5 tips for creating a balanced Easter diet
Come February each year, the supermarket shelves are lined with chocolate Easter eggs in an assortment of different shapes and sizes, ready for young and old to start the Easter feasting.
While Easter is a Christian holiday centred on the death and resurrection of Jesus, it has become a festival of chocolate in more recent years, with the range of sugary Easter offerings available growing with each passing year. We all know that sugar and chocolate are best enjoyed in moderation, but is it ok to splurge at Easter time?
A report by Good Morning America indicated that one Easter basket could contain the sugar equivalent that experts recommend children eat over a course of several weeks – not just a single day!
Kristi King, a paediatric dietitian and the spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics explained:
“The really big chocolate bunnies alone, some can have close to 100 grams of sugar. That’s four days' worth of sugar."
While overindulging in sugar can have many harmful health impacts on children’s health – from cavities to long-term health concerns like Type 2 diabetes and behavioural issues – over-restricting children can cause them to overindulge in sugar when parents aren’t around. The key is to create balance – allow children to indulge in their Easter stash while helping them spread the consumption of Easter eggs over a period of time (not just a day or a week), and balance this with healthy eating.
“Easter is a family-favourite holiday and a time to indulge in some delicious Easter treats, but there are ways to enjoy Easter and still create balance,”
commented Candice Sessions, Laager Marketing Manager.
“Try create some new family Easter traditions that don’t involve sweets or chocolate. Wake up and watch the sunrise together, have a family picnic in the garden that includes healthy snacks in addition to Easter treats, and enjoy some Easter crafting together as a family.
To ensure families have a wonderful Easter celebration while maintaining a healthy balance, we’re sharing a few tips as well as two delicious recipes – a decadent Laager Rooibos glazed doughnut recipe from renowned South African chefs and Laager Rooibos ambassadors, @withlovefromthetwins Lebo and Tebo Ndala, as well as a healthier brownie recipe from trusted dietitian and Laager partner, Mbali Mapholi.”
5 tips for creating a balanced Easter diet
1. Hide other treats alongside the chocolate Easter eggs and sweets to create some balance. These can be items like Easter-themed books and stickers, or colouring books.
2. Plan fun crafts and activities that don’t involve chocolate or sweets. Joekels has shared some great ideas to get started!
3. Plan some fun outdoor activities for Easter that get the whole family moving! These can be a bunny hop race, Easter-themed scavenger hunt, or Easter egg spoon race.
4. Get the little ones to pack their Easter egg stash into smaller containers and give them 1 container at a time so they don’t eat them all in one go, but have a treat to look forward to every day.
5. Instead of painting Easter eggs with food colouring, boil eggs and paint these and then have them as a healthy snack during the day to balance out the Easter treats.
