Good and bad candy in North America

This post is partly inspired by the still full boxes of Halloween candy in our house, partly because of this article in PhD in Parenting, and partly because I am about to increase the sweet factor by baking Christmas cookies.

* * *

It starts with Halloween.

Then comes Christmas, Valentine’s day, Easter…

The candy/chocolate/sweets overload begins with each celebrated event and never seems to end.

There’s an interesting thing happening at my house. The kids’ Halloween boxes are still full of candy.

FULL.

In our North-American-peanut-free-allergies-anxious childhood, my kids picked out all the peanut candies first (Oh Henry and the like) and left the rest of it in their boxes.

They ask me ‘mom can we have candy’ and sometimes I say yes. They go to their boxes, pick through them, and then return to me and say ‘mom can we have some chocolate’.

I say ‘do you still have chocolate bars in your boxes’ and they say ‘yes, but we don’t like that kind’.

?

I go check.and see more ‘candy’ than ‘chocolate bars’…

So I go to my pile of Swiss chocolate, recently brought back by my mom from Switzerland, and hand out a couple of pieces to each child.

They eat it, and stop asking for more.

Why?

Because the Swiss chocolate that mom brought back is made with good, whole ingredients, rather than corn syrup and artificial flavourings. At least that is what I tell myself is the reason.

Benjamin gets headaches every single time he eats artificial candy. He does not get headaches after eating a good quality piece of Swiss chocolate.

So I say ‘go ahead, pick out a piece of chocolate Grosmami brought back’ and leave it at that.

Now, what to do with all this candy? Can you donate Halloween candy? I am not sure I feel comfortable donating crap to children…so throw it in the garbage? No way I’m composting this stuff…but if it ends up on the landfill, will I poisen the sea gulls?

Argh.

To carb or not to carb

That is the question. Isn’t it.

We all know that the human body needs carbs for energy. The tricky part is to choose complex carbs over simple carbs. So, whole grain, fresh fruits and veggies, those are part of what is considered “good carbs” since they take longer to convert to sugar (=energy) in the body than something like a refined product made with white flour, white sugar, and is otherwise heavily processed.

Choosing whole foods that are complex carbs isn’t that difficult if you shop right. The hardest part for me was to overcome the cravings for starchy, sweet foods. Particularly when the fatigue hit. And living in a cold climate hasn’t helped either. There is nothing more comforting than a big bowl of pasta with melted cheese on top when you’re freezing your butt off. Or a nice cup of tea or three, along with a yummy cookie, or a slice of cake. Or two.

And don’t get me started on the chocolate.

Then one day I realized that although my clothes still fit, I don’t feel so healthy. I feel heavy and uncomfortable. And while feeling tired and bored and fed up with the weather, all of which has contributed to a more sedative lifestyle than I would prefer, the last thing I wanted to do was go on a diet.

You know, a traditional diet. Or a fad diet.

Oh no. I can’t do that. Frankly, I need my indulgences, at least for a little while longer.

But I can do something about the amount of carbs I’ve been ingesting, whole grain and all. I realized that I don’t need to have so many carbs in the form of bread, pasta or related product. Instead, I could reach for something other than carbs.

Like fennel. I LOVE fennel. It’s so sweet and crunchy, I can eat the entire bulb by myself. (My 3yo loves it too, and the toddler enjoys sucking on it). So, instead of buying a fennel here and there, I’ve been buying them in twos and threes, ignoring the fact that cheap this is not…

And you know what? Although the first day of less carbs was hard, and the cravings were distracting, I managed to do just fine by the following few days. The body really does adjust.

Next, out came the navy beans which I made into a little salad, dressed with a bit of mustard and white wine vinegar, and stuffed into a whole wheat tortilla roll (they’re so thin, yet still a complex carb) and voila. Craving subsided.

Out came the quinoa, mixed up into a lovely cucumber-and-dill salad, sprinkled with lemon juice and olive oil, and voila. I felt satisfied and full(er). Quinoa has the added bonus of being a high protein food, which, as we all know, is a good thing. The high protein part, I mean.

I could also make stuff with lentils. Or squash. I got all kinds of food ideas here and here…

We still eat pasta. The kids particularly like it, so I make it for them. These days, access to whole wheat pasta has become norm, and you can always reduce portions too. Like last night: we had whole wheat fresh linguine, mixed with home made tomato sauce (full of onion, leeks and garlic), and on the side I heaped a large pile of rapini tossed and lightly steamed with olive oil, more garlic, and a squeeze of lemon. Yum.

But then, I get a moment of weakness. There is chocolate in the house, and Ben wanted to bake something, and before you know it, the carbs are back. And I’m off the wagon again.

But  I will perservere. Because I know I can, and because I know that cheating once in a while is not the end of the world.

And besides, I made the lemon poppy seed cake with 1/2 whole wheat flour…and didn’t make the sugary coating to pour over it….and only had one slice of it yesterday (ok, two, but they were SMALL slices).

