A Heartbreaker: Teens Struggle to Resist Sugar

 SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR.

It's true: Teens are officially "addicted" to sugar -- and that could mean trouble for their hearts as they grow older.

If you think about it, many teens eat for breakfast sugary cereal and syrup waffles. For lunch, they drink soda. Soda is actually the main culprit when it comes to a kid's sugar consumption.

In a study, teens who consume added sugar  -- again, usually found in sweetened beverages -- had a higher risk for heart problems latter in life. This sugar makes up 1/5 of their daily calories. This website NPR will give you more info on haw to keep your teens healthy. You can also go this website by the Harvard School of Medicine to read a list of all the different names for sugar. This list could be helpful when someone is trying to figure out how much sugar is in the ingredients of a drink or food item. 

• Agave nectar
• Brown sugar
• Cane crystals
• Cane sugar
• Corn sweetener
• Corn syrup
• Crystalline fructose
• Dextrose
• Evaporated cane juice
• Fructose
• Fruit juice concentrates
• Glucose
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Honey
• Invert sugar
• Lactose
• Maltose
• Malt syrup
• Molasses
• Raw sugar
• Sucrose
• Sugar
• Syrup 

Here is a video to highlight my story:

The History of Valentine's Day and More

Have you ever wondered about why we celebrate Valentine's Day? We celebrate it in honor of St. Valentine, and I'll tell you the history of Valentine's Day:

The legend has it that St. Valentine was a priest in third century Rome. Claudius II, the emperor, decided single men should fight instead of married men. He also made a law to go with that ruling in which no young men could marry. He did this so his army would be younger and stronger. Valentine found this unfair and secretly started marrying young couples. Once Claudius II found out, he put Valentine to death.

Another legend for Valentine's Day is that Valentine was an imprisoned man who fell in love with the jailer's daughter. Before he was put to death he wrote a letter to his love saying, "Your Valentine."

Cupid comes from Greek mythology. Cupid is the son of the god Venus and Venus is the god of love.

You can celebrate Valentines even without cards. Here's how to make a Valentine bingo.

YOU WILL NEED

• Construction paper
• Ruler
• Magic markers
• Two large bags of candy hearts
• Small bag

Here's how make the bingo cards. For each card, cut the paper into a five-inch (12.7-centimeter) square. Use a ruler to draw five equally spaced rows and columns with the marker, creating 25 squares (see above). Each player counts out 25 candy hearts and writes the saying from each candy in a square. (It's OK if the same saying appears on several of your candy hearts.) Start playing. All players throw their 25 hearts into one bag. Pick one person to be the "caller." The caller shakes up the bag, then pulls one heart out of the bag at a time and reads the saying out loud. Using coins or extra candy hearts as markers, players mark the called sayings that appear on their cards. The first player to line up five hearts across, down, or diagonally yells "Bingo!"

Sugar as a Heartbreaker for Teens?

Assignment: Jennifer

For the most part, we all know that too much sugar isn't good for us. But NPR reports on why too much sugar, especially in drinks, might be especially bad for teenager's hearts later in life.

Write a news story explaining this report. You should answer the five W's of a good news story, as well as the following questions.

1. Who reported this story?
2. Who created the report that this story references?
3. What is this story about?
4. When was this story first reported?
5. Where did the story take place?
6. Why does it matter to Herald readers?
7. What is the connection between sugar, teenagers, and their hearts?
8. What is "added sugar"?
9. What other names, or pseudonyms, does "added sugar" go under? Why is it good to know these names? (Hint.)
10. What can teens -- or anyone -- do to avoid too much sugar in their diets?

This week, your goal is to write at least 15 solid sentences and include images. Have Ms. Moorhead review your post prior to publishing.