Chocolate eggs have been on the shelves since Christmas!!! That was shocking. Today, when I thought I was very organized going out to get a couple of them, my local Tesco was sold out!!! They told me people were buying them in their droves, one woman bought 3 cases for her family…must be a huge family. It left me thinking about sugar recommendations. Do we just ignore them this week and act surprised when the scales ‘lie’ to us about the number on it? Or do we eat in moderation and enjoy a little without feeling deprived? Or should we just eat none, feel deprived and act all pious around the chocolate scoffers?
For the average person over the age of 10 years old it is recommended to have 7 teaspoons of sugar per day, not including sugar in dairy or fruit and vegetables. That is 30 grams. I did a little investigating and the average small chocolate Easter egg, for example Mars egg and one bar or Cadbury Crème Egg with one crème egg, is around 20 teaspoons of sugar. Shock, horror!!! A child between 7 years and 10 years of age should have around 24 grams of sugar per day, roughly around 5.5 teaspoons of it. So if you give a child a small crème egg in the morning, they go on to have 2 more small sized Easter eggs, eat a little dessert after Easter dinner and possibly have some juice. They could reach around 60 teaspoons of sugar in one day!! My heart just squeezed itself.
My recommendation is to enjoy your Easter chocolate on Easter Sunday – no need for the full egg! Don’t deprive yourself completely, unless you don’t like chocolate, you will end up bitter and no one likes a bitter skinny person. Choose a healthy breakfast full of yummy wholegrains and snack on fruit throughout the day. No need to buy lots of Easter eggs to spoil your nearest and dearest, I am sure they would love one small egg and a little none food treat. Ideas for these treats can be a book from their favourite collection, a small gift token for their preferred shop, art equipment or sports clothing to name a few. Other ideas to fight the sugar craving this Easter are to go for a walk, set up a proper Easter egg hunt without too much junk food, play a board game and have some fun or have a family football match!
Whatever way you deal with easter and the constant chocolate temptations, I would strongly recommend getting rid of the junk food once the day has passed. Make the next day a healthy one and move on from it.
Have a great bank holiday and most of all enjoy it,
Laura