Happy less-carb eating!

Take the chocolate poll…

…and guess what I do with all this chocolate…

Special treats in armoires

My grandmother had a wooden armoire in her downstairs sitting room that contained special treats. Chocolates, cookies, or nuts in fancy tins. This armoire was a source of wonder to me, and although it contained an old-fashioned key, it was never locked.

 

(this armoire reminds me of the one my grandmother had)

That little room is long gone. My aunt Barbara, who took over the house after my grandfather died, completely renovated it to accommodate her own family. The little sitting room became one big living room when they knocked down a wall. 

 

But the armoire didn’t vanish into an antique market. It was moved with my grandmother to a new apartment where she lives to this day (at 91, no less!).

 

As a child I spent much time at my grandparents’ house. My sister, my brother and I grew up in apartments, so having access to a house, with an attic (!) and a garden (!) and a garage (!) was a wonderful thing for us kids. There was a balcony, a tiny pond, flowers, and a small lawn-bowling alley (on a dirt path beside the house).

 

And there was the wooden armoire in the sitting room.

 

As a child growing up in Switzerland, I had access to good quality chocolate and baked goods all the time. These treats were enjoyed regularly, but not daily. No one in my family is obese or unhealthy. Treats were considered just that, treats, something to enjoy with an afternoon tea or coffee, at a birthday celebration, or occasionally when the mood strikes.

 

My grandmother’s armoire contained those treats, in painted tins and boxes. It was a source of wonder for a child of 6 or 7. I liked that armoire!

 

Today, I see my own child open my glass-doored Billy bookcase from Ikea with the same sort of wonder. Sure, it’s not an armoire, but he doesn’t know that. What he knows is that inside the bookcase, behind the glass doors, inside a special basket, are heart-shaped Swiss chocolates and special cookies which we sometimes enjoy with tea.

 

Benjamin knows very well that those treats aren’t for everyday consumption. And he is a trustworthy child; I doubt that he would go into the basket and consume the treats without asking me first. Sonja, on the other hand, can’t be trusted at all. At 16 months, she opens everything all the time and tries out anything she can get her hands on.

 

Billy bookcases don’t come with keys. But the handle on the glass door is too tall for her to reach, and a simple elastic band keeps the doors “locked”.

 

It’s amazing to me how such an ordinary thing, like a bookcase with a basket full of treats, can bring back a flood of memories from my own childhood.

Why eat chocolate?

Because there is no one to email with.
Because there is no one to chat with.
Because there is no one to talk to.
Because DH is working.
Because baby is sleeping.
Because preschooler is playing lego by himself and likes it that way.
Because there is nothing on tv.
Because Flickr takes a long time to upload a movie and there is nothing else to do while waiting.
Because I already read all the blogroll posts.
Because I already read the paper.
Because I don’t feel like doing laundry.
Because I don’t feel like cleaning stuff.
Because I don’t feel like doing dishes.
Because I don’t feel like cooking.
Because I don’t feel like cleaning up toys in the kids’ room.
Because I want to.
Because.

Kiddie marketing

Benjamin received a 3-pack Kinder Surprise chocolate egg package at a birthday party the other day.

As far as I know, all children like those chocolate eggs.

I don’t have too many problems with this type of candy (not like Twizzlers or this type of ice cream). The ingredient list actually mentions cocoa butter, not like so many other types of “chocolate” which consist mainly of corn starch, modified corn starch, and artificial ingredients.

What has me a little freaked out however is not the consumable content, and not even the surprise toys inside, but rather, the marketing part of it.

This is what it says:

New Toys 2009

Collect All 80

Now think about this. The Kinder Surprise People want each child who consumes their product to collect all 80 toys.

80 toys. That means 80 eggs.

80 chocolate eggs.

Here’s the ingredient breakdown:

Each egg contains 220 calories, 10 mg of cholesterol, 45 mg os Sodium, and 19 g of Sugars (with an s which means, what, corn starch, modified palm oil? who knows), among other things.

That’s a lot of junk in one hollow chocolate egg.

Then there’s the toys inside. Sure, he likes opening it and feeling surprised about the surprise, but does he actually play with the toys? Maybe for all of 2 minutes. It’s all junk, if you ask me.

Which doesn’t mean I won’t allow him to eat candy, or play with junk, particularly not if it’s a gift. I’m just saying…

80 chocolate eggs with 80 junky trinket toys.

And Halloween is just around the corner…happy joy.

 

Sugar houdini

Definitions:

Houdini – Harry Houdini (1824-1926), magician, escapologist
Escapism – the attempt to divert attention from an unpleasant reality 
PPMS – Permanent Pre Menstrual Syndrome (first came across this phenomenon here)

I recently came across an article in a magazine that talks about sugar. The gist: we eat too much, there is too much hidden sugar in our food, and it’s bad for you.

Being Swiss, and more importantly, female, and most importantly a mom of tiny tots, I like sugar. Particularly the type found in chocolate. I have rambled about this here and here and I will likely again soon, I think.

