by Christina Bernice Butler

Created on: June 08, 2010

While chocolate is not exactly an enemy (unless consumed in over-abundance), my answer is yes, children should be limited in the amount of chocolate they eat and not just on Easter, either. Children need monitoring daily, constantly. Their eating habits are no exception. We need to teach them about balance, moderation, and healthy eating. The portions we buy and supply are a big part of that. By the time their bodies tell them they've had enough and they are laid out from a sugar rush, it will have been too late.

Chocolate, deriving from the cacao (cocoa) bean, has many health benefits. Antioxidants, flavonoids and vitamins and minerals are found in chocolate. It also regulates blood pressure and cholesterol and releases hormones that help people feel better. The sugar often cancels out those benefits, though. This is also why, when it comes to health, dark chocolate is recommended more than milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is closer to its natural state of cocoa, prior to the addition of excess sugar, butter and milk. If you have ever tasted Hershey's powder, you know that cocoa is naturally bitter. Chocolate is a treat and should remain as such.

Every Easter season, there are all sorts of goodies around.for us to indulge in. From jelly beans to those famous Peeps or infamous Cadbury eggs, candy of both the chocolate and non-chocolate variety are not at all hard to find. However, candy and chocolate are bad because the sugar, regardless of if it is a sweetener or actual sugar, will deplete you of nutrients in order for your body to process it and does not offer any in return.

It is a huge risk to leave children to consume as much sweets as they so choose. It is not a matter of controlling them but teaching them self-control.  It is not restricting chocolate but limiting the amount they will be eating. Everything about that choice is healthy! To build strong adults out of these children, they need certain nutrients and chocolate just won't cut it. To learn, early on in age, the importance of not abusing chocolate is to avoid eating oneself into sickness!

I'd recommend for any parent/guardian/care provider to limit the amount of chocolate their children will eat, simply because it is wise. In the words of the infamously cruel Ms. Trunchbull, sometimes it's just "much too good for children!"

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