Eating low-sweet snacks, caregiver education reduce children’s sugar intake

Offering low-sweet snacks and caregiver education can help reduce daily added sugar and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intakes among children and their caregivers, according to a study.

Seventy preschooler-caregiver dyads were included in this 4-month randomized trial with 1-month follow-up. Participants were assigned either to a control group receiving daily snacks typical for children and general health lessons for caregivers or to an intervention group receiving low-sugar, lower-sweetness snacks and caregiver lessons on nutrition and dental health, as well as guidance to limit sugary foods and eliminate SSBs from the home.

At 4 months, children in the intervention group consumed less added sugar (‒10.1 tsp/day, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], ‒14.0 to ‒6.2; p<0.001) and SSBs (‒103.3 kcal/day, 95 percent CI, ‒159.2 to ‒47.5; p<0.001) than those in the control group.

“The intervention did not alter their liking or intake of four selected lower-sugar snacks or shift their most preferred sucrose concentration,” the investigators said.

However, a significant group-time interaction was observed for salt preference (p=0.045), with intervention children preferring higher salt concentrations (0.52 Molarity [M]) than did control participants (0.32 M; p=0.002).

By mid-trial, caregivers in the intervention group also had less consumption of added sugar (‒17.6 tsp/day, 95 percent CI, ‒24.5 to ‒10.7; p<0.001) and SSBs (‒255 kcal/day, 95 percent CI, ‒329 to ‒122; p=0.01) than controls.

“Although sodium intake was unchanged, increased salt preference among intervention children suggests a potential trade-off between added sugar and sodium content of children’s snacks that warrants further investigation,” the investigators said.