One of my kids recently did a research project on kids eating too much sugar.
You see Australia is having a discussion about the introduction of a possible sugar tax.
Do you think your kids eat too much sugar? Who can help? What can you do?
Here’s some stats gleaned from an up-to-date news article:
- Men aged 14-18 years averaged 92grams or 21 teaspoons of free sugars/day (10% consume 160g/day). However, the recommended average consumption per day is just 6 teaspoons.
- Australia is among the leading markets for sugary beverages, consumed by 47% of kids and 31% of adults.
- In 2011-12 Australians consumed an average of 60g of free sugar per day (14 teaspoons of white sugar), with 52grams coming from added sugars in energy dense nutrient poor discretionary foods and beverages.
(“Sweet Relief: sugar tax plan for a fat nation”; The Sydney Morning Herald, February 18-19, 2017 p6-7)
Cumulative evidence links weight gain, diabetes and dental problems with sugary drinks.
So, would a tax like we have on tobacco and alcohol curb consumption or shape our behaviour?
Immediately after forming her opinion she started finding food items in our pantry and identified their sugar content. Armed with the knowledge of what is an appropriate or safe daily sugar intake, she was surprised to see how much sugar was in so many foods that she enjoyed.
You see, you can think you are being reasonably healthy until you do some homework and realise that your sugar intake is considerable.
What did my daughter decide on the idea of a sugar tax?
My daughter reasoned that laws won’t change people.
Laws may reflect what a community thinks are right but they don’t stop the problem.
As the apostle Paul wrote in the NT, the Jewish Law was not a problem solver, it just exposed the depth of the problem. People didn’t get right with God by obeying it, because their hearts weren’t motivated to do so.
Those advocating for it say that we need to pay for the weight on the health system that over consumption of sugar is having. Some argue it will lower sugar consumption if there is a tax on sugar drinks and the like.
Those opposing it cite examples of countries that have introduced and later abolished a sugar tax. They argue that a tax is ineffective in changing people’s behaviour.
Role of our government?
This raises the question of government and its role in society. Should governments be responsible for persuading their people to make wise choices or should they merely impose external laws and penalties to deter and fund the fall out of poor choices?
One might argue, isn’t it both?
We may need extra funds to fight the rise of diabetes and we may need hip pocket incentives to think twice about too much sugar indulgences.
I read the other day about a doctor who wrote a popular book about the gut and who believed that many allergies that have risen recently may be as a result of over indulging in certain food types. For example, if our diet is predominantly wheat and milk based, not nuts and berries, we may find intolerances to gluten and the like. The intolerance may just be from the gut saying ‘’enough already; I like gluten but you need to mix it up a bit dude!’’
Consequently, we need our doctors with the help of government to influence what we eat as a community. Yet, laws are poor motivators.
Parenting the biggest shaper of sugar habits
The biggest impact on a child’s health is no surprise, mum and dad. What we do as parents in the home has enormous influence on our children’s attitudes and habits. If we regularly buy soft drinks for the family to consume, we are actively encouraging the overdosing of sugar in our kids. If we regularly visit fast food joints, we are passively preaching to them the virtues of fast food and that its totally OK to consume without concerns about long term health.
Self-worth and sugar
Perhaps we need to consider our self-esteem? If our kids have a poor self-image, they are probably more likely to care less about their bodies. If we can encourage a keen sense of self-worth, then perhaps our kids will also be concerned to look after their bodies. God gave us our bodies and we need to take care of them so we don’t make an early exit. As the book of Ecclesiastes notes, we shouldn’t engage in risky behaviour or we might just die early. A good sense of self-worth should also flow directly from us knowing that we are made in God’s image and that He cares deeply for us. Indeed, since Jesus was raised with a body, it shows our bodies really matter. If God values both our bodies and our souls, then we ought to as well.
Marketing needs to change
How much do we see sugar drinks and fast food advertised on tele or the internet to our kids? Groan. Boy we are up against a tsunami of cashed up companies spending big to make our kids cave in and buy more sugar. They even fund the research to steer us clear of looking too closely at the shortcomings of their products. It’s clearly big business and the healthy alternative probably isn’t as well financed. But here is where our governments should step up and use our taxes to support healthy choices and the promotion of positive role models for kids. We also need celebrities and sports stars who don’t drink the energy drinks, eat the ice-cream or go to Maccas.
Equipping your kids for life – owning the problem and taking responsibility
Isn’t the best result of parenting that you influence your kids to make wise choices that they thank you for? We don’t want to be a nag or the big fun spoiler. What we want is for our kids to care about their health and choose what will make them healthy. Education can inform us and present us with the facts. Laws may penalise us but generally are poor motivators. Marketing can provide powerful external role models outside the home but it is us parents who have the biggest opportunity to instil and remind our kids of their self-worth and responsibility for looking after their bodies.
Be sure to share this post with your friends and encourage them to think about the role models they are providing to their kids.
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