Candy Culture

Sara taught general studies in Lakewood to first-grade boys for a couple of years. Even though Sara considers herself healthy in her own home, she observed that the culture in school was one of unbridled sugar and nosh. “There were always two-liter bottles of soda being raffled off and ice cream parties with multiple toppings used as raffle prizes,” she says. “I’m not going to be the one to stop it.”

She did run an incentive where boys who brought a fruit or vegetable for a snack got a little prize, but it was difficult to maintain the momentum. Sugar soon became a regular incentive and part of her lesson plans. “I was generous in giving out a lot of little chocolate chips or jelly beans for prizes,” she says. “For teaching vowels, I gave each boy a plate layered with graham crackers and marshmallow fluff topped with chocolate chips spelling out the vowel. Every time they heard a vowel sound, they could take a bite. The boys loved it, obviously.”

Sara says that she never had a parent complain about what she was giving out in her class. “I did get one or two parents complaining the other way — that maybe the chocolate chips and jelly beans I was giving out weren’t exciting enough, and I should improve my prizes.”

Giving out soda as a prize was one of the top complaints I heard from parents while researching this article. “Our kids are given multiple cans of sodas a week as prizes from our rebbeim,” says Plonka. “None of the parents I talk to want that for their kids, but they also don’t want their kid to be excluded.” The social pressure is real.

Another challenge is that there’s always a siyum, a party, or Rosh Chodesh celebration. “None of these things are harmful or problematic on their own,” notes Plonka. “But when they happen with high frequency, that’s when it becomes an issue. I want to be able to also give my child some sweets and treats, but when I know that they’re getting it everywhere else, it takes away my opportunity to give them those things.”

When Rabbi Asher Newman, menahel of the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, became a rebbi back in 1990, there wasn’t much of a focus on the effects of food. At a siyum, everyone would bring in food and it would last for a week. As he gained experience, he noticed two things. One, it wasn’t worth giving kids a lot of sugar, and two, as far as incentives are concerned, the more you give, the less impact it has.

Intention also matters. “If your focus, as an educator, is on the learning and doing the right thing, that’s what’s going to come through to the students,” says Rabbi Newman. “If giving candy is the focus of what you’re doing, then the child will focus on that.”

While it would be amazing if students would learn lishma, there is a makor for giving treats. In the Gemara, it says that while a child is learning you should give him a small fish as a treat. The Rambam says you should give nuts, honey, and dates. Extremes are very rarely good.”

He acknowledges that sometimes, in their desire to motivate their students, rebbeim and teachers use sweets as incentives or rewards. “Maybe we do it a little too much, but we’re more conscious of it now than we ever were, and I think that’s important. We have a lot of younger staff, so I think they’re much more willing and open to hearing that things don’t always have to be the way they were. And I guess I myself am no longer considered young.” Rabbi Newman smiles. “But I like to think that I’m with the times.”

Times, They Are A-Changin’

At the Hebrew Academy, this increased mindfulness has led to making sure that a siyum or birthday celebration is done more toward the beginning of the day. “It’s not fair to the English teachers to give the kids sugar and send them right into General Studies. We try to be respectful of that,” says Rabbi Newman.

“For a siyum, we still have food. Just like at a kiddush, of course you have food to celebrate, but it should be done with seichel,” says Rabbi Newman. “We’ve started doing much less. We also have alternatives, doing an activity like playing ball, for instance. On a trip we try to have options like bagels instead of endless nosh. For some grades, we have an incentive that if they meet a certain goal for X amount of days, they get to play an activity, at times, with my participation, like kickball or baseball in the field.”

At Yeshivas Tiferes Tzvi in Chicago, for a siyum, only a third of the class brings nosh, a third is in charge of decorating, and a third in charge of entertainment.  “Our rebbis do give out jelly beans or chocolate chips — it doesn’t have to be crazy,” says Rabbi Nosson Muller, menahel. “A chocolate chip up to third grade works. If a boy comes to my office with a nachas note, I’ll give him sometimes one taffy, sometimes two.”

But Rabbi Muller instituted something even beyond this moderate approach. After receiving parent feedback about soda in school, he instituted a ban on soda. “As of last year, there is no soda given out by the school. A boy can bring a can of soda, but the yeshivah will not give out soda for siyumim, for prizes. We do flavored seltzer.”

