Episode 24: Managing the Easter Sugar Rush in Kids

Episode 24: Managing the Easter Sugar Rush in Kids

Kids love Easter and chocolate - right? So how do we keep them healthy over this choc loaded time!

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https://nourishwithkarina.com/3-week-feeding-kids-reset

Highlights:

Introduction (00:01.038)
Easter Sugar Rush Management for Children (00:31.79)
Easter Traditions and Preparations (02:58.542)
Preventing Overeating on Easter (05:17.39)
Stabilizing Blood Sugar Levels in Children Karina (07:41.486)
Managing Child's Sugar Levels (09:59.022)
Reducing Chocolate Consumption in Children (12:11.086)
Teaching Children to Enjoy Chocolate (14:29.774)
Teaching Children Mindful Eating (16:53.422)
Adult Eating Habits and Healthy Eating Habits (19:12.334)
Managing Blood Sugar Levels During Easter (21:36.238)
Easter Family Guidelines (23:58.638)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

Kids love Easter and chocolate - right? So how do we keep them healthy over this choc loaded time!

In this episode, I discuss practical tips for managing our children's sugar levels and behaviour over Easter. I dive into:

The Importance of a Hearty Breakfast: Starting the day with a nutritious breakfast can help stabilise blood sugar levels, making children less inclined to reach for more chocolate early in the day. Using specific foods to Slow down the sugar rush to help manage blood sugar levels and behaviour more effectively. Setting Clear Boundaries: Allowing treats but setting clear limits on quantities and frequency can help children enjoy their chocolate mindfully and avoid overindulgence. Putting Treats Out of Sight: Keeping chocolate treats out of sight after the initial consumption can reduce temptation and encourage healthier snacking choices. Exploring Non-Chocolate Easter Gifts

If you're eager to learn more about navigating the Easter sugar rush and creating a harmonious and healthy Easter period for your family, listen to the episode now!

And here's a special invitation for you: If you're looking for ongoing support and guidance in nourishing your kids' health, I invite you to join a supportive community of parents dedicated to nourishing their kids, visit nourishwithkarina.com/membership . Together, we can raise happy, healthy eaters!

Learn more about my membership program, head over to: https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Introduction (00:00.142)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 24, Managing the Easter Sugar Rush in Kids. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.

Easter Sugar Rush Management for Children (00:31.79)
you. It's always great to have you here. Today we are talking about a very topical topic, being Easter. It's just around the corner and I know that my kids are very excited. It's a time of the year when you do get to overindulge and eat lots of yummy chocolate, but it can come at a cost to behaviour and tantrums and sure, kids eat a lot more sugar.

generally on the Easter long weekend, then they're normal. So I am popping in today to give you some tips on managing the Easter sugar rush in children, because even if you just pick up one or two tips today, I think it's going to make a big difference to how the weekend plays out in terms of their blood sugar levels, because even though we can't see their blood sugar levels, we certainly see the results of their swinging blood sugar levels when they're

Soaring high into the air after consuming way too much chocolate or whether they're crashing back down to earth because they're you know in that sugar slump in between chocolate hits so yeah, we certainly can see the effects of these sugar level swings and I'm here today to help Stabilize those blood sugar levels just a little so of course you want to enjoy Easter time Easter is one of those special times of the year when

family and friends get together. And you know, no matter what your background, your religion, your beliefs, times when family or friends get together, often we do share food and treats and you know, it's a special time and often food very much brings people together or you know, we come together around food and certainly, you know, Easter is definitely a time when we do consume a lot more sugar typically and

Children, I believe, should be allowed to go a bit bonkers with chocolate over Easter, but we do need to set some boundaries in place just to help manage things a little. And when I say they should be able to go bonkers, I do mean that they can eat chocolate every day over Easter, and maybe on Easter Sunday it's the first thing that goes into their mouth, that's okay. But we also do need to help manage their sugar levels across the day and also

Easter Traditions and Preparations (02:58.542)
put some good stuff into them as well. Now it starts with the Friday. We have the Friday off as Good Friday. And from a personal perspective, I love Good Friday because I have very fond memories of my mom and my nonna. My nonna started, well, she started the tradition in our family and it possibly went, you know, up and beyond in with her mother and her nonna. But she used to make an Easter bread, an Italian Easter bread called pinza.

