Prof. Jess Haines

Prof. Jess Haines, Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, spoke to CBC’s The National about a new study that found that more than half of infants and almost all toddlers exceed recommendations for daily sugar intake.

Read the CBC article here, and watch the video here.

Haines said she wasn’t surprised by the findings, noting her own research with the Guelph Family Health Study (GFHS) has found that 54 per cent of young children exceeded six teaspoons of sugar per day.

“Kids eat like we do. And adults, both in the U.S and Canada, we eat a fair bit of sugar,” she said.

Haines studies prevention of weight-related disorders in children and adolescents using community- and family-based interventions to promote healthy behaviours.

She is the associate director of the GFHS and directs the Parent-Child Feeding Laboratory.