Sweet Drinks for Kids

You might not think much about giving a five year old something sweet to drink, but what you give them now could set them up as a teenager with a weight problem.And what we are talking about is the connection between even a few sweet drinks a day when they’re five, and weight problems when they’re fifteen. You’ve probably heard this before---children these days are fighting an obesity epidemic. That means that more of them, as teenagers, are battling with weight problems. And problems with weight during teen years means a lifelong weight struggle and the health problems that go with it.Experts point to different reasons for the weight epidemic in children, but a new group of researchers are saying that one issue might be in what you end up giving your five year old to drink. In this latest study, they found that if a five year old drinks just two sweetened drinks a day---that includes sodas, sweetened fruit juices, and sports drinks---they were also much more likely to have a higher amount of body fat ten years later, when they were fifteen. The children that did the best were the ones who, as five year olds, drank milk and unsweetened one hundred percent fruit juices instead.It’s a little hard to realize that what you give a five year old can still affect them when they are fifteen, but those early growing years are proving to be so important for building a start of lifelong health. That includes what you decide they drink everyday.