6. spices | Nutrition for overweight children and adolescents

6. spices

In general, the food for children is not very salty. The salt consumption in the Federal Republic of Germany is 12g per day and person and is much too high. Half of this amount should be aimed for.

Better than a lot of salt are fresh herbs and other spices. Spice mixtures usually also contain salt and in addition additives such as colorants, flavor enhancers or hydrogenated fats. Always use iodized salt for optimal iodine supply.

They are nutritionally superfluous, but practically indispensable in child nutrition. They contain a lot of energy (high energy density) and hardly any important nutrients (low nutrient density) and provide so-called empty calories. Sweets belong to the tolerated foods and should only be eaten occasionally and in small quantities.

However, a complete ban would be wrong. Sugar should be used sparingly (like a spice) in the household. The taste changes and is soon satisfied with less sweet.

With the usual cake recipes, you can usually leave out a part of the indicated amount of sugar without the taste suffering. Theoretically, only 10% of the daily calorie intake should be in the form of sugar. 4 – 6 year old children have an average energy requirement of 1450 kcal daily and can eat a maximum of 150 kcal daily in the form of sweets and sugar.

This corresponds per day for example to: 1 scoop of ice cream (50g) + 2 teaspoons of jam or 20 salt sticks (30g) + 1 level teaspoon of nut nougat cream (10g) or 30g of chocolate or 1 small piece of marble cake. It is best for children to get sweets only once a day, always at the same time and never shortly before a meal. Avoid temptation and perhaps set a weekly ration that the child can divide up for itself.

Other sweeteners like cane sugar or brown sugar have no advantages. Honey is a natural food. Fruit thick juices still contain a small amount of vitamins.

But even these sweeteners should be used sparingly. Sweeteners are chemical substances and completely energy-free. They therefore have no negative effects on children’s teeth, and if consumed in small amounts, no health disadvantages are to be expected.

However, sweeteners should only be used in children’s nutrition in exceptional cases, if at all. They promote the habituation to the sweet taste and children do not learn to perceive even weakly sweetened food as pleasant.