Showing Kids How Much Sugar There is in Coke!

Following our “pupil-free-day”at Wet and Wild theme park last Monday I was mortified at the wide spread acceptance of Coke and over the top promotions.

I was determined , in my own little ripple pond of influence, to show parents and kids, that the sugar in coke is crazy high and SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN TO CHILDREN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!

This followed me witnessing a child of around 2 years old, drinking a bottle of Coke on Monday (all his siblings were too). Then as he became less compliant and agitated from the obvious sugar surge, the mother started yelling obscenities. Don’t get me wrong, we all have moments as mums but this was different. This was a mother, in public, not caring about what others thought, and telling off her child who she had poisoned with sugar.

“I am not going to give you any more coke” she said. Which rapidly escalated to “ I am going to lock you in the car you little sh**T” to “ don’t make me bash you” and a firm slap on his leg.

I don’t even know what she wanted the child to do but it wasn’t worth all the fuss she was making. He was just standing there, when I saw it, with his bottle of Coke, all of age 2 or 3.

Coke is loaded with sugar.

As are most soft drinks.

These lead to a surge in blood sugar levels, and a corresponding surge in insulin.

This can lead to an increase in testosterone, fat, irritability, brain fog, aggression, acne, facial hair and more.

SUGAR CAUSES HORMONE IMBALANCES!

Helping others understand sugar in Coca-cola

Yesterday I was asked to talk about food with my son’s class.

It was an insight seeing how WRIGGLY 9 – 10 year olds are in the morning, but the beautiful teacher said “They are a very enthusiastic bunch and often call out. Please forgive them”

Gee, I thought. Enthusiasm I adore, uncontrolled behaviour fuelled by rubbish food I detest. Well the food I detest and the marketing companies selling it.

So my first big question of the day: “What did everyone have for breakfast? CALL IT OUT! “

I was bombarded with:

• Weetbix
• Eggs on Toast
• Toast
• Pizza (3 children had this)
• Cereal
• Chocolate
• MacDonalds
• And nothing….

So with such a wide range of carb-rich foods ingested and such a wriggly bunch of children, I set to work.

I wanted to demonstrate through exploration – their own exploration – that many foods have hidden sugars. And when we eat lots of sugar at once, we must burn it off with exercise, otherwise, it makes us wriggly, irritable, demanding for more and ultimately get us into trouble.

“Who wants to know more?” I said. Surprisingly everyone did.

Obviously getting into trouble today is as scary as it was when I was a kid.

We discussed the good affects of sugars (carbs) and the negative; irritability, sleepiness, cloudy thinking, low energy, weight gain. Then we set to work.

Measuring sugar in foods

I explained the food ingredient’s label, how to read the amount of sugar per serve and per 100g. They ALL got it!

The I explained 1 tsp = 5 grams of sugar and we split into groups.

With 2-3 pupils in each group we COUNTED the amount of sugar in each product.

We measured carrots, muffins, broccoli, popcorn, snickers bar, an apple, and a can of coke.

They had strict instructions to handle the “white poison”sugar with care.

Meticulously, well as much as 9-10 year old’s fine motor skills would allow, the children measured about the sugar in each product.

We swapped around and tried a few others.

The kids were themselves like popcorn.

“Oh WOW, check out the coke. It has 13 teaspoons of sugar!”

“Check out the carrots, they only have one teaspoon! I am going to eat these all the time!”

The unprompted responses were great.

After our experiment we talked more about sugar and ideal foods for “brain break”.

Carrots, broccoli sticks, snow peas are all better choices for brain break and muffins, coke and muffins to be eaten WAY less if at all.

WOW my job was done.

I am looking forward to going back in a few weeks and talking about chemicals in foods.