RSS
Home
Welcome to the sugar coma
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
Better if you eat them all at once
“They had a sugar overdose,” we yell in a panic, “we’re sorry, they’re not normally like this!” And then we make a quick getaway, practically throwing those kids in their car seats, hoping people will forgive us but secretly thinking we’ll never be invited anywhere, ever again. After we come home and put the kids to bed, we tell each other: “No wonder, with that much candy. What do people expect”?
Personally, I’m not convinced sugar is the bad guy. I base this on the knowledge that A) I’ve never noticed my kids’ behavior tied to anything they ingest. My son can go without food for days, and still. B) We discovered about a year ago that he had secretly been eating out of the sugar bowl. I had noticed the spoon was sticky, but if my husband hadn’t caught Mendel red-handed, we’d never have guessed. He was as mellow as they come. Well, back then, he was. Maybe all that sugar he ate when he was three has been saved up in his system, and we’re reaping the benefits now.
The problem is, admitting that there may be no truth to the sugar-behavior myth means letting go of a really nice excuse, and who wants that? If you can’t tell aunt Zelda that the reason your kids played hockey with her good china was the chocolate macaroons she fed them, then what? Admit it’s your fault and you’re a bad parent? I don’t think so. Also, there are many parents who will swear up and down they see a correlation, and I’m not about to argue with them.
Maybe we need to do a real experiment one of these days. My daughter has a birthday party coming up next month; maybe I’ll shove a little extra sugar down her guests’ throats, send them home with their parents, and call all the moms the next day to find out what happened. I’ll let you know how that turns out.
For more opinions on sugar and kids, read Kids eat too much sugar, or The Straight Dope
If you liked this article, also try Getting a flu shot, The best diet ever, or Is having naughty children genetic, or is it just bad luck?
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
