Are Easter Eggs that bad?

We've all heard of the rush to lose weight after the Christmas holidays but what about after Easter? Maybe you overindulged in Easter eggs, despite all the warning ads on your phone, telling you that a small creme egg had about 26 grams of sugar. Perhaps you went overboard with hot cross buns and sweets. Could it be possible that you even had a couple of barbeques? The weather was great by the way.

(https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/frightening-facebook-photo-reveals-much-sugar-creme-egg/)

Guess what, we also had three birthday cakes (giant, humungous ones) for three children's birthdays over two days! These were packed with icing. Nevermind buying those Easter cakes with the nice mini chocolate eggs.Yes I missed out on that! The Easter holidays are enjoyable and almost as big a celebration as Christmas and New Years put together in my household. Yet deep down. I know that it is eventually going to take it's toll on the old waistline. Oh no.....

Is it better to eat these chocolate constructions in one go or limit consumption per day? It is such a dilemma. We could say get rid of it all and don't buy anymore. Or we can stay in line with daily recommendations and limit how much we actually consume. 

Let's look at some of the facts. We all know that chocolate gives us immediate sensory pleasure, from the taste on our tongues. Within the first 15 minutes sugar is converted to blood glucose, that gives us an insant energy burst. After an hour our blood glucose levels tail off and begin to crash. This is apparently the most severe with milk chocolate. Probably not as bad with plain chocolate but it all boils down to the sugar content.  Mostly 100g of milk chocolate is equivalent to half sugar, so it's well over the recommended limit of less than 35g per day. This supposedly will cause a sugar crash. A spike in insulin will cause lower blood sugar levels than you started with, causing us frequent headaches, fatigue and general lethargy.Then again there is the fat content that puts a strain on our liver.

So in the long run, you are better off not eating it for the rest of the year or foreseeable future. It's not what you want to hear but lets face it, even a short term indulgence can have long term effects. Generally foods high in fat and sugar contain high amounts of triglycerides. These can also be made in the liver from sugars and proteins.The liver processes these triglycerides and controls their release. The triglycerides are combined with special proteins to form tiny spheres called lipoproteins, which are sent into our bloodstream to circulate among the cells of our body. When the secreted lipoproteins from the liver are interrupted, there will be a build-up of fat our your liver cells. So you can develop a type of fatty liver disease.

All we are left to do now is banish the left over Easter chocolates from the house, or not buy so much in the first place. To entertain the kids in the future, we will have to go back to the old 'Paint your boiled egg' type activity and coat the shell only in chocolate, so that it is consumed in moderation. You could make Non-chocolate easter bunnies with cotton wool. (I know, they'd rather have a chocolate egg.) But you wanted one yourself. The inner kid in you is screaming inside- 'but it's nice!'

Avoiding the beautify packaged chocolate eggs should be easy if we avoid supermarket shopping from christmas onwards. Yes likely story. The companies marketing it, do it so well that makes it unavoidable and makes us fall for it every time. 

There is another point- Aren't they are put on the shelves far too early? Nope? Being sensible all the time when you have a family is difficult, especially when you're in celebration mode. This means purposely being mindful of the sugar and fat content. Yet when you crave something nice, our internal thermostat in a literal sense is just switched off. You just feel like 'giving- in' to temptation anyway. Besides you think you hardly treat yourself anyway. In other words, we make excuses as to why we need it rather than look at the facts and use our self control. The only thing that will stop you is self motivation and will power. Erase your childhood memories of wanting that dream Easter Egg  and tell yourself it's an unnecessary expense. Let's carry out some self hypnosis here. 

So in conclusion there needs to be a cultural change. We perhaps need to find 'something healthier' and something better to enjoy as a treat. Alternatively we could be making sugar free, fat free, taste free, fruit based or protein based food that we can whip out for special occasions. (As if!) Aren't we all just addicted anyway?

You know the saying: Everything in moderation......

Parents:  Why not spend more time with your kids and family by becoming a specialist in online Marketing? Train up from your laptop and share your experiences to provide your value to the world. I did this and began my own online businesses. Now I work from my laptop from home... Fancy giving it a try?

For your Free online Workshops-https://sheilaemery.com/start/home