With a cup of sweetened coffee in hand, and a donut nearby as I write this, I most certainly have room to improve on my eating habits. And I know I am not alone.
Despite my best efforts over the past two weeks since the end of holidays to cut back on my sugar intake, and being mindful of my kids’ consumption of the sweet stuff, I’m still finding myself grabbing for treats more often than I would like.
My first goal was to decrease to one treat a day, whether that meant one serving of pop, or juice, or one donut, or a serving of cookies. The plan was to keep it simple at first, and hopefully improve from there.
Although some days are easier than others, being mindful is half the battle. When my five-year-old asks for a second, or sometimes third juice box within 24 hours, I’m willing to fight the battle, and having a water bottle within easy access is helping make that conflict a little easier.
While I was sifting through emails the other day, I came across two back-to-back opinion pieces, the first discussing the possibility of a sugar tax on things like pop, much like what has been done in Mexico, and the other discussing the increase in people experiencing kidney failure in certain areas of Canada.
One of the easiest ways to convince myself to buy or not buy something, whether it is something I eat or use in other ways, is to look at the price. If I have to pay nearly $3 for a bottle of juice, pop or iced tea while I’m out at an event, I’m not going to be buying a lot of it. If water costs significantly less, it would make the choice very easy.
So, am I in favour of a sugar tax? After doing a bit of reading on the topic, I would say yes. As my kids get older, they will be given more freedom in choosing what they eat and purchase when they are out and about. If handing them less money when they leave the house means they make healthier choices, then that seems like a pretty easy strategy, and a clear win-win for our entire household.
Clearly, a sugar tax wouldn’t solve the problem, and I’m not against the idea of having a treat once in a while. But, the detrimental effects of our ever-increasing sugar consumption are getting hard to ignore. Kidney failure is often the result of diabetes and obesity, making the increase in kidney failure not very surprising.
For those in-between-grocery-shopping-trip days when the fresh produce is low, it’s easy to grab processed items out of the pantry to fill the gaps. Things that normally get second pick to healthier foods are often convenient, despite not being very nutritious and instead filled with, well, fillers.
Hopefully over the next couple weeks, months, and years, I will be able to continue to make progress in my goal of cutting back. Plans are already being made to build a greenhouse, plant a garden this spring, and hopefully teach myself, my husband and our boys better lifelong eating habits.
