Tips on Having a Low Sugar, Healthy Holiday Season for Your Kids

The holiday parties, Christmas sugar cookies, candy canes and stockings stuffed to the brim with sugary goodness: the holidays are certainly a tempting time for parents who wish to limit sugar during the rest of the year. It's hard enough to keep ourselves from giving into excessive treats and Peppermint Latte's, not to mention going against the grain by depriving our children from such delights. And who wants to spoil all the fun anyway, right?

Christmastime might be your favorite holiday, but the sugar industry is pretty fond of it as well. The sugar industry pulls in more money during the holidays than at any other time during the year - a profit some would say puts our children at dangerous risks.

The World Health Organization has urged for a less than 10% caloric intake of sugar - the average child consumes at least twice this daily. This doesn't mean simply passing on Little Debbie's snacks in the afternoon will suffice: read the labels of all the food you give your child during the day. Baked beans, cereal, hot dogs, juice - just about everything has added sugars in it, in the form of corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose or the many other names sugar falls under. Every year food manufacturers increase the amount of sugar in their recipes, sneaking it into foods that we do not consider "sweets". It is in these foods that we reach the 10% recommendation; the rest is excess. Even the alternatives that many parents think are harmless, such as a granola bar or fruit snacks, are sugar in disguise. They say they are low in fat and made with whole grain, how bad can it be? News flash: high fructose corn syrup making the top five ingredients is not exactly a healthy snack.

What's so harmful? The American diet of high sugar foods has been linked in studies to childhood obesity, tooth decay and diabetes. It's startling to hear reports that Type-2 diabetes has tripled in young children in the past decade. Many studies have also linked sugar intake to hyperactivity in children, causing some schools to ban soft drinks and other similar actions.

When it comes to the holidays, however, it's hard not to indulge. For better or worse, part of what makes the holidays fun is the general attitude of irresponsibility, whether eating or spending. I do believe in living life to its fullest, so I have some easy suggestions to enjoying the holiday festivities with slightly less refined sugar intake:

- Reduce sugar in recipes slightly, and then add a pinch more of the natural flavorings like sweet-tasting spices or sweetened with applesauce.

- Use unprocessed or organic sugars instead, like honey, brown rice syrup or turbinado.

- Replace sweets higher in sugar with those that aren't: gingerbread rather than sugar cookies, fruit yogurt instead of ice cream, oatmeal cookies or muffins made with applesauce, angel food cake topped with strawberries and whipping cream in place of other cakes.

- Enjoy other aspects of the holidays together: Perhaps a craft, community event or holiday movie night can replace some events typically centered on sweets.

- Stockings don't have to be filled with candy. Slightly healthier alternatives such as favorite fruits are a great choice. Don't forget that small presents fill up stockings quickly - not everything has to be in the big show under the tree!

The holidays are a magical time, and the last thing any one wants to do is tame their appetite this time of year. But for our children's sake, why not lay a new foundation of meaning and fun without all the dreams of Sugarplums dancing in their heads? Like many parenting decisions, it may not be so much fun, but as the old saying goes, "they'll thank you for it some day!"