The confirmation

Confirmation

1. What is my thesis?

Eating a lot of sugary foods is worse for children than for adults.

    2. What types of source am I using to defend my thesis? 
I use expert’s opinion, statistics, and an article about eating habits.

    3. Are my arguments mostly based on evidence, logic or emotion?
My arguments are mostly based on evidence, but I think I will argue with a bit of emotion to appeal adults who are major in a society. That’s because adults have the responsibility and are willing to educate children to grow healthily

I will argue that children’s preference of sugar is worse than adults’ preference of sugar. To strengthen my argument, I will suggest the risk of having a bad habit in an early age, the situation that children are more exposed to sugar than adults, and the evolutionary theory of children’s preference for sugar.

The biggest problem of children’s preference for sugar is that it can become a bad eating habit. According to health website GreenFacts, adopting healthy habits in an early age decreases the risk of serious health problems as people get older. That means, on the other hand, having bad habits in an early age increases the risk of serious health problems. Although bad habits formed in an early age might be changed later in life, it would be much more difficult as you deal with stressors of work, family and other obligations, as well as potential medical conditions brought on by a lifetime of bad habits. There is a famous proverb that suggests this situation. “What is learned in the cradle is carried to the tomb.” It advises that habits that are formed in an early age are important, and they influence on most of your life. Therefore, I argue that eating a lot of sugary foods in an early age is more dangerous than eating them later as an adult.

Furthermore, in a modern world, children are exposed to sugar intake more than adults are. In a modern world, the advertisements of sugary foods aiming at children have increased to a large amount. There is an example of cereal companies which advertised cereals aiming at children that contain more sugar than cereals aiming at adults. In June 2012, researchers from Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity revealed that even though cereals aimed at kids had become more nutritious, cereal companies (such as Kellogg, General Mills, and Post) had increased their advertising spending considerably. Cereal advertising aimed at children increased by 34% between 2008 and 2011. Marlene Schwartz, deputy director of the Rudd Center, said: "While cereal companies have made small improvements to the nutrition of their child-targeted cereals, these cereals are still far worse than the products they market to adults. They have 56% more sugar, half as much fiber, and 50% more sodium. From the example of sales strategy of cereal companies, we can learn that companies tries to use the mind of parents who are willing to open their wallets to buy their kids what they want. Not only companies that sell cereals use the sales strategy aiming at children, but also companies that sell sugary drinks, chocolates, candies, and snacks use it. The negative aspect of that strategy is of course, the product aiming at children contains more sugar than that aiming at adults. Thus I’m arguing that eating sugary foods is more harmful for children than for adults because children have more possibilities to get bad influence from sugar.

 The evolutionary reason that children crave sugar more than adults also notices the risk of children’s preference for sugar. I mentioned that children prefer sugar because children’s preference for sweet flavors has helped them survive when the foods were scarce above. According to Mennella who works at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, children are actually living in different sensory worlds than adults when it comes to basic tastes. "They prefer much more intense sweetness and saltiness than the adult, and it doesn't decrease until late adolescence." Mennella says. Because of the evolutionary reason for sugary flavor, children are in a more serious danger than adults. Naturally seeking sugary foods doesn’t act as an evolutionary advantage anymore.