| 04/2007 - What's in Your Pantry? |
By: By Susan Brooke Day - April 2007
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Years ago, some of my favorite times were spent in sleepouts on my friend Carol's screened-in backporch. Not because we yearned for the great outdoors and the sound of chirping crickets, but because we had sweets, and lots of them. We'd spread out our sleeping bags on the cushion-covered chaise lounges and play cards, tell stories ... and then, once Carol's mom was satisfied that we were settled for the night, we'd spread out our feast. Carol would pull out her jumbo bag of Starbursts, I would produce a giant bag of Smarties, and my little sister, Wendy, would haul out a sack of red licorice -- all bought on one of our beloved walks to town. We'd eat candy all night long -- I loved wrapping one small Smartie in my bubblegum and eating it that way because it made the bubblegum softer, cooler, and interestingly textured -- really darn healthy, right? We were kids!
So why did we sneak our stash? That's easy. our moms didn't like us to have candy and they'd go out of their ways to keep it from us. And because we were good little girls we wanted to please them. So we hid our sugar fetish to protect ourselves from their wrath. Nevermind that we'd skin our knees in the mornings scrambling to pick up wrappers on the backporch. Nevermind that our stomachs felt carved out after a night of ingesting sugar's chemical mix, and nevermind that our moms told us over and over again how we'd end up with rotten teeth. The fact that they purposefully kept sugar at bay made it even more desirable.
My brother-in-law refuses to let my nephews have sugar at all. A fitness fanatic without an ounce of fat on his body, he doesn't know what I do: That Peter and Tyler both have a secret candy drawer in their bedrooms.
So with all that we hear about how awful sugar is for us and for all that we know today about its ill effects, how can parents help their kids make better choices about it? I spoke with a good friend about this. She's someone who just doesn't give a hoot about candy, cake, cookies and ice cream and she thinks it's because it was everywhere when she was a kid. She says her mom gave her sweets all the time so they were no big deal. Treats were everywhere so there was no allure to them. But can we dare to take that route? I don't offer my kids treats galore but my pantry produces evidence of its own: crumbs trailing down from cookie bags where little hands have made their way without my help.
Surely it's another of life's little balancing acts. Please read Kimberly Kennedy's excellent sugar article on page 17. Then think about how you're managing your family's diet at home. It's not that sugar is a bad, bad thing. It's that with all of the colorful advertising of sugary products aimed at our kids and with all of the so-called "healthy" products containing hidden sugars, a little restraint will go a long way. |
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