First draft

This is sum of my first draft.

If you see chocolate chip cookies and doughnuts that are covered with sugar, you surely feel fantastic and want to eat them. This is not a exceptional case for someone. Most people in the world like to eat sugary foods regardless of age or sex. Of the five flavors, sweet flavor is the flavor that everyone likes. However, it is not good to eat too much sweet foods for us. Especially, the sweet temptation of sugar is more dangerous for children than for adults. That is because they easily tend to lose their self-control and they can form a habit of craving sweet flavors in an early age. Eating sugary foods is surely worse for children than for adults.

As I talk about the preference for sweet flavors, I will explain you the background information why children crave sugary foods more than adults in terms of physiology and evolutionary theory. Moreover, I will suggest the risk of eating sweet foods for children in current situation.

Sugar is a simple carbohydrate that belongs to a class of chemically-related sweet-flavored substances. It comes in many different forms. The three main types of sugar are sucrose, lactose, and fructose. First I will tell you why people find sugar so addictive. Sugar can be a dangerous mood booster. It prompts the body to release serotonin, which makes you feel happy, into the blood stream. The instant happiness and joy we get from sugar is why we crave it when we celebrate ourselves and seek comfort and reward. However, the sugar craving that makes us happy triggers an increase in insulin as the body wants to bring blood glucose levels back to normal. This has the knock-on effect of ‘sugar craving’. This is the physiological explanation of the reason why people become addicted to sugar. Especially for children who are growing, the physiological effect is more intense. According to Sue Coldwell, a researcher atthe University of Washington who has studied kids and sweets, and her colleagues, growing bones actually secrete hormones that can influence metabolism. They said metabolic hormones like leptin and insulin have been shown to act on brain areas that control cravings and appetites. It means that the hormones from growing bones of children make them crave sugary foods. 

To understand my thesis, it is important to know the evolutionary theory of craving sugary foods. Many scientists believe a child’s preference for sweet foods is an evolutionary factor. As children preferred high-calorie foods in times gone by, they could have had a better chance of survival when food sources were scarce. It has been proven that sugar is a natural pain reliever in children from the research of Mennella who works at the MonellChemical Senses Center. This theory and research suggests the evolutionary evidence that children enjoy sugary foods far more than adults.

However, children’s preference for sweet foods cannot be an advantage anymore in current situation even though it has helped them survive in the past. Rather, it is very dangerous for children to prefer sugary foods in a modern world. In a modern world, manufacturers often add more sugar to food because it makes them taste better. Even though the information is mentioned in the food labels, the consumers don’t recognize it as sugar because sugar has various forms of words. Therefore, the consumers are impossible to determine the amount of sugar they are eating. They eat sugar more than they imagine without recognizing the truth about sugar. 

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 reduces 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 can 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. 

 The opponents of my thesis would insist that eating sugary foods is worse for adults than for children. They would say that the adults are relatively older and weaker than children and thus the side effect of sugar intake will negatively influence on adults more. Also, they would say that unlike children who do not earn money, adults can earn money and buy sweet foods whenever they want. They would insist that the possibility to get addicted to sugar is higher in adults because of their ability to buy sweet foods. However, I disagree with opponents’ arguments strongly. The opponents’ arguments have fatal faults. First, they said it is more dangerous for adults to eat a lot of sugary foods because they are older and weaker. They did not see the situation in the long term. In the long term, the fact that children are younger than adults makes the preference for sugar more dangerous. Children can form a bad habit in an early age, and be negatively influenced on their health more seriously since earlier than adults. Second, they said that adults are exposed to sugar intake more because they afford to buy sugary foods. However, they didn’t recognize that adults are parents. It is children’s parents that buy their children sweet snacks. Therefore, I think it is not logical that adults get worse influence from sugar because they earn money and are affordable to buy sweet foods.

  As the time passes, a lot of processed foods have emerged due to the rapid-speed society. These processed foods contains a lot of sugar that is hidden in other names, but people eat them without recognizing the fact. In a modern world, children are in the center of risk of sugar intake. The evolutionary theory, physiological theory of children’s preference for sugar is fatal to children living in the modern world. The health problems of children that are caused by sugar intake is becoming very serious. If my argument is persuaded by other people, we will recognize the importance of forming eating habits in an early age, and educate children about the risk of eating a lot of sugary foods. Therefore, we will be able to guarantee their healthy eating habits, and even healthy future. In the long term, children who recognized the risk of sugar can grow as adults who have healthy habits, and the adults will educate healthy habits to their children, forming a healthy cycle. Therefore, I think it is important to inform the risk of children's preference for sugar, and to continue disputing about this topic.