Editorial

Easter weekend not good time for changing diets

Friday, April 6, 2012

If Thursday's editorial about the evils of sugar resonated with you, you might want to wait a few days before implementing dietary changes with your children.

That's because you'd be fighting a losing battle this weekend.

Easter is the second-most important candy-eating holiday of the year, with $1.9 billion worth of candy consumed, behind Halloween with about $2 billion and Valentine's day, just over a billion dollars.

Eighty-eight percent of adults carry on the tradition of creating Easter baskets for their kids, who go for the solid chocolate bunny first, followed by the hollow bunny, marshmallow bunny next. When they get to the jelly beans, they prefer the red ones.

Each Easter, Americans buy more than 700 million Marshmallow Peeps, as well as marshmallow bunnies and eggs, making them the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy.

When it comes to those chololate bunnies, what do you eat first?

If you're like 76 percent of Americans, the ears are the first to go. If you eat the feet first, you're in the 5 percent, and 4 percent prefer the tail first.

Jellybeans didn't become an Easter tradition until the 1930s, and they were probably first made in America by William Schrafft of Boston, who ran advertisements urging people to sent jellybeans to soldiers fighting in the Civil War.

Actually, candy wasn't part of Easter until the early 1800s, when chocolate eggs were first made in Europe.

Before that, hot cross buns were made by European monks and given to the poor during Lent. Pretzels are a lost Easter tradition, the twists of the dough thought to resemble arms crossed in prayer.

While we don't recommend banning candy from the Easter basket just yet, how about adding some non-candy treats this year, such as a paperback book, sidewalk chalk or something to encourage exercise, such as a ball or jumprope?

The sweets and Easter egg hunts, of course, shouldn't overshadow the message of redemption and rebirth celebrated by Christians around the world.

Perhaps the holiday can serve as an inspiration for turning over a new leaf in any area of our lives.

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