s not an arguement so much as facts.

But yes, you could spend your time arguing organic farmers load up their dairy and meat cows with antibiotics and put it in the stream of commerce without any evidence of the same, if that’s what gets you going.

Re: Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar

#97

Post by lhl » Wed, Jan 02, 2019, 5:16 PM UTC

ArrayList wrote: post #75

will_brown wrote: post #8

All this money, time and effort in an attempt to market new low sugar cereals , these are the same company’s who: 1. Have been marketing their product as part of a balanced breakfast for decades, and 2. Continued increasing the amount of sugar while actively lobbying against any attempts to regulate marketing their sugary products to kids. Here is an idea...get rid of the sugary cereals and sugary milk entirely and f…

Bacon and eggs are absolute garbage. Bacon and other processed red meat has been implicated in cancer[1], eggs are overloaded with cholesterol and have also been associated with arterial plaque [2]. This doesn't even get into the massive animal ethics issues and global warming issues that animal agriculture causes. What about oatmeal with fruit, flax, and peanut butter - now there's a concept. (And really better yet?…

Speaking of absolute garbage why are you bothering citing pop garbage nutrition articles when there's plenty of peer-reviewed data? Here's a 2015 meta-analysis of dietary nitrates, nitrates, and nitrosamine intake and cancer risk: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690057/ - overall, results were pretty weak, with pretty small hazard ratios (1.31 and 1.34 for nitrites and NDMA respectively). This seems largely matched by a 2017 review: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5669970/ There are many other things you could do to reduce your risk of cancer if that were you're primary health concern (my personal preference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3946160/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255155/).

There's even more research on eggs (I also checked the author information, these are real academics, not just industry shills as your reference implies must be behind all pro-egg research) - you can also see my other citations in this thread to see references on how dietary cholesterol has little impact on serum cholesterol, and also how high cholesterol has very little to say about CVD (also eggs actually raise HDL which is a good thing if you're looking at cholesterol sub-fractions, you really need to be looking at the research on Lp(a) and Ox-LDL). Anyway, overall consensus, seems to be that eggs are not absolute garbage:

* 2015 Egg Consumption and Human Cardio-Metabolic Health in People with and without Diabetes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586539/

* 2016 Eggs and Health Special Issue https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5188439/

* 2016 Eggs: good or bad? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27126575

* 2017 Intake of up to 3 Eggs per Day Is Associated with Changes in HDL Function and Increased Plasma Antioxidants in Healthy, Young Adults. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28077734

* 2017 Consuming Two Eggs per Day, as Compared to an Oatmeal Breakfast, Decreases Plasma Ghrelin while Maintaining the LDL/HDL Ratio https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5331520/

Re: Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar

#98

Post by monetus » Wed, Jan 02, 2019, 5:18 PM UTC

worldstarhiphop wrote: post #50

save_ferris wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an insane oversimplification. Look around, the tech industry is filled with incredibly smart people that don't take care of their bodies. Overcoming bad lifestyle habits is a challenge for many, especially those who inherited those habits as children. But we can absolutely do better than "fat == stupid".

I'd argue that if you lack the self awareness to see how unhealthy you are, impart your bad habits onto your kids, and raise them till adulthood as if nothing's wrong, you are very stupid. Whether you can implement some function on a computer every couple months for $150k and free food doesn't change that.

Unadaptable != Stupid

Re: Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar

#99

Post by claudiawerner » Wed, Jan 02, 2019, 5:21 PM UTC

snarf21 wrote: post #51

jgoewert wrote: post #2

Unpopular opinion, but part of the problem is that stupid people are more likely to have kids, and especially many kids. Stupid people become stupid parents.

This is just code for poor people and if it is true it is because they can't afford (and/or don't have access to) fresh fruits, vegetables and quality meats.

I've seen this point before but is there much reason to believe this is the case? Unhealthy food is often priced the same or more expensive than other, healthier food, especially when buying large amounts. Where I live, it is much cheaper to buy fresh produce (fruits and vegetables) and raw meat than it is to buy frozen pizzas, chips, take-out food on a regular basis, chocolate, breaded fish sticks, microwave meals etc.

I think another reason could be that people become conditioned to like things that make them feel good and happy, and something that tastes "nice" (i.e the engineered foods made to tap into our love for salt, fat and sugar) is a good relief from the stresses that come from being poor. But I figure this is an unpopular hypothesis because of the subjectivist-individualist ideology in which only the very last step in making a choice is relevant, rather than the reasons leading up to the choice. So we throw subjective preferences out and attempt to decide if buying such food is "rational" or "irrational" at the point of purchase. This economism unfortunately shuts out important details in preference formation.

What about the role of education, advertising, the pressures faced by poor parents in their actions towards their children etc.?

Re: Average 10-year-old has eaten 18 years' worth of sugar

#100

Post by paulrpotts » Wed, Jan 02, 2019, 5:21 PM UTC

hombre_fatal wrote: post #76

PenguinCoder wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about other families, but my child won't eat bacon and eggs or other non sugar laden breakfast. I eat bacon and eggs every morning. My child wants cereal, or poptarts, or frozen waffles/pancakes etc. When I removed these items in an effort to have him eat other healthier foods, he decided to not eat anything at home - he'd go to school and instead eat their sugar and carb breakfast. So while I can unders…

> a non parent attempting to give advice on parenting Let's not suggest that parents don't have almost complete control over their kids at this age. I can reconcile your anecdote against how I was raised: My school didn't have free food, so I didn't have a choice and your scenario was impossible. I either ate breakfast and packed a lunch or went the day hungry. I preferred the former. My parents didn't buy poptarts.…

I have seven kids. Parents don't have almost complete control over their kids at this age.

>I either ate breakfast and packed a lunch or went the day hungry.

Yes, a lot of kids will actually fast and make themselves ravenous, have blood sugar crashes, be unable to concentrate, act badly towards classmates, etc. rather than eat the food they don't prefer. Some will lose weight. One of mine in particular will fast for _days_ until eventually someone will feed him something sweet. It's a real problem. In his case he'll sometimes eat a dinner one day, then a week later refuse the same food, until we wear him down until he will finally take a bite, then he'll realize he likes it, and eat a full meal. If he is not actually with us, though, we can't force his behavior like that.

This is especially true of kids who are "on the autism spectrum," and I suspect that a lot of HN readers have kids on the spectrum, as I do.

We feed the kids the healthiest food we can at home, almost all the time except for occasional special occasions. But _other_ well-meaning people at churches, schools, playdates, etc. can really screw up the eating habits a parent tries to instill.