So long sweets, sugar has left the building
Lori Borgman | Monday, Apr 12, 2010
Car seats for babies now come with drink cup holders. I
mention this to the husband and he says the kids should hold out for car seats
that come with built-ins for remote controls as well.
Babies may
be forming a lobby and doing that very thing right now.
We condition kids to slurp, graze and nosh constantly (not unlike ourselves),
park them in front of the tube (also, not unlike ourselves) and then wonder why
they have weight problems and don’t want to play outside.
Some of our son’s first words were “appuh joo.” We finally figured out he was
saying “apple juice.” He howled for it morning, noon and night. The tot was
hooked.
The kid was on his way to being a juice-box junkie. It took several weeks,
and a 12-step fruit juice recovery program, but we got him off the stuff.
We’re all sipping something these days – fancy coffees, sugary sodas, energy
drinks and fruity teas.
We are awash in sugar. We can tell what month it is by the candies in the
store. Caramel apples kick off September; October unfolds with bags of
snack-size candies for Halloween and later mushrooms into candy corn for
Thanksgiving. We crescendo at Christmas with cookies, candies, fudge, resulting
in a glazed (as in Krispy Kreme) look as we step on the scales.
The
National Confectioner’s Association has designated 35 candy holidays, which are
amusingly listed under the heading of Healthy Living and Family Fun.
There is National Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day, National English Toffee Day,
or National Peanut Brittle Day. If those don’t strike your sweet tooth, hold out
for National Gum Drop Day, Chocolate Mint Day, National Licorice Day or National
Chocolate-Covered Cashews Day.
A Harris poll asked why we have seen such an increase in obesity.
Eighty-three percent said it was because we aren’t exercising enough. The truth
is, we most often tip the scales not for lack of exercise, but due to too many
calories. I’ll take the value meal, please.
Beverages account for a lot of our calories. (As a friend used to say, why
drink your calories when you can eat them?) A 12-ounce soft drink contains
roughly 10 teaspoons of sugar. Who would spoon 10 teaspoons of refined white
sugar onto a placemat and call a kid to the table? “Chow down, kids, there’s
more where this came from!”
A television commercial has been airing that shows vendors from the three
major soft drink companies walking out of a school pulling carts with cans of
soda on them. A voice-over says they are voluntarily removing full-calorie
drinks from schools. That’s voluntary as in a lot of adults in a lot of states
have passed laws forcing them out.
Then again, adults are the ones who originally invited the vendors in -- all
in the interest of raising revenues and making money off the students. The kids
were hooked on the soft drinks; the schools were hooked on money.
I can’t quite make out what the vendors say as they walk out the doors, but
I’m pretty sure it’s, “See you later, Sugar.” It is a long-overdue and sweet
departure.