And when I was a child, I used to make the pincer with my nonna and it's a process that involves a lot of love and care. And if you ever on my Instagram and you go to my reels, you'll find a reel early on with my mom and my daughter, so her nonna, making pincer together. It's a very special time and whenever we can do it together, we will, we won't be able to do it together this year, but...

It's still a very special activity that I love to do with my daughter now because it's special. It holds very special memories for me and I want my daughter to create those special memories as well. And she certainly has made it with her nonna and this year we'll make it together again. It will be her and myself and possibly, you know, Lockie, my son or my husband or maybe a friend. I think we're going away. So.

Yeah, it'll be different, but I'm still going to take all the ingredients because it's special. I think you get that it's special. So we will be recreating that magic on the Friday. And there will of course be the anticipation for the Sunday. And I'm guessing that probably from that Friday, there will be a lot more treat foods. Now I'm okay with this because Easter is once a year, right? Just like Christmas. And yes,

They've got their birthdays and they've got their other friends birthdays. So they all do add up. But I think, you know what? It's once a year. Easter is once a year. It's the things that our children are eating every day, every lunch, every afternoon tea. That's what matters a lot more. So let them eat chocolate this Easter.

Preventing Overeating on Easter (05:17.39)
Now I know that I'm preaching to the converted here because I know of course you're going to let your child eat some chocolate over Easter. And I hope that you're okay if they do eat a little more chocolate than you would normally like them to eat. But of course there has to be a limit, right? We're not just going to let them eat so much chocolate that they're going to vomit and fall into bed in a sugar coma by 11am. So what can we do to help things become a little smoother across the day?

First of all, give them a hearty breakfast. And this is something that you can do before or after the chocolate. And on Sunday, it's possibly going to be after the chocolate, but giving them a wholesome breakfast is absolutely going to help stabilize their blood sugar levels, no matter what chocolate or sugar is already in their bloodstream. So starting the day with something like eggs on toast or grainy sourdough with

avocado or peanut butter, might be a bowl of porridge or wheat bix. These foods are going to help stabilise your child's blood sugar levels because you're putting good wholesome food into their tummies and it's going to all mix together and it's going to help them feel fuller for longer. What this is also going to do is it's going to mean that they're less inclined to reach for another chocolate egg

by 10am. Look, I can't promise that they're not going to, but certainly if they've got a good hearty breakfast in their tummies, they are less inclined or they're going to be less inclined to be going out of their way to look for more chocolate eggs very quickly because they're going to be feeling satisfied. So that's my first tip. I've got seven for you and that's my first tip. And actually you will see me present some of these tips.

on Sunrise Channel 7 next week will actually, it's probably going to be the day before this recording comes out. So I will have done the live segment, but I record them and I will pop them off on my website. So you will be able to watch my live TV segment on this exact topic. So you will be able to watch the live TV segment on this topic on my website.

Stabilizing Blood Sugar Levels in Children Karina (07:41.486)
pretty soon and you can find it by heading to the main part of my website. You'll see some of my little videos, click see more and it will be there. It will also be in the blog section. There'll be a link to watch that little video. Okay, so we've done number one and seven. Okay, number two, use other foods to help slow down their blood sugar levels. So when they're consuming the chocolate and their sugar levels are going up and up and up, protein and fat and fibre help to stabilise blood sugar levels.

So the chocolate that's in their tummy, it won't be absorbed as quickly if it's mixed with protein and fat and fibre because it helps to slow down and balance that overall release of sugar going into the blood. So what foods can we try to increase in our children's day to help stabilise their blood sugar levels? Well, protein rich foods are things like nuts, might be mixed nuts, it might be peanut butter, it might be...

crackers with some pesto. It could be nut bars. It could be protein from dairy such as yogurt or cheese. It might be protein from egg. You do boiled egg. It could be a tin of baked beans. It could be edamame. A skewer like a chicken kebab. It could be some rotisserie chicken or other meats. So protein will help to stabilise blood sugar levels.

