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Twenty years ago, I met a couple with a young son who decided not to let the kid have sugar. I wonder how that might have worked out for the kid now that he's grown.
I assume the kid hit 18 and went on a sugar binge as soon as he tasted it the first time.
Anyone have experience with this?
I'm thinking there must be a study somewhere.
And indeed there is, where they studied people who were born just before and after the end of WW2 sugar rationing in the UK:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39480913/
Those people are into their 70s and 80s now, so the long term health outcomes are well documented:
...we found that early-life rationing reduced type 2 diabetes and hypertension risk by about 35 and 20% and delayed disease onset by 4 and 2 years, respectively. Protection was evident with in utero exposure and increased with postnatal sugar restriction, especially after 6 months, when eating of solid foods likely began. In utero sugar rationing alone accounted for about one-third of the risk reduction.
Thank you. I know I shouldn't be surprised this doesn't have more than 10% of the upvotes for anecdotal "I didn't get sugar when I was a kid, so my adult onset diabetes and obesity is clearly my parents fault." But, I'm a little disappointed.
But, it's not really what I asked. I asked for experience, not studies. I like the anecdotes.
There are cultures where sweet foods are less common or less extreme. They eat American sweets and complain that they don't like it because it tastes too sweet, or they will complain that America sweetens foods that they normally don't expect to be sweet.
I grew up having constant access to sweets. While I have never been obese, I do struggle with addiction to sweets and it is a constant challenge to try not to overdo it.
Ate loads of shit for years as soon as I left home, now type-2 diabetic. 😬
My good friend was heavily guilted growing up when they wanted any food their parents deemed unhealthy, especially sweets. Guess what, they developed an eating disorder and nearly died from it.
I was allowed sugar, but it was cut way back. For example: my parents would take a box of lucky charms for the appeal, then cut it with a Costco size box of Cheerios. Shitload of Cheerios in a bowl, one sad marshmallow. When I got to college and they had bins of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, etc., I went to town and got hit with what I call the Freshman 40. No diabetes, thank god, but my upbringing’s food control fucked me up and continues to do so.
Freshman 40? It used to be the freshman 15. Inflation is everywhere.
apparently localized around waists in some cases.
Cheerios is like 18% (multigrain) or 22% (honey) sugars by weight though. Lucky Charms (original) is at 37% and regular cornflakes at 8%, for reference.
I have a healthy relationship with sugar following a childhood with limited access because sugary things taste too sweet to me now, as well things like almonds and carrots taste sweet to me.
Yeah, I'm in that boat. I did have some sugar, but it was extremely rare, and IIRC got phased out more as I got older. I don't think it was ever a hard rule of "no," but more of a "have very little except maybe on special occasions." I never developed much of a taste for sweet things to the point I quite often find muffins for scones unreasonably sweet. When I was doing mountain bike races, I had energy chews and bars. In hinds sight, that was probably a poor nutrition choice for my metabolism, and I now I simply have roasted and salted pistachios, with a sugar free electrolyte mix before and/or after the ride.
I also very much seem to be the exception here. Probably my experience more comes down to my own eccentricities. I have the eating habits and body type of a distance athlete; healthy but low weight, diet consisting largely of slow-burning foods like nuts, fruits and starchy vegetables. I am still figuring out what diet and training routine works best for me, but sugar, even as a mid-ride fuel is a hard no-go for me. I like putting in the work to be able to do extreme sports like mountain biking and snowboarding at a reasonably intense level all day long. I listen to my body and I know without a shadow of a doubt touching high sugar and certainly processed foods is not worth it by any means.
Opposite here. I was born in 1969, so I was a kid in the seventies. My mom was a stay-at-home housewife who packed my school lunches. Often it would consist of a sandwich made of just margarine and sugar on Wonder Bread with the crust cut off (cut diagonally), with either a Jello chocolate pudding or a Ding Dong back when they were wrapped in foil.
margarine and sugar?
on bread?
so like how does that work out long term ?
are you o k?
When I was a kid, we did cinnamon toast: wonder bread toasted and slathered with margarine, covered in enough sugar to form a slurry with the melt, then sprinkled with cinnamon. More crunch came from the sugar than the toast. I'm kinda fat now
I used to love this as a kid.
Now as an adult, I found a fun substitute. Slice some cucumber. Then add cinnamon, salt, and whatever sugar substitute you like. It's not quite the same as the real thing, obviously. But I haven't had the "real" version since I was a kid. It's a nice throwback that satisfies the want for a desert-like item with few calories.
We had a shaker of cinnamon and sugar mixed. It was an old jar with a metal lid that my dad punched holes in.
I don't eat sugar, or margarine, or bread anymore, but I still remember how good it was.
I'm four years older than you. I got better lunches than you, but not too much better. Margarine was supposed to be better than butter, so that's what we got, too. Coffee was thought to be bad, so my mom switched to Postum. She worried that I was eating too many eggs when I learned to make them myself. My mom somewhat tried to be good about food for us. We didn't get the sugary cereals, we got corn flakes, and rice crispies, but we put sugar on the cereal anyway, and she didn't stop us. She didn't keep soda, candy, or other snacks in the house as a rule, that was just for "special occasions", etc.
What we had was playing outside.
I gave up sugar completely about eight years ago, it was the single best health choice I made.
Slightly off-topic comment coming in.
I wasn't not allowed sugar but in moderation. What was heavily restricted was TV. Anytime I wanted to watch something I had to ask and tell my parents how long it was going to take so I had to carefully choose. I presume this was to prevent me from mindless consumption and being glued to screens.
It just made the TV more interesting, so when our parents were out, my sister and I would watch whatever, just to be watching TV and feel like the other kids. My dad tried several times to implement ways to make the device inaccessible to us but (I'm pretty sure) I inherited my stupid brain from him so he probably got annoyed at having to deal with those implementations every time (not that he watched more TV than he allowed us but he regularly taped [on actual VHS video tape] educational content for work).
Also, unfortunately, my ability to choose for myself what to do came at about the same time as all sorts of screens becoming central to our lifestyles and all my parents' efforts was for naught.
Had a parent who had limited sugar as a kid. I had soda as a kid and other sweets. Looking back, we ate more vegetables than a typical family and only ate whole wheat bread, but nothing unusual.
I didn't get to eat much sugar as a kid. It was fine, never a big deal really. I do remember the first time putting actual sugar on my breakfast cereal just to try it at age 18 or something but it just seemed weird, unhealthy, and overly sweet. I hadn't thought about it since several decades ago, but now that I remember I thank my parents for it.
My brother and I turned out just fine and even today I barely eat any sugar. Although we were not forbidden. My parents just didn't buy candies.
Yeah, i am also fine. It was interesting to see so many comments where people binged as soon as they were able. Makes me wonder if it's just cus sugar is delicious, and the craving for it is similar regardless of upbringing.
My family didn't restrict sugar per se, had candy and soda regularly, however we never had desserts, sugary breakfast, or things like going out for ice cream. As an adult, I rarely crave sweets. Maybe a night or two a month I'll want a piece of candy before bed. And every few months I'll get a shake/ice cream. I'm not sure if it's a learned thing or were predisposed to not crave it.
How many went on to try crack
Sugar, not even once
I wasn't limited, but we also didn't have it in the house often. I wasn't taught moderation with food. Probably because I was extremely active so large portions didn't have the same detrimental effects as they would have on a sedentary person, and it's been a problem my entire adult life since I can't play multiple sports, ride a bike everywhere, and have a morning paper route to bike.
