Today parents give their children multivitamins to ensure the child's growing body has everything they need.
But there's a downside to this well-meaning trend: most kids' multivitamins are also packed with added sugar, so they end up causing a lot of trouble.
But why do children's multivitamins generally contain so much sugar? Let's describe it below.
Vitamin Gummy – Choice of Types of Vitamins that Kids Love
The children's multivitamin industry has a big problem: too many sugary, gummy multivitamins are consumed by children. This is not necessarily the fault of the parents.
Indeed, most parents only want the best for their children, so they try to give them vitamins that have been said to be healthy and they know their children will love to take them every day.
This is especially true for parents with children who may be picky with what they eat.
Some children are notorious for eating only certain foods, ensuring that they are getting a complete diet can be a challenge.
Modern gummy multivitamins are popular with children because chewing gum is packed with added sugar, is easy to chew and swallow, and often comes in colorful varieties or forms.
Additionally, gummy multivitamins come in a variety of flavors, so there seems to be a gummy multivitamin for every child: raspberry, lemon, orange, and cherry are just a few examples.
The Weakness of Sweet and Gummy Vitamins
However, the popularity of this gum is not proof of its health benefits. The first gummy vitamins were never designed to be a health food, so they tended to include a variety of synthetic ingredients. Most include gelatin, artificial coloring, cornstarch, and other fillers.
And most of them also have a number of ingredients that are either unnecessary or downright unhealthy. This includes:
- Glucose syrup
- Sucrose
- Pork based gelatin
- Toxic filler
- Icing
In fact, according to a large study, 80% of chewing gum doesn't even say what it says on the label. That's because gummy vitamins are a poor vitamin delivery mechanism and were never meant to be vitamins.
This is the main reason why many vitamin companies require children to eat up to four gummies per day -- because chewing gum itself is notoriously bad at retaining vitamins.
Why Is So Much Sugar Added?
There is a simple answer to this question: because children love sugar and sugar sells.
Remember, children are notoriously picky eaters, but almost all of them are very fond of sugar. This is normal because from an evolutionary point of view, our brains are wired to enjoy sweet foods.
Children have stronger sweet teeth than adults, in part because it helped encourage them to eat sweet fruits and other foods in our evolutionary history.
However, this has a negative impact on modern children. Big Foods and Big Vitamins have packed everything with too much sugar, which can wreak havoc on their bodies and eventually lead to food shortages.
In addition, many children suffer from weight gain and unhealthy sugar content in their diets, leading to the current obesity epidemic that is sweeping America.
Again, most parents only want the best for their children. They accidentally give them a sweet gummy multivitamin to make them overweight on purpose. But the reality is that the sugar in the gum can compensate for the limited value of the vitamins in the gum itself.
In short: many modern multivitamins have up to 5 g of refined sugar to make them appealing to children. This is one of the few ways parents can think of to make sure their kids are actually taking their vitamins every day instead of vetoing them.