One parent came up with a program called Nourish to Flourish, and made a symposium. In addition to Rabbi Muller speaking about the ruchniyus aspect and need for balance, a nutritionist and a therapist also spoke. “I thought thirty, maybe forty mothers would come, but over two hundred women showed up. As a school we were proud to host it.” There is now a Nourish to Flourish section that appears once a month in the school newsletter.

Racheli Staum, menaheles of Torah Prep in St. Louis, has seen success with her school’s program of “Snack It and Pack It,” where students are encouraged to bring in healthy snacks. When they do, they get a stamp on a chart and, eventually, a prize. “What’s nice is it doesn’t have to be a specific food, just a healthy food. This opens up conversations between the parents and child about what is healthy and the value of healthy food for our body.”

They also have a no-soda policy in school. If a student has a drink out during class, it must be water. “The goal is to help students recognize that to hydrate yourself, water is the best way — not sugary drinks.”

The eighth graders do a fundraiser of a treat cart, and there’s always at least one healthier option. With the younger grades, if they get a sugary treat from the cart, they’re meant to bring it home and “save it for Shabbos,” and the parents can decide when their child can eat their special treat.

Rabbi Shlomo Goldberg, menahel of Yeshiva Aharon Yaakov/Ohr Eliyahu in Los Angeles, has been the administrator of his yeshivah for about 30 years, and over the last seven or eight has cracked down on the sugar. “A mother came to me and said that there’s always a party in school, either a siyum or a birthday party, and it was adding up to a ridiculous amount. So I checked, and she was right.” No teacher wanted to be the bad guy, so the school made a very strict rule. On Purim they can have candy, on Chanukah they can have doughnuts, a siddur party or graduation can have a cake, but outside of that, sugary rewards are off limits.

“If there’s an achievement and there’s a celebration, that’s one thing, but we don’t give out Laffy Taffys for good behavior,” says Rabbi Goldberg. Nothing can be done with food in the classroom without an administrator signing off on it, which allows the hanhalah to keep track of what’s been given out and how often. Birthdays are celebrated at every Rosh Chodesh assembly, and some type of toy or object is given out, not food.

“We’ve come to the realization over the years that there are certain kids who can eat doughnuts all day long and it doesn’t affect them so much, and other kids who, if they even get in the same room as a doughnut, they can’t function,” says Rabbi Goldberg. “We feel it’s better for everyone if we cut down on the amount of sugar that kids are having. Obviously, we can’t control what the parents are doing, but as a yeshivah, we shouldn’t be the purveyors of it.”

It might seem like the no-sugar, no-soda policy could only work in California, or out of town, but Rabbi Michoel Bitton, rosh yeshivah of Yeshivas Ohr HaChinuch in Lakewood, is pioneering this approach in what might be the epicenter of the sugar situation.

“We do not give out candy in the school and no sugary drinks or snacks are allowed to be brought from home. It’s very clear in the handbook as well as in the school guidelines. Parents are reminded about it during orientation every year. If a boy comes in with a sugary snack or drink, we do not embarrass him. The first time it happens, he’s asked to put it away until after school. If it happens a second time, the item is taken away and an email is sent home to remind the parents about the policy.”

Rabbi Bitton sees a vicious cycle when sugar is used as an incentive. “When I’m trying to get a child to listen to me or to follow my directions, and I need to put a piece of candy or a soda can in front of him in order to accomplish that, the motivation only works as long as that thing is there. Once you remove that motivator, the child loses motivation to continue. What ends up happening is that a rebbi has to constantly be upping the ante, raffling off soda cans or soda bottles or giving out candies just to get things done in the classroom. The kids will listen if they know they’re going to get a prize at the end, but you’re not being mechanech them, or preparing them for what life should and needs to be,” says Rabbi Bitton.

So what is used for motivation? “Our approach is based on creating an atmosphere of intrinsic motivation, making the learning more exciting so the boys motivate themselves. That doesn’t mean there are no tangible goals. Some teachers use a point system, where students earn coins or tokens throughout the zeman and later redeem them at the ‘Rebbi store.’ For example, one rebbi teaching mishnayos, uses dinarim, kesef, etc., to connect to the learning. The boys earn these for accomplishments and can ‘spend’ them at the store. This way, the rewards are not directly tied to each task, but serve as recognition of ongoing achievement.”

