30 Oct 2012 6 Comments
The Problem With Sugar
Growing up I ate a lot of processed food. “TV dinners” were a staple in our house (we thought they were healthy because they were made by Healthy Choice) and most things I consumed were in a package. Dinner time meant all of us sitting in the family room, in front of the TV, usually watching our favorite show “Married with Children” (gotta love Al Bundy!). I was raised with not the healthiest food habits, but we sure thought we were being healthy by eating and drinking things that said “fat free”, “low fat” or were sweetened with artificial sweeteners. Candy and junk food wasn’t really in our house often, but when it was, we would either eat it in hiding or consume it so fast that it was finished in one sitting. Our household sure loved carbs, especially bread and pasta! I was always involved in sports, dance and loved to exercise so I wasn’t too overweight. In no way do I wish to disrespect my parents on how they raised me, I grew up in such a loving and wonderful home and I am forever indebted to my mom and dad! I went through many years of yo-yo dieting, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig etc. In college I became pretty “crunchy” and started to better understand food and nutrition (I was a “hippy” vegetarian at that point).After college I had a profound understanding of my sugar addiction when I decided to spend 3 months not eating any sugar, artificial sweeteners or wheat. The first two weeks were rough but I soon stopped craving sugar and found that I was able to have more control over my compulsive overeating. I lost thirty five pounds in three months and it felt amazing.
I now have a much healthier relationship with food. My husband and I eat mainly organic, nutritious, home made meals in our house. It sure helps that he is an amazing cook (and food blogger www.thisamericanbite.com).We are dairy free in our house and only cook/bake with whole wheat and whole grains. We rarely use sugar but if we do we use molasses, maple syrup (grade B) or honey. In fact, most things we eat are gluten free and the majority of our diet are vegetables. We eat meat twice a week, so during the weekday we have mainly a vegan diet. My husband and I recently got into juicing and make one for breakfast almost every morning. Believe me, we are not complete health nuts (or I would be a lot thiner than I am) and we certainly have our issues with portion control that we are trying to work on. We decided that when we had our first child, it was important to us that we would sit down at the table for dinner as a family every night and that we wouldn’t feed our son white flour, sugar (except for fruit), processed food, dairy, food coloring or high fructose corn syrup. He is two and a half years old and thus far we have been able to maintain this healthy lifestyle for him. He loves food, especially vegetables and is far from a “fussy eater”. His favorite food is sushi and he loves food with spices, like curry. Many times he will say, “Mommy, more spicy,peez”.
The sad thing is we are looked at by many as outliers for not giving processed food and sugar to our toddler. Up until now we would provide healthy snack alternatives to sweets at his preschool, friend’s house, synagogue or birthday parties so he wouldn’t feel left out. He never noticed that the kids were eating something different, as long as he had something to put in his mouth. In the past month that has changed and he now wants what the other kids are having. In no way did we think we could maintain this type of diet forever for him. We just wanted to give him a healthy start and feel that as long as we are eating wholesome nutritious food in our home, then the occasional processed snack or dessert wouldn’t kill him. I don’t want him to feel left out or start eating in hiding because he isn’t allowed to have those kinds of food. But at the same time, why do parents, schools, day cares, places of worship, society feel the need to give sweets and junk to young children? It frustrates me so much! I get it that children enjoy and respond positively to sweets and it’s cheap. But that doesn’t make it good for them (or anybody for that matter) or right. There are other ways to invoke positive feelings in children, as a teacher for many years I know this to be true. It drives me crazy how much junk food, lollypops, ice cream, candy etc. are around my two year old at his preschool and synagogue. Do I just bite my tongue and accept it or take a stance against it and try to get other parents involved in changing this mindset? Do I run the risk of alienating my fellow friends by “preaching” healthy eating for our children?
We just have to take a look around us to see that something is not right with the way we are feeding our children in this country. Nearly 14% of American preschoolers (age 2-5) are obese…how scary is that! The American Heart Association found children as young as 1 to 3 years old consuming around 12 teaspoons of sugar per day. By the time a child is 4 to 8 years old, sugar consumption jumps to an average of 21 teaspoons a day.
I feel healthy food habits start with how we introduce foods (we followed a wonderful theory called “Baby Led Weaning”) to our children and especially how we feed them in these early years. Is it weird to want your child to have healthy food habits so that they don’t get sick, unhealthy and overweight? I don’t want to be the “crazy one” but I also don’t want to sacrifice my children’s health.
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Oct 30, 2012 @ 20:13:35
Today I got a ride home from the supermarket with a friend, so I helped her pack her bags. My bags had herbal tea, fruit, vegetables, cat food , fish, eggs, and soap powder, My friend who has a large family , keeps chickens, makes goat cheese from her own goats milk really amazed me as her bags were full of processed pizza, white bread, high sugar cereal, white flour and white sugar. I was actually shocked that someone who lives in the middle of nature has a small holding recycles provides meals full of so little nutrition for her family. You do amazingly well, and are an inspiration to others well done.
Oct 30, 2012 @ 23:58:18
As you know, I agree with you completely on this issue. You have to remind yourself that what you have done in the first few years of Eitan’s life with have a lifelong impact on his diet. You have created his palate and have created an atmosphere of consciousness and he will always enjoy diverse and healthy foods, even if he indulges in junk every so often. On top of that, he is doing the majority of his eating at home so even if he gets some junk in school, he will still be eating a healthy breakfast and dinner (and lunch if you provide that) with you. Look at the majority of his diet. Just like we shouldn’t punish ourselves for indulging in our own cravings every so often, we also shouldn’t worry about our children getting sweets, even highly processed ones, every so often. One of the big things we have tried to focus on in a preschool setting is that we want our children to be eating WHOLE foods. So even if they get treats, we would prefer the homemade chocolate cake over the highly processed candy. Sticking to this believe has allowed us to not flip out about the white flour challah or the cookies they make in preschool and still stand our ground and not allow the lollypops. Obviously I still wish that they would use whole wheat or other grain flour and not highly processed sugar, but you have to pick your battles. When it is out turn to send ingredients for challah and cookie making I always send whole grain flour, not white sugar or a healthy sugar substitute and organic ingredients and have actually gotten very positive reactions from it.
Oct 31, 2012 @ 19:30:59
Beautifully written! My sentiments exactly!!!!
Nov 05, 2012 @ 09:02:32
your website is great. when is the next post coming on this topic? i’m happy i found this blog.
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Feb 17, 2013 @ 15:00:17
[...] want to know more about why we decided to keep him so “healthy”, feel free to read this blog post. At my son’s school when someone has a birthday, the parents bring a birthday treat for the [...]
Apr 11, 2013 @ 14:01:42
Hi, I happily stumbled across your blog ( I actually remember your husband from many moons ago!!) I totally understand the sentiments and frustrations you are dealing with. We are also a dairy/sugar/processed food and now more recently gluten free family. Our biggest challenge is the synagogue and social activities, I have learned over time to send my kids to synagogue late on a day they will be throwing candy, however, as they get older you have less control over what they eat. I actually have taught my kids to take just a small amount of pizza a friend’s party as they know if they eat too much they get a belly ache. We also talk a lot about why we eat healthy food and how strong we are making our bodies. I really hope that they will learn to make their own healthy choices as they get older.