Resisting the Sweet Tooth

Trevia Hunt




Too many children in many countries are exposed to high amounts of fats, sugar and carbonated full foods. The TEMPEST program set out to find out how to teach young children in Europe how to supress the temptation to eat sweets. This research project took nine researchers each from a different European country to find out this answer. One of the members name is Liliya Nureeva, a student at Aarhus University.

The TEMPEST research project has come with ways to help children resist the desire to eat sweets and snacks. First the researchers had to address the problem of increasing overweight children and teenagers in Europe."Children and teenagers need to know more about health and the tools available so that they themselves can become involved in defining their diets and eating habits," explains Liliya Nureeva from the Department of Business Administration at Aarhus University.

Liliya believed that some children find it easy to avoid their unhealthy habits by completly avoiding them. Others use distractions such as sports to band their addiction as well. Then others set their own ground rules for eating unhealthy foods. Some eat fresh fruit everyday and some just eat sweets on the weekends. As long as children are aware of the techniques that will work for them, they can take actions to control the intake of unhealthy foods.

Pointing out the unhealthy aspects of children and teenage lives and then discovering ways to change their habits can be very challanging. One must first help the children/teenager develop knowlge about what is exactly the temptation. Then they must set goals and unique rules based on the individual on how to break away from these unhealthy habits. Liliya believes that parent, school teachers and people who have a close relationship with children and teenagers need to constantly inform students about different eating habits and strategies they can incoporate into their daily lives.