Is Halloween To Blame For The Sugar Your Kids Eat?
Is Halloween To Blame For The Sugar Your Kids Eat?
The answer to whether Halloween is to blame for the sugar your kids eat is no. What you say?! Each year my mouth cringes as we see the mound of candy stock piled in the grocery stores, beginning as early as August to prep ourselves for the mega holiday….Halloween. Yet, while there is SOOOO much sugar consumed on Halloween, both leading up to (yes, the bag of candy you bought for the trick-o’treaters and ate before you gave it out) and the weeks following, it is only a small portion of sugar being consumed on a regular basis. Don’t think you’re giving your kids a lot of sugar? Don’t think you’re consuming a lot? Think again.
How Much Sugar Are Our Kids Eating?
American child eat sugar the other 364 days of the year too, and a lot of it. According to the American Heart Association, the average 1- to 3-year-old consumes roughly 12 teaspoons of sugar a day, and the average 4- to 8-year-old consumes 21 teaspoons on a daily basis. What’s the recommended amount? Hard to believe there’s one at all, but the recommended limit is 3-4 tsp a day, or 12-16 g for kids (Source Yale Health). Sugar is posted in grams on food labels, not in teaspoons. This is on purpose. The reason is to cause confusion, and not allow people to truly understand how much they’re really consuming.
Sugar hides in most American children’s diets. Consider these eight commonly-consumed foods and beverages, and the sugar punch they pull. As you browse these figures,
1) Froot Loops Marshmallow cereal:
Grams of sugar per serving: 14 (100% of daily limit)
Candy equivalent: 5 Hershey’s kisses
2) Pop-Tarts Frosted Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough toaster pastries:
Grams of sugar per serving: 17 (>100% of daily limit)
Candy equivalent: 6 Original Starburst Fruit Chews
3) Nature Valley Crunchy Maple Brown Sugar granola bar:
Grams of sugar per serving: 12 (100% of daily limit)
Candy equivalent: 1.5 Snickers fun-size bars
4) Dunkin’ Donuts Small Strawberry Coolatta:
Grams of sugar per serving: 57 (4.5x daily limit)
Candy equivalent: ½ cup Skittles
5) Quaker Dinosaur Eggs Oatmeal:
Grams of sugar per serving: 14 (100% of daily limit)
Candy equivalent: 1 Tablespoon Nerds candy
6) Kellogg’s Disney Fairies fruit-flavored snacks:
Grams of sugar per serving: 11 (~100% daily limit)
Candy equivalent: 1 Pez candy dispenser
7) Wheaties Fuel cereal:
Grams of sugar per serving: 14 (100% of daily limit)
Candy equivalent: 4 Werther’s original hard caramel candies
8) Capri-Sun Fruit Punch juice beverage:
Grams of sugar per serving: 16 (100% of daily limit)
Candy equivalent: Two “fun size” Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
9) GoGurt
Grams of sugar per serving: 9 (75% daily limit, of which more than 50% of calories come from sugar)
How Much Sugar is OK?
Keep in mind that the American Heart Association recommends children cap their sugar intake at 12 grams a day, or 3-4 tsp. Watch that lurking sugar. It hides in all sorts of foods like ketchup, salad dressings, baked potato chips, and most processed foods.
We feel that whole foods are best. This means, you know exactly what you are eating. There’s no added sugars in an apple, a pear, a strawberry-but buy them processed, and you are not getting the nutrition the original food provides. For recipes and more resources, visit our food blog, www.gardenfreshfoodie.com
For other ideas on what to give out on Halloween, try pretzels, pencils, glow in the dark rings, and other non-food treats!