This is how much sugar American kids eat every 5 minutes

A lot of us are trying to cut down on how much sugar we consume. And with good reason: Research shows that we are consuming way too much sugar, and that reducing or eliminating sugar from our diets can have dramatic positive effects on our health.

Even if you’re not downing cans of soda or gorging on candy, you could be getting way too much of the white stuff from some surprising sources. Kids, in particular, are vulnerable to the harmful effects of excess sugar consumption. They, too, are eating too much sugar. In fact, America’s children consume a staggering 45,485 pounds of added sugar every five minutes.

To illustrate this startling fact while also promoting their fruit bites with no added sugar, KIND Snacks erected an installation made of sugar boxes and surrounded by statues of children in Times Square:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYGKFlGjkuG/?hl=en&taken-by=kindsnacks

The statues were each made using 64 pounds of sugar, which represents the average amount of sugar that an 8-year-old consumes in a year. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that children should eat less than 25 grams of added sugars each day. While the installation was only up for a day, the company is undoubtedly hoping it made a big impact and will raise awareness of the dangers of too much sugar (and maybe help sell some of their low-sugar products as well).

The company’s new fruit bites come in three flavors: cherry apple, strawberry cherry apple and mango pineapple apple. KIND says the products are made without juices, purees, concentrates and preservatives.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYJLkN1j5lx/?hl=en&taken-by=kindsnacks

“Since our inception, we have lived by the ‘Kind Promise,’ where the first ingredient in all our products is always something nutritionally rich, something you have heard of and something you can pronounce,” Daniel Lubetzky, founder and CEO of KIND, told Business Insider. “We felt that the fruit snacks category was ripe for disruption. There is a lot of deception in the space.”

What do you think of the KIND installation? Will the image stick in your head as a reminder to watch your and your children’s sugar intake?