Fat will also help to slow down that sugar rush into the bloodstream. So think avocado, olives, nuts, tuna, using good amounts of extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil. These fats will help. So just think about ways that you could potentially increase your child's intake of fats. And it may be as simple as putting some extra nuts and olives on a platter, mid -morning or mid -afternoon. Okay, so fiber is the third one here.

Fiber also helps to slow the passage of food through the gastrointestinal tract and will help to slow things down, slow down that release of sugar. So think grainy crackers, grainy bread, fresh fruit.

Managing Child's Sugar Levels (09:59.022)
wholemeal muffins and cakes and you know my famous black bean brownie. They're all brilliant options, high in fibre and it's going to help manage your child's blood sugar levels a lot better.

Okay, moving on to number three, spread out the treats. Allow your children to have treats, but set boundaries. Okay, yes, you can have some chocolate now, but that's the chocolate that's available now. Then you can have a break and you can have some again later. So being very clear about what is allowed and what's not allowed, allowing them to have the treats possibly more often than normal, but also setting very clear boundaries around.

amounts, quantities and frequency so that they're very clear on what is okay and what's not okay. And once they've had their quota, send them outside to run around and burn it off rather than hanging around the basket of chocolate eggs, which is only going to tempt them more, which leads me to number four. Once the Easter egg hunt is done, once the chocolate's been consumed for that morning, put it out of sight.

When eggs are in sight of children, it makes it so much harder. It makes them so much more tempted to continue to eat them. And I get what you think if you think, well, that's just a killjoy, Karina, you know, just to put it out of sight straight away and maybe don't do it, you know, on Easter morning, keep them around and, you know, you can pick at them and, you know, it's maybe a little bit sad to hide them away for a thing on a Saturday morning. But.

after Easter, especially pop them in a bag where they can't see them. So like a bag that's, you know, not see -through, pop it in the back of the cupboard so that it's not front of mind for your child. When they open the pantry, they don't see the eggs because if they see them, then they're going to want them even more. And then they're going to hassle them, hassle you for them, or hopefully not, but they may sneak them. And I've certainly found plenty of wrappers behind my son's.

Reducing Chocolate Consumption in Children (12:11.086)
chest of drawers in his cupboard. You open the cupboard and there's a chest of drawers and behind that, wow, there's some good number of wrappers behind there. So my daughter would never dream of doing anything like that. My son on the other hand, that's just a whole different ball game. Bless him. So anyway, work in progress there, but absolutely if they're front of mind for you, child, if he opens or she opens the pantry door and they're all there.

Well, it's going to be a lot harder for them to focus on eating carrots and hummus, right? So try to keep them out of sight. Perhaps not first thing on Sunday morning, but when you feel it's appropriate for your family, pop them out of sight because it is going to help probably everyone in the family reduce their consumption. And I say it's fine to include chocolate, you know, moving forward as a treat. And what I'll do is I'll use up the chocolate over time.

putting a little, you know, couple of eggs in the lunchbox every day as a treat. And that's a little treat and that's the way you use it up. Some families prefer to give it away, chuck it out. You do you. Some families just eat it all, whatever works. Or crush it up and use the chocolate in homemade cookies and melt it down and coat strawberries with it. You know, there's plenty of ways that you can use up Easter chocolate, depending on what you want to do with it.

Okay. Number five, consider Easter gifts or treats that aren't chocolate to compliment a bit of chocolate. So what I mean by this is perhaps consider rather than just giving chocolate at Easter time, maybe giving a gift with a smaller amount of chocolate. And that way it's a win -win. You're reducing the chocolate and your child's getting something perhaps more useful that they may want.

and they're getting a little bit of chocolate. Now that's not going to work for all kids, but certainly worth a try because it's a good, I think, compromise and a way of making it a little bit more valuable. So you're just not spending money on chocolate. I mean, people, a lot of people would think that it's very valuable and very worthwhile. And I do agree. I do love chocolate, but at the same time, it's a good thing to consider because

Teaching Children to Enjoy Chocolate (14:29.774)
You might get a little useful gift as well at Easter time then, rather than just chocolate. And hopefully it means less chocolate overall. Okay. Number six is teaching your children how to enjoy chocolate to the max. How to enjoy chocolate, how to eat it slowly. Now I'll tell you a little story. And this was when I had just come out of nutrition school.

