While the meaning of Easter goes far
beyond candy, nevertheless, a colorful and plentiful assortment of
sugar and food coloring is what most children are accustomed to
finding in their baskets Easter morning.
Many of our patients have been working
diligently to make healthier food choices, and to reduce their
family's consumption of sugar and all things artificial. Do we have
to just toss this work aside, for “just one day”?
Is it possible to celebrate the joyous
occasion, and honor our family's health, without disappointing our
children's expectations?
It's certainly worth a try!
The best option we've found is to fill
the majority of a child's Easter basket with non-food options like
small toys, bubbles, sidewalk chalk (Spring is coming, we promise!),
books, jump ropes, kites, flip flops, and other things your children
may enjoy.
If our children are very young, this is
a great opportunity to begin building fun and healthier traditions.
Children are less likely to miss what they've never learned to
expect!
However, with older children,
compromise may be necessary. Fortunately, we have resources
available to us today that may not have been available a few years
ago.
Did you know some Easter favorites,
like jelly beans, are available without artificial food coloring
from places like Trader Joe's, and online at
www.naturalcandystore.com?
There may not be time to place orders for this year, but keep that
website available for delicious, natural Christmas treats as well.
If your children can't imagine their
Easter baskets complete without certain goodies, and you cannot
locate more natural substitutes, a good option is to limit quantity.
In the past, while transitioning to a more “natural” Easter
basket, we have opened prepackaged items to divide them amongst
multiple children. You can find decorative plastic baggies to
repackage these treats at most grocery stores, and maybe even at a
dollar store.
Chocolate also is a decent option when
you're looking for candy – especially if you buy organic,
fair-trade, dark chocolate. (We've found that while some children
don't notice a difference between dark and milk chocolate, others
do.) We've also used those decorative baggies to repackage things
like chocolate-covered almonds (protein!), or dark-chocolate covered
cherries from places like Costco.
Please remember that all of this advice
about candy comes with a very big disclaimer. SUGAR IS STILL SUGAR!!
We can't tell you how many people come in for Nutritional Response
Testing after the holidays, not feeling well, and testing sensitive
to sugar! Sometimes it only takes a day or two of extra sweets for
our bodies to become over-stressed. It's important to take an honest
look at what your family will consume both from Easter baskets, and
what you will consume from other sources throughout the day.
If you are attending a big family meal,
will your family be eating refined rolls or other bread? Will
grandparents be giving your children candy? If so, can you offer to
bring healthier alternatives to the meal? Or can you ask
grandparents to provide your children with non-food gifts, like those
we mentioned above? Sometimes we have to be patient, as it may take
a while for extended family to share our passion for healthy eating
even on the holidays!
One of our children's favorite Easter
traditions is the plastic Easter egg hunt. We fill plastic Easter
eggs with stickers, coins, xylitol gum, and dollar-store-trinkets.
This provides the children with a lot of fun, and no increased sugar
consumption.
Certainly take advantage of the meal(s)
you can control, like breakfast, to fill up your children's bellies
(and yours) with some protein and other healthy choices! Also,
painting and hiding real eggs can encourage children to get excited
about eating these special protein-packed snacks through the day! Do
you have egg wars? Our children love seeing whose egg is the
strongest – simply tap the tip of each egg together as you count to
three. When you get to “three,” the tap is more of a whack, and
the winning, unbroken egg continues on to battle again! Of course,
before the battle someone must agree to eat the cracked egg!
Perhaps the greatest gift we can give
our children and ourselves this Easter is good health!
Happy Easter!
The Lakeland Chiropractic staff
