The Science Behind Your Child's Sweet Tooth

The Science Behind Your Child's Sweet Tooth

Ever wonder why your children will eat only a few bites of dinner but have no problem scarfing down a big bowl of ice cream?

Blame it on their growing bones.

New research suggests that children who are growing rapidly have a higher preference for sweets than children growing at a slower rate.

Researchers gave 143 children ages 11 to 15 sugar-water and orange Kool-Aid with increasing levels of sweetness. Then they classified the children into two groups: high preference or low preference for sweetness.

They found that children who had the highest levels of a biomarker for bone growth (type I collagen cross-linked N-telopeptides) in their urine were most likely to be in the group that liked the sweetest drinks.

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