Mary Poppins needs to hire a lawyer and sue, sue, sue. Can it really be coincidence that soon after she sang on the big screen that "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down," food producers started adding two, three, four spoonfuls of the stuff to nearly everything they produce to help their profits go up?

To all sorts of cereal, including the ones with dried fruit added. To yogurt that's naturally loaded with lactose. Even to things that are not supposed to be sweet, like peanut butter.While it has taken a long time, the world has finally caught on, so those clever food companies have changed their advertising campaigns. Now many companies brazenly offer "low-sugar" versions of items - most prominently cereals - that really require no sugar to be added at all. In short, food producers so overuse added sugars that even if you only eat a moderate amount of processed food, it harms your health.That's especially true for children.As a result, the American Heart Association now recommends children be limited to 6 teaspoons of added sugars a day, an amount that strikes many as being so draconian that it was decreed by Draco himself. After all, it only takes two tablespoons of Smucker's Strawberry Preserves spread on toast or a bagel to reach the recommendation.While that example may make the AHA's recommendation appear unrealistic, it's an attempt to battle a problem that's quite real: the spike in teenage obesity.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 20 percent of those between the ages of 12 and 19 are now not overweight, but worse: clinically obese. And research has shown that obese teenagers are far more likely to develop diabetes - in part because they probably already have prediabetes, a condition characterized by high blood glucose levels.Moreover, obesity in adolescents increases the risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, social and psychological problems, as well as the risk factors that lead to cardiovascular diseases like high cholesterol and high blood pressure.With the dangers now established, consider that earlier CDC research revealed that from 2005 to 2008, boys in the U.S. aged 2 to 19 years consumed about 362 calories of added sugars per day - about 375 percent more added sugars than the new AHA recommendation suggests. Girls of the same age are not nearly as egregious, ingesting only 282 calories of added sugars per day, but that number is still alarmingly high considering they ingest fewer total calories per day.To give some idea of the damage being done by this overuse of added sugars, imagine what would happen to your health if you increased your caloric intake overall - all types of calories including added sugars - by 375 percent each day for just one month.Your weight would skyrocket, no doubt, and other health complications would certainly result in the next few months. And think about how many months of strict dieting and increased exercise you would need to do to undo the damage done in that single month.The government has recognized the problems caused by the excessive use of added sugars, so as of July 2018 parents will get this bit of help: food manufacturers in the U.S. will be required to list the added sugar content on their labels separate from total sugar, making the new AHA guideline, theoretically, easier to adhere to.But that change is about 20 months away. What's a parent supposed to do in the meantime?In an online article for Medical News Today, Dr. Miriam Vos, professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA, offered this: "Until then, the best way to avoid added sugars in your child's diet is to serve mostly . . . fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, lean meat, poultry and fish, and to limit foods with little nutritional value."If followed, Vos's suggestion does more than just limit added sugars ingested by teenagers. If applied to the entire family, it will most certainly lead to improved overall health and a loss of unwanted weight.While it is hoped that all parents care deeply about their children's eating habits, they cannot be remiss about their own. Parents need to take care of themselves, especially if they hope to take better care of their sons and daughters.And live to see them have sons and daughters of their own.