...to be a bit fed up with chocolate being seen as the root of all evil?

[Sarahjct]

This was prompted by a thread that I've just read but it truly honestly isn't meant as a dig at the OP - I understand that it wasn't just the choccy under discussion in that thread.

No one wants their kid eating sweets 24/7 but honestly, is it really so bad every so often? Forbidding something always makes it more attractive and I can see a generation of serious chocaholics descending on us in a few years. Aren't there far worse things to eat? And where has all the fun in life gone?

Ban this, don't eat that. It all seems very miserable to me.

I don't give them chocolate often, mostly because they are messy pigs and it causes me more problems with washing! And also, I am pregnant right now and can't realy eat it as it gives me hideous heartburn - so hardly fair if they sit scoffing it is it?

But seriously, I do think everything is moderation is true. BUT.... very small chidren don't get a taste for things if they don't get them to taste (i.e. under a year)!

I totally agree with ladette about the pressure we are under as mums to get it all right. I used to stress about it far more than I do now, dd gets chocolate most days and ds has a small it when we go for shopping when we drop dd off at nursery. DD sees it as part of her normal diet which also includes loads of fruit and veg which she loves.

I have never made a big deal out of it and she has been know when out shopping with my mum and is offered a treat to buy a couple of carrots and she takes them home to be chopped for her. She asks for a treat some evenings after dinner and that is more likely to be an orange as anything else because to ehr treats are the foods and things she loves which because we have (somehow) managed to get the balance right are just as likely to be the healthy choice as a sweet.

Kids that are active need calories so I say make them walk to the shop for their Mars bars

in my day, so very long ago we had a tuck shop where us kids stocked up on sweets and crisps at school every day. noy a piece of fruit in sight, so yes we did eat sweets every day, and they weren't just for treats, it's just that they weren't given to us by our parents.

i believe schools don't have this any more (?) so parents have much more control over the sweet treats now. i think the odd bit of chocolate is fine, ok, if they were coming home with chocoltae eggs every day i'd have an issue but if it's now and again i think it's fine.

i don't think you can get round kids liking sweets, crisps, chips etc, it's a fact of life, to most people they taste good and for that reason will be regarded as treats. as should other 'nice' things that kids enjoy that are healthier, a trip to soft play, the park, bike ride, a trip to see friends, outings etc.

i don't think sweets are the issue, i think it's the fact that a lot of kids are eating more processed food too often and not getting enough exercise. as kids, yes, we ate crap but were out roaming around, climing trees etc for most of the day, burning it all off. there was so need for organised exercise as such, as were just more active in general. now, its a sad fact of life that my son won't be roaming around climibing trees out of my sight for hours on end so i'll have to put in the efort with more organised exercise.

Life is short. Chocolate is a nice treat. And that's it, really.

does no-one here remember the bible, and the fact that it is APPLES that are the root of all evil.......

chocolate was made in heaven IIRC, and one bar is even called that, altho why share it with the kiddies when we can have all the joy??????

My DC's have some form of treat most days, be it a pack of sweets to share from the shop on the way home from school, a doughnut on shopping day, a takeaway at the weekend, whatever.
But as they also eat about ten portions of fruit and veg every day, brush their teeth twice a day and excercise I don't see the issue.

I can remmeber a stage when I was sbout 13 and we had just started being allowed out of school on our own at lunchtime. I used go to the local newsagent and spend my £1 dinner money on 4 bars of chocolate and a drink!!!!
Every day!!!

To be honest, most of my friends did similar and I don't suppose any of our parents had a clue.

I was never overweight. The chocolate addiction has never gone away and yet I never have been overweight. Still a size 8 straight after giving birth.

IMO, the sugar content in chocolate is very easy to burn off. It only gets converted to fat in your body if you're not active enough. Most healthy young children are (or should be) easily active enough to burn off the odd sugary snack now and again.

JackanoryGirl. I teach secondary........they still do that. At dinnertimes near my school, chip shop, sweetshops and cake shops packed full of kids. No one in the fruit shop

They all go out much more at dinnertime since introduction of healthy school meals.......

I teach in a wealthy educated area BTW, these kids know what they should be eating, but are choosing not to.

My own ds does ityou can't control them when they are older all the time. I am not happy about it, but if I give him packed lunch, he doesn't eat it and still goes out

chocolate is the most lovely and wonderful thing and should be eaten daily in my opinion ( by grown ups) and a little less for children, but never to be denied or made out to be something forbidden and bad.

I think had the strongest views simply because I know the effect chocolate and sugar and sweets has on me and like an alcoholic I have to avoid it entirely. There are countless people like me too. However not everyone is sugar sensitive so certainly go ahead and experience with the substance more addictive than cocaine if you wish..... It triggers highs as well and anyone tending towards diabetes knows the consequences of sugar rushes etc. Also you don't need it so why bother to have it if it could be bad for you?

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Jesus, Xenia, do you ever have anything positive to say about anything?

Dark chocolate has quite a lot of iron in it.

I do get very concerned about some of the conditions in which chocolate is produced, but it's easy enough to find decently produced chocolate these days, hurrah.

Positive? Yes. Loved breastfeeding. Adore my work. Love my children. Think low GI/GL diets are great. Just happen to have strong views about junk food and sugar in particular. Sadly it's the lower classes and the low paid who are most hooked on sugar, in a sense enslaved to it in a way that those who are more prosperous seem able to avoid. It's a fascinating topic.

decent chocolate isn't junk food

More addictive than cocaine??? You don't see many people needing to go into rehab to get off chocolate do you?

Obesity in this country has far more to do with lack of exercise and fatty foods than chocolate.

The Reader's Digest says people with ME (& possibly metabolic disorders) should have dark chocolate ever day - that's my excuse anyway

The planet has more of a problem with obesity than with problems caused by cocaine. Sugar is at the heart of that.

Anyway each person does their own research and takes decisions appropriate to themselves. Many people can eat chocolate in moderation. Plenty can open the box of chocolates and take one. Not everyone has problems with addiction to sugar so you just have to judge for yourself. But all chocolate however high the cocoa content (speaking as an ex member of the Chocolate Society here by the way) has sugar in it and for some people is addictive. We also have high sugars in bread nowadays and even our fruit is bred to be sweeter than it was.

"Sugar is at the heart of that"

Is it really? I see fatty, processed food and a lack of exercise as being far more to blame. As a child I certainly ate sweets/chocolate but had "proper" home cooked food (no McDonalds!) and was always out playing rather than sat in front of a PC/Playstation/TV. No obesity that I can recall.

agree with SoupDragon - we were the same

I think it's the processed foods that are the issue

We eat food that has been made rather than grow (whether on a plant or on an animal)

There are cakes in the supermarket that will be fresh in 18 months or 2 years

Jams that has reduced sugar but extra chemical to increase 'shelf-life'

Obesity is a relatively new concept for most of the population in the years up until 1970's when preprepared foods were introduced to a wider audience

America has had a problem since the 50's due in part to the fast-food industry

If you think back to the diet pre & post war sugar had a main part but not really fried or processed foods

I truly believe that it is processed crap with lab ingredients cause the obesity combined with the lack of exercise (possibly due to the lack of freedom children have had in more recent years)

A piece of chocolate is a pleasure, like a glass of good wine. It's incredibly dull to be worthy all the time.

I don't think the "food shouldn't be a treat" stuff is wrong too. I grew up viewing certain unhealthy-but-tasty foods as being "treats" as opposed to everyday items and I think this has stood me in good stead diet-wise.