A new survey investigated sugar intake of Israeli children. The survey revealed that 99.6% of children ingest sweet foods on a regular basis, and 94.3% drink sweet drinks on a regular basis.
Dr. Olga Raz of the Clinical Nutrition dept. at the Faculty for Health Science at Ariel University says that this says that we don't understand the meaning of feeding children sweet foods." Raz says that close to 30% of Israeli children are overweight and the parents are responsible for this.
Raz says that people maintain "stores" of sweet foods in the house and when children request they will receive them even if they suffer from high blood pressure. Only diabetic children will be prevented from eating such foods.
Raz says that the health effects can be a weight gain, diabetes and heart disease which can begin from a young age, and suggests that sweet foods should have health warnings on the wrappers.