Junk food and bad behaviour
Would you believe me if I said my son has never had a M... hamburger?
He's had their chicken nuggets and fries but never a hamburger. He only had those nuggets because we were a 'captive market' at the Science Centre in Singapore.
From a very young age we talked about 'junk food' and 'good food'. Maybe too much. For a long time he had problems with children's party food. Took him a long time to bite into his first pizza. Now that he has tasted it, he likes it.
He's also not allowed fizzy drinks and salty crisps, especially if they are laden with MSG. Are we weird parents or what? Thankfully I've found other parents who are just like us. We sit around at parents' committee meetings enjoying the crisps and hula hoops, etc, because 'We don't get to eat these at home.'
It all goes back to one blue M&M.
Took son to a Christmas story-telling session at the local library. He was coming up two. A kind lady there gave him one blue M&M. Son went completely loopy when we got home. We were convinced there was something in that bright blue M&M that affected his behaviour.
What I fear most is the party bags that come home with him. They invariably have 'coloured sweets'. Until recently we had to throw them all away. We kept telling him that he had to wait till he was 25kg to eat those. We substituted those with chocolate raisins instead. After a while, he accepted that.
A few weeks ago, he wanted to have one of those jelly bottle sweets. We decided to let him. After all, he was above 21 kg. And?
He kept his cool. He didn't get loopy at all. So he's now allowed those sweets as a treat, with other food he's eating.
Does junk food cause bad behaviour? I'm convinced it does. Why do blue M&Ms not turn adults loopy? Simply because we have a bigger body mass.
So tell your children to wait until they are bigger if they want those sweets. That would also give them another incentive to eat proper food at meal times.
Have you got other stories to tell about junk food?
Back to Organic-Ally
Spotted this newspaper article after I first posted this.
He's had their chicken nuggets and fries but never a hamburger. He only had those nuggets because we were a 'captive market' at the Science Centre in Singapore.
From a very young age we talked about 'junk food' and 'good food'. Maybe too much. For a long time he had problems with children's party food. Took him a long time to bite into his first pizza. Now that he has tasted it, he likes it.
He's also not allowed fizzy drinks and salty crisps, especially if they are laden with MSG. Are we weird parents or what? Thankfully I've found other parents who are just like us. We sit around at parents' committee meetings enjoying the crisps and hula hoops, etc, because 'We don't get to eat these at home.'
It all goes back to one blue M&M.
Took son to a Christmas story-telling session at the local library. He was coming up two. A kind lady there gave him one blue M&M. Son went completely loopy when we got home. We were convinced there was something in that bright blue M&M that affected his behaviour.
What I fear most is the party bags that come home with him. They invariably have 'coloured sweets'. Until recently we had to throw them all away. We kept telling him that he had to wait till he was 25kg to eat those. We substituted those with chocolate raisins instead. After a while, he accepted that.
A few weeks ago, he wanted to have one of those jelly bottle sweets. We decided to let him. After all, he was above 21 kg. And?
He kept his cool. He didn't get loopy at all. So he's now allowed those sweets as a treat, with other food he's eating.
Does junk food cause bad behaviour? I'm convinced it does. Why do blue M&Ms not turn adults loopy? Simply because we have a bigger body mass.
So tell your children to wait until they are bigger if they want those sweets. That would also give them another incentive to eat proper food at meal times.
Have you got other stories to tell about junk food?
Back to Organic-Ally
Spotted this newspaper article after I first posted this.
Comments