And this was just when I was coming out of being a nutrition student and I was becoming a dietician and I was at a workshop and it was to do with mindful eating and being healthy, you know, weight, I hate that word, but you know, that's what the workshop was about. And part of the workshop, we were all sitting down. It was kind of like, you know, at desks and there was a speaker at the front and this speaker handed out.

little fun -sized Mars bar to each and every one of us. And what we had to do was, so we unwrapped the Mars bar and what we had to do was eat this fun -sized Mars bar. So a fun -sized Mars bar literally is about the size of your thumb. And what we had to do was literally eat this Mars bar over about a 10 minute time period. And what we had to do is

eat this Mars bar over a 10 minute time period. What she was encouraging us to do was to explore and learn about this Mars bar with all of our senses and not just consume it quickly and unmindfully. I don't even know if that's a word, but you get what I mean. So what we ended up doing was we unwrapped this Mars bar.

We looked at how that, you know, looked and we experienced how it sounded and then we smelt the Mars bar. We could feel how it felt in our fingers. We then put the Mars bar to our lips. And this is like, you know, it could be torture for some people. But anyway, we, we then took a mouth, a bite of this Mars bar and you had to really focus on the sensation and the flavors. And then you had to move that bite of Mars bar around your mouth and basically

Teaching Children Mindful Eating (16:53.422)
spend as long as you could appreciating that one bite of Mars bar and the taste and the texture and everything that it switched on for you in your mouth and body and senses. And then eventually you swallowed that mouthful. And then you repeated the whole thing again. So I think you get my drift that this little fun -sized Mars bar took a long time to get through.

But it was really at the end of the day teaching us to slow down, enjoy our food and eat mindfully. And this sounds really ridiculous, but I did hear a story about one person going, my gosh, I couldn't get through the whole mass bar. And I'm like, well, that is the most ridiculous thing I've heard all day. But anyway, that's a decide. But at the end of the day, the message there is teach our children

to slow down and enjoy the chocolate. Don't just shove it all in and then go, what's next? What's the next chocolate bunny I can smash? And by smash, I mean just, you know, inhale. So teaching them to slow down, enjoy it, experience how it tastes, and know that they will get chocolate again, but they're just going to have to wait a bit. You know, it might be till, you know, lunchtime or it might be till the end of the day.

So setting very clear boundaries around how often they're going to have chocolate over Easter and just make it very clear from the outset so that they know where things stand and they know. And then there's less arguments around, can I just have another chocolate egg or another chocolate bunny or why not? And that is really hard when you've got friends around and it becomes trickier to have families have different sets of rules and sometimes it just all goes pear shaped and you go, I go whatever.

So that can happen too. And I think just know that it's only one we can if things all do go pear -shaped is only one we can. But if you can start to teach your children how to be more mindful eaters, it might start at Easter, but it will actually continue throughout their childhood. And you're teaching them really valuable skills for lifelong health and lifelong healthy eating.

Adult Eating Habits and Healthy Eating Habits (19:12.334)
Because then it means as an adult, at the end of the day, they can just enjoy their couple of squares of chocolate or their, you know, once a week chocolate brownie or whatever it might be, but they can enjoy treat foods regularly in small amounts because they eat it mindfully, they eat it slowly, they enjoy it. They don't just shovel it in, feel really bad about what they've eaten, but they've eaten it so quickly they haven't actually had a chance to enjoy it. So then they're not satisfied.

So then they want more treat foods and that's just a vicious cycle. And that can definitely happen a lot in people that are unable to confidently manage their behaviors around those treat foods. And they can become a bit compulsive. And if there's, you know, a packet of Tim Tams, they can't just stop at one. They just keep going and going and going, but they eat them so quickly because they feel guilty and they haven't necessarily enjoyed it. But then they just smash the next one.

