What About Sugar?

Posted by Melanie in Foodie | 1 comment

Sugars; clockwise from top left:
White refined, unrefined,
brown, unprocessed cane
Picture from Wikipedia by Romain Behar
Picture is in the public domain

I have seen some pretty scary obesity studies this week and I have always thought that sugar was the devil.  Since my children were born, I have tried to limit it, replace it, negotiate around it, and keep it away from them as much as possible in their lives.  But this summer, I changed my mind just a little bit.

We were in Europe for 5 weeks this summer and we wanted the boys to enjoy the local foods.  For 8-year-old boys, “food” translates into dessert and treats.  And we wanted them to eat croissants and tarts and all the delicious things in France and the amazing wienerbrød in Denmark.  Food was part of experiencing the culture of each country with all of their senses.  I also realized that Orangina is available almost everywhere in Europe and  it has long been on my list for acceptable kid beverages (It is essentially just juice and bubbling water, no added sugar).

So we allowed them to have a treat and an Orangina every day.  For the treat, candy would have been off-limits, but they never asked about that.

My boys are thin and extremely active and tall for their age.  They both do sports for extracurricular activities and they also run, jump, play hard, and are generally very active people who burn lots and lots of calories.  They eat very few carbs–that is bread, pasta, potatoes, etc.  They get most of their carbs from fruit.  Still with the daily treat, they gained a little weight.  But it seemed to be good for them.  One of them has always been very thin.  He filled out a little.  And he seemed less slight and more grounded in his body. The other added a little weight to his body but has gotten leaner now that he is back to the twice a week swim team routine.  It has made me rethink my “sugar is the devil” mantra.  Could it be that moderation in the sugar department might actually be good for my children?

I have always been concerned about spikes in blood sugar when we eat sweets.  I don’t want my kids to live with constant insulin spikes.  I have compromised on things like yogurt and occasionally granola bars in my house.  Even Kind Bars that have great ingredients, are sweet like a candy bar.  For me, treats for my boys made with lots of butter and fat and maybe even some nuts for protein are the perfect treat for minimizing the sugar spike.  A chocolate croissant, for example would fit my criteria.

I have to be careful because if I make a lot of baked goods and have them around the house, I will eat them and there is no need to discuss whether they are good for me.  As someone who struggles with weight and have for my whole life, I pretty much can guarantee I don’t need a cookie–no matter how much love is baked into it.  And with childhood obesity on the rise, I struggled with writing this article because all children are different.

But my boys don’t share my DNA or my challenges with BMI.  So,  I think some treats will help fill in the calorie gap they are facing as they try to eat enough calories to sustain their rapid growth to unusual height (we expect both to be over 6 ft).

Here’s the rules we used:

1.  One “treat” per day

2.  It has to be made by a person with an actual name–that is, not in a factory or mass-produced.  This can help avoid some of the corn syrup, trans fat, and food dyes that can come along with sugar.

3.  I try to steer them away from food dyes as much as possible by not choosing places for the treat that have foods laden with dyes.  This includes much of the processed ice cream and popsicle kinds of things.

4.  Mom or Dad have to approve the treat.  Sometimes they have their own money and think that gives them the freedom to buy what they want.  We had a really bad day where they bought and drank a bunch of Diet Coke in France and felt really bad from the caffeine.  Caffeine is now on the “no” list as well as aspartame and high fructose corn syrup.

5.  Candy is almost always a “no” except at Halloween where we eat the candy for 3 days and then I buy what’s left from them.

6.  Soda is always a no except for fruit juice sweetened soda on occasion.  This includes Orangina and Knudsen’s as well as the Zevia sodas sweetened with Stevia, which my kids like.

I know as parents we all struggle to find our way around these issues.  For me birthday cake is always a yes no matter how horrible it is.  When the boys were little, I used to make them beautiful honey sweetened carrot cakes.  But now they want the cakes from the store that are decorated with their favorite characters.  I say yes.

Here’s some examples of some treats I would say yes to–occasionally.

A house made bakery cookie

A chocolate or almond croissant

Almond Cake from Picone’s in Dundas, ON

House made carrot cake with cream cheese icing

Homemade ice cream (this is the easiest dessert to make at home). Sometimes I sweeten it with Xylitol and solve the whole sugar dilemma by sidestepping it completely

Almost any treat made from scratch at home

Desserts in a restaurant that are house made

Baklava

Free cookies at the grocery store (these don’t really fit my criteria but they make my children happy about helping me unload the cart and they don’t ask for candy bars at the cash register–free cookies serve a higher good)