The release of the AHA’s Scientific Statement on added sugars and kids is baffling. In a year where both the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (ages 2 years and up) and the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) final labeling rule (ages 4 years and up) issued a 10% target for added sugars in an effort to provide Americans a tool to help build a healthy diet, the AHA is releasing their own vastly different recommendations.
The AHA is recommending 6 teaspoons of added sugars for an active 16-18-year-old boy – this is just 3% of his calories. Where is the science to support this? The conversation around added sugars has gotten out of control and the beliefs of individuals are trumping what the scientific evidence actually shows. Case in point—the AHA even states that “group consensus” was used to develop these recommendations.
We all want kids in the U.S. and around the world to be healthy—that is a given. But the added sugars dialogue has lost its scientific integrity. AHA’s hyper-focus on added sugars contradicts the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which historically has been the expert voice on children’s diets.
Source: The Sugar Association