There is a reason why I included definitions at the top of this post. Houdini and escapism are related to one another, as far as the magician Harry Houdini is concerned, but the term kind of leaped into my brain when I thought of a funky title for this post. Because it seems to me that sugar, in its white, refined, granlulated form, has this houdini-like quality to it. Don’t you think? I mean, there is sugar everywhere you look, even if it’s not the white granular stuff (think simple carbs, for example).

The reason I mentioned PPMS up there is because I am just coming out of that state. There was something REALLY wrong with me over the last few weeks because I was unable to stop eating chocolate. I mean, I usually have a little every day, but last week I thought I was going to go into some kind of insulin-resistant shock from all the chocolate I consumed. Disgusting, really. But then, on Saturday morning, I realized that last week I was experiencing PMS (or P-PMS, because it went on and on and on), which, 4 months postpartum, SEEMS a bit early to me, and I forgave myself all this sugar consuming. I mean, I couldn’t HELP myself. But now, I’m feeling better. The cravings have mostly disappeared. Actually, my cravings went houdini on me too because I now crave salt. Like, olives. Or pickles.

But I digress. Back to the sugar.

Frankly, I think there is something wrong with all this promotion to reading labels, counting calories or points, weighing food or measuring inches. I find it, well, unnatural really. If you must diet, then why not just eat food?

And there you have it. Food. Michael Pollan says to “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”. He is the author of In Defense of Food and he talks about this stuff in plain lingo. He makes a very important distinction, comparing at length whole food with processed, packaged food. Go borrow the book at the library, or buy it at the bookstore. You won’t be sorry.

But this is not a book review post. So I won’t rehash all his points here. What I will do here is list the synonyms for sugar. Just so you can get an idea how the clever marketing people, and food scientists for that matter, manage to hide sugar in our processed, packaged food.

barley malt
beet sugar
brown sugar
buttered syrup
cane-juice crystals
cane sugar
caramel
carob syrup
corn syrup
corn-syrup solids
date sugar
dextran
dextrose
diastase
diastatic malt
ethyl maltol
evaporated cane juice
fructose
fruit juice
fruit-juice concentrate
glucose
glucose solids
golden sugar
golden syrup
grape sugar
high-fructose corn syrup
honey
invert sugar
lactose
malt syrup
maltodextrin
maltose
mannitol
molasses
raw sugar
refiner’s syrup
sorbitol
sorghum syrup
sucrose
turbinado sugar
yellow sugar

This list is far from exhaustive, but it sure gives new meaning to sugar.

Related – Candy Crap

I’m just saying…

By 10:30 am today, I couldn’t resist anymore. So I had half of this. I fully intended to put the rest away, out of sight out of mind, but I was distracted by something, so I left it on the kitchen table.

Of course after the tot comes home, he sees it, and wants some too.

‘course I had to give him a piece. I know what it’s like to crave it.

But I’m a bad mother. Because as I watch my sweet happy little boy enjoy it, I scarf down the rest of it so I don’t have to share more with him.

Bad.

My other excuse is that once it’s done, I can’t crave more of it since there isn’t any to be had and I’d just have to live without it.

Except then I ran out of this. And I ask myself, as I turn the house upside down looking for what I could have sworn was at least another half box around someplace, since we just bought some and we can’t possibly be out of them already again, and how I could let this happen when the wind chill is -22 and it’s snowing, and daddy’s on a business trip, and the baby hates the snowsuit and the carseat, and it’s almost dinnerbathbedtime for the tot.

So I pack the kids into the car, drive to the drugstore further away because they have a parking lot as opposed to the closer store that has parking on a side street, and end up buying this in addition to two packs of that.

And my cute tot, who was so good and pushed the cart for me, and only bumped into me and/or the baby twice and a display rack twice and other customers zero times, asked me so politely if he could have some too because “I looooooove this“.

And I promised him he could have some once we got home since I was lugging winter gear and an infant car seat with a cranky baby and two full shopping bags and it was -22 outside and snowing and now was not the time to unpack the bags.

Once we got in the car he asked me ever so nicely if he could have some now please in daddy’s car, and since I knew I wouldn’t make it home without sneaking a piece and already felt like a bad mother for not sharing more this morning, I opened it and gave him a small piece.

Small because of bathdinnerbedtimeroutine and all that.

I ate more than half of it myself in the car however, but proudly proclaim that as I type this SEVERAL hours later, there is still some left. For tomorrow.

And when the tiny tot asked if he could have two (2!) of these in a little cup while in the bath, I said yes.

And gave him 5.

Orange Brownie

I make brownies almost daily lately. There’s a standard recipe in one of my cookbooks that I just keep adjusting. To this one, I added the rind of an orange, and semi-sweet chocolate chips. I also used organic semi-sweet chocolate powder, rather than melted chocolate.

Lovely with a cup of nice tea!