So then it becomes this sort of compulsion and then they feel terrible at the end of it because they've smashed a whole bag of Tim Tams, but they haven't been able to enjoy it. There's guilt and it's just, it's just one big mess. And that's a bit more disordered eating. Whereas if we can teach our children to enjoy these treat foods slowly, mindfully, not feel guilty, enjoy it and then move on to the next food, which is probably going to be healthy. That's an

awesome way to set them up for lifelong health. So teaching them how to enjoy treat foods mindfully and slowly, and then moving on to the next food. So if you can use Easter as an opportunity to start that process, I mean, if they're three or four, I wouldn't know you can go there. But if they're, you know, 11 or 12, then absolutely you could say, well, yeah, absolutely. You can have those couple of eggs, but I really want you to slow down, eat them slowly. Think about how they taste and...

Don't chuck one in your mouth as you're chasing your sister around down the corridor because she's pinched you or something, because you are absolutely not eating that chocolate mindfully then. Sit down and enjoy it and appreciate the fact that you've had that chocolate. And then that will hopefully, probably not, but hopefully keep them a little more satisfied until the next time they get it. Okay. Our lucky last is getting active.

Managing Blood Sugar Levels During Easter (21:36.238)
And this is really important to help manage blood sugar levels because when they're running around, they're burning off the sugar in their blood. So it is absolutely going to help manage their blood sugar levels over that Easter period. And anytime, to be honest with you, and not only will it help manage their blood sugar levels, but it's also going to distract them and keep them occupied. So they're going to be less inclined to go and grab another chocolate egg. Easter is a great opportunity for

family activities and this could include family walks, bush walks, beach walks, bike rides, games of soccer in the park, family basketball, beach cricket, or even a home -made obstacle course in the backyard. I still have very fond memories of an obstacle course that might, well, we'd have two. It'd be one for me and one for my brother and we would have like an obstacle course race.

It was in our backyard and they would just set things up. You know, you would have to jump over this and climb under that. And it was just using basic things in the backyard and bench seats and hoses and goodness knows what else, but getting creative and having some fun because things like that, the kids remember when they grow up, right? Like it's not some of those more possibly expensive activities that

we think might be fun for the kids to do is those basic activities that are really meaningful for kids and they love it. And it's just time with you, right? And those activities, I think are the ones that children will remember the most. So quality family time together, no matter what it is, whether it's, as I said, out on the beach, in the bush, family basketball, family obstacle courses, you can get involved in that too.

Maybe even the dog or cat, who knows? Maybe they're not going to be happy with that. But yeah, I think trying to spend some quality family time together will also help burn up some energy and also keep them away from the chocolate and the chips and the lollies and goodness knows what else they're going to want to get their hands on. Okay, I'm going to throw in a bonus here. I wasn't going to, but I think it's a really important one. So I'm going to throw in a number eight for you and that is keep the sugary drinks completely away.

Easter Family Guidelines (23:58.638)
Ideally always, but definitely at Easter time because they're going to be consuming a lot of sugar from chocolate. They do not need to be guzzling down apple juice or other juices or cordials or soft drinks as well as all the other stuff. When you consider that there's at least five teaspoons of sugar in every cup of apple juice, if they're having that and then you're eating their chocolate and washing it down with a cup of apple juice,

That's just a recipe for disaster for their blood sugar levels. So water, water, water for their fluids. And yes, a bit of chocolate or a lot of chocolate or whatever the chocolate rule is in your family, but definitely water to go with that, not juice, cordial or soft drinks. Okey dokey. I'm going to wrap it up there. Whatever Easter ends up being for your family. I hope it is a beautiful one. I hope.

You have some really truly quality family time together. I know some of you have to work. I hope that you find some time to relax and spend some quality family time together. And if you do like eating chocolate, I hope that you enjoy some chocolate over Easter. Thank you so much for listening. I look forward to chatting with you next week. Take care and bye for now.