My Sugar-Free Son

By Sarah Kamrath
Web Exclusive - June 6, 2008

When I tell people my five-year-old son, Lukas,  has never had any refined sugar, some look at me as if I have two heads and ask me how I could be so cruel. But many are curious how it is possible. Lukas is a very social child who attends school, has playdates with friends, loves a good party, and even went to a summer camp where at the end of each week the kids had a big scavenger hunt for candy. So, as with all children, there are plenty of occasions during which he is around sugar.

I will be the first to admit that completely avoiding all refined sugar is not the easiest thing to do. I also understand that it might not be desirable for every parent—a little sugar here and there isn't going to do any real harm, however, I have also found that most parents would like to avoid sugar as much as possible in their children's diet.

So for anyone who is interested in trying to limit empty, sugar-filled calories and get their children to eat more nutritious foods, the following are some practices I have found useful.

1) Start early.

Really early. A mother's nutrition during pregnancy influences the long-term health of her child by shaping her baby's metabolism and food preferences. A child's sense of taste actually begins to develop prenatally, with taste buds emerging at 7-8 weeks of age. Research shows that both flavors and smells from the mother's diet can pass into her bloodstream and then into both the amniotic fluid and fetal blood. An unborn baby is actually able to taste the different flavors of foods his mother eats and will swallow more amniotic fluid when the mother consumes something sweet.

In a recent study by the Monell Institute of America, researchers found that babies whose mothers had been given carrot juice regularly while pregnant preferred the taste of carrots far more than babies whose mothers had not. This study and others like it show that you can actually program your baby to be a healthier child and adult by the choices you make while pregnant. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I ate tons of broccoli—I was probably craving the extra calcium. After my daughter was born and I started her on solids, she had such a strong affinity for broccoli that her dad would joke that she was going to be the first human to weigh 50 pounds from eating solely breastmilk and broccoli!

The days when people believed that pregnancy was a license to eat whatever you want are over. We know now that if there is ever a time to be overly cautious about what you put in your body, it is when you are pregnant; your choices either nourish your baby or not. Just as you avoid things such as alcohol and tobacco that are bad for your unborn child, you might also consider avoiding sugary foods that are packed with lots of calories, few nutrients, and also encourage the development of a sweet tooth later in life.

When I first introduced foods to Lukas, I avoided all sweet fruits and focused on nutrient-dense, dark, green vegetables. If given the option, who wouldn't choose a banana over broccoli? Lukas' first solid food was avocado, followed by plain, steamed, mashed vegetables. When I went to our local health food store, I would get a large cup of juiced green vegetables and share it with him. One of my in-laws' preferred stories is when they asked Lukas at two-and-a-half what his favorite food was, and he replied, "Kale."