"Over 3 pounds!! I weighed it" " It was all king-sized!" ~ neighborhood kid
"I CANNOT DEAL with this. I CANNOT work in these conditions...SOS send help" ~ neighborhood kid's pancreas this week
Trick-or-treating was a different ball game this year. Was it on? Was it not? Some houses wanted kids, other did not… I think many just left a bowl of candy out. And I’m sure this neighborhood kid is not the only one, who just dumped that bowl right into their bag! 3 pounds is a lot of candy! It takes a ton of those little bite sized bars to equal this amount! The other part that is insane is that this kid only went to about 15 houses. So imagine if he kept going?
Here’s the deal while your mouth enjoys the sugar overload, a cascade begins to happen in your body. Your pancreas is hit hard with the constant demand for insulin to get that sugar our of your bloodstream. Your blood sugar goes up and down more than the Fast and Furious Rollercoaster at Universal studios. (Ask me how I know) Your mood goes from happy to crazy in minutes. Your immune system puts up a “temporarily out of business” sign and your brain says, ” I’m so wired!”- jazz fingers… until 15-20 minutes later you are propping your eyes open, as you literally drag on the ground. Don’t forget the little guys, your microbiome, which you can change by the spoonful you put into your mouth. The species that grow and flourish in our guts are the ones that breakdown what we consume in very simplistic terms. So you eat a lot of sugar, you get a lot of sugar loving species moving in and lovin’ this new home of theirs. They can even go so far as to send requests up the nerve that connects your gut to your brainstem when they are hungry…craving sugar anyone?! They literally put an order in and most of us will happily comply because if we don’t, we turn into something scarier than your neighbor’s Halloween decorations… a hangry person raiding the house looking for your kids Halloween candy. (it’s under the bed, they always put it there) Or worse all of this is occurring in the body of a 40 pound child and watch out- it’s a tantrum for the Guinness Book Of World Records. Only to be repeated about 8+ times today.
So what’s a healthy mama (or parent) to do? Let them have some, but not 3 pounds worth! Have the Switch Witch come and switch it for a toy. She can even come later this week if she hasn’t already- think of that surprise! We as parents need to make the smart decision and that is not allowing our child to consume all this candy. There is no nutritional value whatsoever. It’s time to do that math. (Yes, you do have to do math) The WHO’s guidelines for children states that they should not consume more than 10 grams of sugar per day. So add up what you are feeding your child all day for a week to get an idea of how much sugar they are consuming already and then add in their Halloween loot and you will be amazed at the amount of sugar American kids are eating.
We want to treat our pancreas nicely so it will work well for us for 80-100 years. But if you abuse it, the pancreas gets the last world and will close up shop…FOR GOOD. Making you type 2 diabetic. Last estimate I read was that 98 million Americans are pre-diabetic and don’t even know it! Yikes! (Sorry, I know Halloween is over, but this scary story you need to hear right now) So it’s time to take matters into your own hands and check it out. Adults you get no more than 30 grams per day, although you would do well with about half of that. So do some math and drop a comment below… what surprised you? How much are you eating a day? (Don’t worry we are not judging, if we come at this together – we all win. A healthier country has many benefits for all.)
PSST- your pancreas wanted me to tell you something…when it gets mad at your for overloading it all damn day with sugar… it complains to the liver and well, they both decide to save all that extra sugar for a later date.. and stores it as FAT- mostly around your belly, thighs and butt. (I told you, you WANT to treat your pancreas nicely- it plays dirty)
