By Jennifer Sygo, National Post
Extracted from the full story:
Regardless of the mechanism, the evidence is convincing enough that limiting your kids' intake of pop and sugary drinks is a sensible thing to do. But as this study revealed, it's just as important to develop sensible eating habits at a very young age, as we now know that the results can stick with them for an awfully long time. The bottom line: If kids learn to drink pop when they're young, they will grow accustomed to it, and the habit will be hard to break.
While the fact that even a five-year-old's drinking habits can impact their weight up to a decade later is concerning, Fiorito wishes they had started tracking their subjects even earlier. "If parents want to limit the choices their kids are making, they should start by age two," she said. "We started when the children were five, but the choice of beverages probably started even earlier."
The better bet is to keep pop off the table entirely for young kids, and then treat it as exactly that -- a treat -- for older ones, if it is going to be consumed at all. Keeping it out of the house will reduce the temptation for everyone, adults included, and will naturally steer your kids towards better drink choices -- milk, 100% fruit juice and water included.
Read the whole story here.
