"Sugar is not love."
--Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D., from Little Sugar Addicts
I write a lot about sugar in my work to create solutions to
the childhood obesity epidemic in America.
Whenever I give a talk to children or adults, I like to bring a teaching
tool such as a bottle of soda or juice to illustrate the lessons.
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| Pop Tarts contain 4 OR MORE different sugars, including High Fructose Corn Syrup |
Last weekend I had the pleasure of speaking at Healthy Start
Coalition of Indian River County’s 2nd Annual “You are Worth More
than Gold” seminar. I asked for 2
volunteers and got a 10 year old and a 12 year old to help me. I asked the
girls to pick one of the items I had on the table and they went straight to the
box of Pop Tarts. What followed were
powerful lessons for the adults and the children, as I asked questions of the
girls and empowered their voices by giving them the microphone. “Why did you pick the Pop Tarts?” I asked.
The 10 year old answered, “Because that’s what all the kids eat.” “Look at the Nutrition Facts label and tell everyone
what a serving size is,” I asked. She
looked at the label and replied, “1 pastry.” I asked her to take a shiny silver
package out of the box and open it, which she did. I put the microphone in front of her and
asked her to tell the audience how many pastries were inside the package. “Two,” she said. “When you or your friends have a Pop Tart, do
you eat just one pastry out the package or two?” I asked her. She replied, “Two, of course!” The girls and I then proceeded with the math
lesson, multiplying everything on the label by 2, since the label applied to
just one pastry.
Here is what they found
in one package (2 pastries) of Pop Tarts:
- 400 calories, not 200
- 340 grams of sodium, not 170
- 76 grams of carbohydrates, not 38 grams
- 4 different sugars
- 2 different food dyes
As I have previously written in 50 Shades of Sugar, when food
manufacturers use different kinds of sugar in a product, the sugar can be hidden
within the ingredients. The fact is that
if all sugars were combined and listed as just “sugar”, then sugar would be the
first ingredient on many processed foods marketed to kids. Heck, who are we kidding – adults are sucked
into the Pop Tart scam as well. Ingredients are listed by quantity, so what you
see listed first is the ingredient there is the most of.
REAL FOOD LESSON #1:
Look on the ingredients of processed foods AND drinks (think “box”, “can”,
or “bottle”) for HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.
This highly processed sugar is highly addictive and harmful to
children. Stop buying any food or drink
that contains high fructose corn syrup.
Become a nutrition detective. This simple change can help you (and the
kids) stay, or get to, a healthy weight.
It can also help you (and the kids) enjoy good moods because eating too
much processed sugar is a major contributor to bad moods due to extreme
fluctuations in your blood sugar.
For more facts about why eating less sugar is a very good thing to do, please listen to my recent "Pop Up Health" with Nancy Heinrich interview on WAXE 107.9FM/1370 AM with Chef Michael Glatz from La Patissiere in Vero Beach, Florida, then click here.
With love and gratitude,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder of the Growing Healthy Kids Project
