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Your brain does need glucose. It does not need added sugar.

Fruit and vegetables deliver sugar bound to fibre — slow absorption, real satiety, and food for the good bacteria in your gut. "Added sugar," used as preservative or flavour enhancer, does the opposite: it starves the good microbes and feeds the harmful ones.

Half of your body is microbial. Feed it well.

A cavity is not just poor brushing. It is the first visible sign that the wrong bacteria are colonising a child's mouth — and gut.

Unlike skin or bone, a tooth never regenerates. Once damaged, it stays damaged for life.

"By fighting for dental health, I am fighting for the health of the whole society. The habits of childhood shape the diseases of adulthood." — Prof. Ilze Maldupa

Many products on the "baby aisle" are ultra-processed and high in added sugar — marketed with cartoon mascots and vitamin claims.

The category was invented in the mid-20th century, when mothers returned to the workforce and purées were designed to be poured into infants from 4 months old, before they could properly swallow.

Today the marketing is slicker. The biology has not changed.

Read the label. If you need glasses to understand it, it is probably not food.

Since the 1970s, the sugar industry has invested heavily in a "parallel science" designed to delay regulation — much like tobacco did decades earlier.

"All current guidelines now state that there is practically no safe amount of sugar. It is written in black and white." — Prof. Ilze Maldupa, RSU

The science is clear, but the communication gap is what we must close.

The first 1,000 days — from conception to age 2 — set a person's lifetime health risk profile.

Cohort studies of children born during post-WWII sugar rationing show that those who avoided added sugar in their first two years have:
• –20% risk of cardiovascular disease
• –3.5× risk of early-onset colorectal cancer
• Lower lifetime risk of depression

The mouth is where this story begins.

Over 90% of children in Latvia have caries experience — versus 30–40% in comparable European countries. This is what happens when a society does nothing. It is a natural experiment, and the results are catastrophic.

Three steps every family can take this week:

1. Be patient with sweets. Avoid added sugar entirely in the first 2–3 years. The infant microbiome cannot handle it.

2. Choose real food. If you need to read the ingredient list, something is already wrong.

3. Watch collective catering. Demand fresh fruit and vegetables in nurseries and schools — not sugary buns. Sugar is the cheapest calorie; that is why it dominates the menu.

"We do not want a society where children are wired for instant gratification and run by the wrong microbes." — Prof. Ilze Maldupa

Learn more about our work: oralhealthresearch.lv

Over 90% of children in Latvia have caries experience — versus 30–40% in comparable European countries. This is what happens when a society does nothing. It is a natural experiment, and the results are catastrophic.

Three steps every family can take this week:

1. Be patient with sweets. Avoid added sugar entirely in the first 2–3 years. The infant microbiome cannot handle it.

2. Choose real food. If you need to read the ingredient list, something is already wrong.

3. Watch collective catering. Demand fresh fruit and vegetables in nurseries and schools — not sugary buns. Sugar is the cheapest calorie; that is why it dominates the menu.

"We do not want a society where children are wired for instant gratification and run by the wrong microbes." — Prof. Ilze Maldupa

Learn more about our work: oralhealthresearch.lv

Many products on the "baby aisle" are ultra-processed and high in added sugar — but the label rarely tells you what is really inside.

The cartoon fruit is the wrapper. The long-term cargo is metabolic disease: diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease — risks that begin in the first 1,000 days and unfold across decades.

Read the label. If you need glasses to understand it, it is probably not food.

#BabyFood #UltraProcessed #PublicHealth #OralHealthLV