Heart Disease & Teens' Diet

This is American Heart Month, so today we are looking at one way to keep your kids from having heart problems later in life.

It comes down to sugar. For kids, sugar now could mean heart disease later. So, helping them cut back on what is normally a teenage main food item can help keep them healthy as adults.

According to the latest research from the American Heart Association, teenagers who consume the most added sugar also had poor cholesterol levels. And those poor cholesterol levels over the years can take their toll and leave these teens with heart problems once they become adults.

Researchers recommend teens limit their added sugar to between 100 and 150 calories per day. That's the amount of sugar in just one soda. Right now teens average around 4 times that much and the concern is that at that level many of them will have heart and other health problems later in life.

Although getting teens to cut back on added sugar isn't an easy task, experts say to start treating added sugars like we do total calorie counts, something most of us know about. And hopefully bringing attention to added sugars in everyday items will help cut back on heart problems decades from now.