Two moms and an eye-opening experiment

The creativity of our readers is amazing! The following is an “experiment” that two Moms, Mandy and her friend Jessica, did over this past holiday season. 

They thought it would be interesting to keep track of all unhealthy treats, including the calories, fat grams, and sugar grams that three of their children were offered at school, church, and Grandma’s house from November 10 through December 25^th; for a total of 45 days.  They charted it below, and the following is the summary: 

In forty-five days, three children, ages 3, 5, and 7 were offered a total of 41,734 extra calories; 1,927 grams of fat; and 6,470 grams of sugar! No joke! 

And interesting to note, because the Moms had both pledged to follow Dr. Fuhrman’s Holiday Challenge during that time, Mandy thinks the numbers would’ve been at least twice that amount had they not accepted the challenge. She said the children were amazing as they brought home the treats that they had passed up and counted the days on a paper chain.  As a reward, and as a way to reinforce in them that they weren’t “giving up” something, but making a trade for something better, the Moms took them to a hotel with an indoor pool and had a mini-vacation afterward. 

For better treat options, Mandy and Jessica found lots of fun and tasty ways to eat fruit, like frozen bananas with a little peanut butter to make banana ice-cream. They also discovered that it was a huge shift in mindset to get over the idea that they “had” to have a treat after every dinner, but they succeeded!

Here is the list of combined treats passed up by all three children:

[November 10 through December 25, 2011]

Candy Type	Total Offered	Total Calories	Total Fat Grams	Total Sugar Grams
Snack-size Candy	42	4830	299	552
Cookies	65	8645	437	689
Ice Cream	30 ½ cup servings	8100	540	630
Pixie Sticks	6	100	-	24
Smarties	4	100	-	24
Chocolate Milk	1 carton (school lunch)	158	2.5	26
Suckers	5	120	-	29
Cake	6	1410	63	210
Tootsie Pops	5	420	-	100
Chocolates	16	1440	37	270
Full size Candy Bar	6	1640	97	164
Pudding	1 serving	157	4.5	26
Soda Pop	2	300	-	78
Hard Candy	7	196	-	28
Donut	1	198	11	23
Pie	8 slices	3092	117	258
Brownie	7	903	33	149
Candy Cane	13	650	-	176
Sleeve of Thin Mints	1	480	24	63
Fudge	17	407	23	47
Box of Cocoa	2	1220	47	192
Bag of Crunch Bars	1	1440	72	168
Box of Orange Sticks	1	1120	25	175
Peanut Brittle	8	552	20	92
Divinity	8	1072	13	195
Small Cookies	8	1064	62	85
Airhead	2	50	-	8
Licorice	6	246	-	62
Grand totals:		41,734 calories	1927 grams of fat	6470 grams of sugar
		309 calories per child per day	14 grams of fat per child per day	48 grams of sugar per child per day
		25% of daily caloric needs	35% of daily fat intake	16% of daily needs for carbohydrates, according to one internet source

Bravo to these Moms and their precious children! 

Let’s all learn from their innovative experiment that it is truly up to us, as parents, to protect our children’s health and well-being.