You can probably guess why. The kids were told to bring their own lunches, and most of them all had a sugary drink (Capri-sun type) as well as a desert. Not to mention the extra sugar from jelly on a PBJ and if there was fruit as well. To my horror I saw most kids eating the dessert first and sometimes throwing away the actual meal.
Snack time was no different. The Arts Center I work at provided those snacks and my choices consisted of Pop-ice, capri-sun, goldfish and oreos. I couldn't really avoid the sugar and I didn't mind giving it to those kids as long as I wasn't consuming it. But this whole week really made me wonder why.
Why must we allow the children of our country to consume such high volumes of sugar?
Here's one answer
Seriously, have you ever stopped to think about how much sugar a child consumes in a day? According to this article in Parents Magazine, the average child under 12 consumes 49 pounds of sugar PER YEAR. But wait? The only sugar I sent in my kids lunch was a small cookie for dessert!
Wrong - As mentioned before, both the peanut butter and jelly have added sugar, as does the bread. The fruit roll-up that claims to be all natural is loaded with extra sugar, as is the gatorade that your child is drinking.
Who's fault is this really? The parents? I was able to see the documentary Fed Up last year and it really opened my eyes. They talked to several over weight kids who just couldn't lose weight. They had tried everything, including eating healthier, but what big business doesn't want us to know is that they control what goes in our food and how it's promoted.Think about this - Gatorade is promoted as a drink for athletes to refuel, with electrolytes and such to do just that. But it's loaded with sugar. This can easily be burned off by someone who is as active as a football player, but what about a 10 year old who is going back inside after lunch to make art? Not so much.
Back to the image above, sugary items are also cheaper, and thus easier. I saw a news report about a month ago where they followed a family of four at the grocery store. Said family chose to buy mostly packaged, processed items because they were less expensive then enough produce for everyone. I think it's depressing that we live in a society where it's cheaper to consume a bottle of SUGAR than a bottle of WATER.
We can point fingers at big business (and believe me, I am) but we have to blame parents a bit. After all, there are healthy options out there (and not saying organic is best - even organics have sugar) and yet parents chose not to purchase them or take time to read the labels. I know that budgets are tight, but if we take the time to educate ourselves, we can find that the extra money we save buying cheap food will eventually lead the doctors visits due to repercussions.
That's my two cents anyway. I plan to do some follow up posts on this one at a later date.
--
I shouldn't be talking, last week was kinda bad for me too.
My parents came to town to help me move and I broke down and had a mini-size blizzard at DQ. It wasn't awful and didn't make me feel icky, but I didn't miss it either.
The next day my boss bought me a frosty from Wendy's. Once again, totally unneeded but I couldn't just say no.
My beer consumption wasn't great either.
Both of these things are changing this week that's for sure.
~Lisa
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