Sam didn’t know where to start after his Halloween haul. This was just one dining room table in one house in one neighborhood. Think how much candy was out there that night. And how much was consumed.
I know you’re just trying to be nice. I know you’re just trying to be neighborly.
But please keep the candy to yourself. Don’t put me in the position of saying no to my kids after they’ve displayed good manners at the hair place or the bank. Tell them “thank you,” or “great job,” or give them a high-five.
They don’t need more candy.
Have you seen this? Are you aware of this? Are you trying to raise your kids on healthy foods?
Well, good luck with that.
Unless you live in some ultra-liberal, high-dollar, Santa-Something town in Northern California where town ordinances have outlawed Ho-Hos and require four hours of daily hot yoga, your well-meaning plan is doomed. You haven’t a chance.
I don’t mean to be a cynic, but I know this from experience. Three years ago, my wife, Holly, and I made a deliberate and very scary decision to change our lifestyle by introducing regular exercise and cutting out processed foods, sugar, and for the most part, grains. One of the big motivators was the future health and well-being of our three children, all under 10 at the time. Not only did we want to set a positive example for them, but we wanted to get them into the habit of making healthy dietary choices.
Problem is, try as we might, we can’t keep our children inside our home 24/7, and in case you haven’t noticed, America has lost its ever-lovin’ mind when it comes to food.
There’s an interesting phenomena that happens the moment you purchase a certain kind of vehicle or have a baby. Instantly, it seems, everybody drives that exact kind of car and everybody is having babies. Just the opposite occurs when you decide to become a healthy eater. Suddenly, the world is is chock-full of terrible, sugary, processed foods. And at every turn, the world is trying to feed these foods to your children.
Problem is, it’s not just that it seems this way. It is this way. Suddenly, the veil is lifted, and you can see our country as it really is — fat and sick.
The indoctrination begins innocently enough in daycare. As a reward and/or bribe for practically any good behavior, our children are fed candy. As soon as a baby can safely consume processed sugar, America is shoving it down his or her throat. At church, she is rewarded for good behavior with a Tootsie Roll. At the fall harvest festival, each child’s hand is shoved full of candy as they exit the bouncy ride. Smarties, Skittles, Dots, Everlasting Gobstoppers, and Nerds. Jolly Ranchers, Pixy Stix, Mike & Ikes, Sweet Tarts, and Raisinettes.
In kindergarten, where soft drinks and fruit punches are served as a matter of course during any and every party, the featured “dish” is almost always cupcakes. (Water or milk is usually not an option.) Each semester is a virtual daily parade of birthday parties. Cupcakes, punch, Sprite, cupcakes, punch, Sprite.
And we’re not even out of kindergarten yet.
Elementary school field trips are awash in white-bread sandwiches and Hi-C. For breakfast, the preferred fare are S’mores Pop-Tarts.
Halloween, Christmas, and Easter have institutionalized sweets to the point that a parent is considered rude, crazy, abusive, or all of the above if they choose not to offer up their child for the sugar orgy. This year at Halloween (which I enjoy immensely in every other way), I paid $40 for the privilege of giving gobs of high-fructose corn syrup and sugar away to my neighbors’ children.
Yay, me.
As a culture, we have set up sweets to be the thing a child should strive for despite the annoying roadblock of healthy stuff. Soldier through the choking down of the green vegetables, lean meats, and other whole foods — the only offering with any nutritional value, mind you — so that you can arrive at the reward, the summit, the Ultimate Goal — dessert. Are we surprised that when a child is given the opportunity to skip the roadblock and go straight to the finish line, they don’t even hesitate?
How can foods that arrive at our homes in plain plastic sacks and have names like “broccoli,” “spinach,” or “cauliflower” ever hope to compete with zippy, shrink-wrapped, kaleidoscopic delights with monikers like “Pringles,” “Rolos,” “Now And Laters,” “Cheetos,” “Laffy Taffy,” or “Reese’s Pieces?”
Our country has become the most obese on the planet. More than one third of adults in the U.S. are considered obese. Cancer, diabetes, and heart disease are as commonplace as the common cold, which, incidentally, is more common than ever. We are literally and collectively eating ourselves into early, miserable, pathetic, fat graves.
And we don’t really seem to care. More often than not, we are resigned to sugar ourselves into oblivion, and in many cases, we’re downright proud of it. This is what my mother and her mother and her mother cooked and ate, so by golly, it’s good enough for me! I’m proud of this fat! I’ve been working on it for years! We’ve all got to die somehow!
America is fat, and America is free, so have at it. Fill your cells and arteries with syrup and sludge, but keep my kids out of it. I know you’re just trying to be nice, and I appreciate that, but don’t offer them suckers and ice cream and soda and cake and Smarties and candy bars. They’re not old enough to know better.
You are.
Click here for Part II of this post entitled, “Sugar pushes buttons.”
Well written and spot on with the content, except for the suggestion of milk as a healthy alternative. If it isn’t quality, organic, raw dairy from a good strain of grass fed cow, that milk alternative is worse than the juicy juice!!! Stick with water…if necessary make it interesting with fresh lime and stevia (a completely “healthy” sweetener).
By the way, middle TN is blessed to have total health guru, Dr. Josh Axe, at its disposal. He’s already done (and continues to do) the homework for you. His info is largely free. When not free, very affordable. He does free workshops quite frequently in Nashville, which are priceless. What you get from Dr. Axe is effective, cutting edge and dependable advice regarding nutrition, exercise and taking care of the spine. He has several books and DVDs out, one of which is a cookbook full of inspirational recipes, including healthy desserts!
I couldn’t resist plugging Dr. Axe, knowing a lot of the readers here are in that area. He is the number one reason we miss living in Nashville!
Check out: draxe.com
Morgan, thanks for the comments, man! I agree with your assessment of milk, too. (We only use organic, raw, or almond or coconut.) My point is, milk, which is viewed by the general public as a healthy alternative, isn’t even OFFERED during these parties. Our culture is so far gone that it’s just assumed that everyone is OK with sodas and Capri Suns. It’s a given, and it makes me insane.
In regards to Dr. Axe, I made blueberry-pumpkin pancakes out of his cookbook (personally autographed to the Johnson family, no less) last night! We’re very aware of Dr. Axe and use his recipes on a regular basis. He rocks.
Good job, Mark! I am not into the “no processed foods” lifestyle (yet!?), but I have often called myself the “mean mom” at parties since I don’t let my son have soda (I bring water) and full size candy bars. (Where did all the regular “full size” bars go, by the way? Now everything is king size!) My son chooses water as a drink and knows if he is getting candy, it is a mini.And yes – his first servings of candy were at preschool – without my consent!
See you at Fit Way!
Traci
Traci, simply cutting out sodas is a huge game-changer and a great start. It’s extremely tough to eliminate processed foods without the proper resources, like a handy Whole Foods-type store, and even then, you’ve got to devote time to preparing the foods. Just do the best you can. Doing Crossfit will motivate you in the dietary area, and vice versa.
Mark I have been fighting this fight at school and it is so very frustrating. I send in alternative snacks for my kids and have informed the teacher that they are not allowed to have the junk is handed out in class on a daily basis. It’s so terrible when she comes home crying that she is “different” and the other kids make fun of her. I have recently been told that I will cause my kids to have eating disorders because I tell them no to junk. I’m called weird, extreme, crazy, hippie, you name it. We also follow Dr. Axe’s real food diet (not 100 percent but we try). We are definitely in the minority when it comes to our children though. You should see the faces of the other kids when mine open their lunch boxes to reveal an avacado and raw veggies. It’s heartbreaking and discouraging to see the others yelling yuck in their faces and calling them weird. Thankfully mine have learned that we are just different and different is good. Glad Brad reposted this as I can seriously relate!!! I enjoyed reading it!
Alison, it’s so frustrating to read your comment. I guess the lesson is that you have to be brave to do the right thing if the right thing bucks convention. Mark Twain said, “Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” This certainly holds true when it comes to America’s dietary choices. You have my utmost respect and admiration for taking a stand for what’s right with your kids.
Here’s a report from Traci (see above) from a Facebook conversation today: “Oddly enough, today my son went to a car dealer with my parents. Someone there asked if they could give him a reward for being so patient. My mom said yes, expecting a sucker. They gave him a gallon-size Ziploc bag filled with suckers, pop rocks, pixie sticks, etc.!”
My kids came home this week (from school) with a candy necklace, candy canes, one had cake pops for a party, and ice cream Friday. ONE week folks. 4 out of 5 days they had junk and that’s just what I’m aware of. I’m sure they don’t tell me everything. UGGGGGG!!!!!!! I took the candy that was brought home away but that was a fight ending with me being the bad guy once again.
Thanks for sharing this, Alison. All we can do is fight the good fight and keep championing the cause. At least we can control what is eaten in our homes…
The food industry is seriously guilty of feeding this sugar addiction. I am sure that you, Mark and your wife, already read labels on packaged foods. Sugar is added to EVERYTHING, in its most destructive form: high corn syrup fructose. Look on youtube for a video of a lecture by Professor Robert Lustig, endocrinologist at UCSF. It is called Sugar: The Bitter Truth. You will never forget it.
I’ll be sure to watch that, Frances, thank you so much! And thanks for taking time to comment!
Sorry! My words got tangled up in my comment. Should read high-fructose corn syrup!