And like at Rabbi Goldberg’s yeshivah, no sugar and soda doesn’t mean the students never get something sweet in school. “On Rosh Chodesh we give out doughnuts, and baked goods like cookies or cakes are allowed for a birthday party or siyum. At our Chanukah mesibah we do give out pekelach with Oodles in them,” says Rabbi Bitton.

A Joint Effort

Even as some schools begin to make inroads into the amount of sugar in chinuch, true change needs to be cultural. Back when Rabbi Newman first became a menahel, there was a mother who was very vocal that her child shouldn’t have any candy.  ”A few months into the school year, I was walking past her son’s locker while he was opening it, and I saw that his locker was filled with sodas.” Rabbi Newman called the mother a few days later to discuss this, and it turned out that the mother had bought the sodas for her son. “He wanted them, and she didn’t know how to say no.

“There are families that are very moderate about their sugar intake, and I respect anyone that can do that. But there are some families who aren’t so strict at home, yet hold the school to a higher standard, and that makes it very difficult for us.”

Another important point is that most rebbeim would love to use non-food items as incentives. Unfortunately, those options are generally cost prohibitive. Rebbeim typically use their own money, which is extremely admirable, to purchase these prizes. As one rebbi put it: “We get so much more bang for our buck by offering food to incentivize our talmidim.”

How does that affect the classroom? “People complain about ADHD and focusing issues, but we’re loading them with sugar before school. Sugary cereals, hot cocoa, even things like yogurts that might seem totally harmless but are really full of sugar. When they get to school, either they’re on the way to a sugar high and it’s just total kookiness, or they’re on their dive to a sugar low and all of a sudden they’re falling asleep during the first line of tefillah or Mishnah or Gemara, etc.,” says Rabbi Bitton.

If in school they’re also getting all kinds of sugary snacks that have the same effect, it’s a recipe for disaster. “And then everyone wonders why there are so many focusing issues and behavioral issues and tiredness or not sleeping,” says Rabbi Bitton.  “It’s a frum community issue in general, that we don’t understand the impacts of health on our physical body and how it affects our ability to do things, to think, to listen, to focus. Sugar is a massive piece to all that, and it’s obvious to any rebbi or teacher how it really affects a child.”

In his first job as a ninth-grade rebbi, Rabbi Bitton had a boy who used to come in totally off the walls. He was in touch with the mother, who insisted that he was fine at home. “One day, maybe two months into school, he walks into class with this half-finished giant cup of iced coffee, forty-eight or sixty-four ounces of caffeine loaded with sugar.” It turned out that this was his breakfast every day. “I actually called the mother and told her that it was insane that she expected me to teach her son after feeding him a breakfast that made it impossible for him to learn. She was shocked that this was even an issue. The lack of awareness is again a big factor.”

While administrators attempt to find a balance between the school and home culture, they commonly face strident criticism from the parent body. “I know there are discussions about this topic on parent chats,” says Rabbi Newman. “I get reports and some of it is just not accurate. People are claiming that we give out cans of soda every single day, or give out two-liter bottles of soda at a time. That’s simply not happening. The important thing is that we keep an open and honest dialogue, looking for common ground and ensuring that our children, who remain our central focus, can benefit and actualize their immense potential.”

“Like everything in chinuch, the primary thing is balance,” says Rabbi Muller. “Too much sugar is obviously not healthy physically or emotionally. At the same time, I strongly believe that depriving children of sugar is cruel. There are parents who will not give any sugar to their kids, not for medical reasons, but for ideological ones. Those kids suffer emotionally and socially, and they end up taking snacks from other kids.”

Rabbi Muller has also noticed a disturbing trend in the rise of snacking culture. “It used to be that kids brought one, maybe two snack bags to school, but in the past few years, kids have started bringing four to eight snack bags. These kids don’t eat lunch and they’re just eating garbage all day.”

This means kids are coming to school with a lot of junk from home and also not eating any real food all day.  “So when parents come and say, don’t give them any candy, soda, pizza, I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do.  Carrot sticks might motivate cows and sheep, but it doesn’t motivate kids surrounded by nosh,” says Rabbi Muller.

Odom Edelstein has been teaching general studies to elementary and middle school boys in Lakewood for over a decade. “None of the boys eat the lunches,” he says. “They live off snack bags. Maybe some of them ate some cereal and milk for breakfast. When they’re in school, their food pyramid consists of nosh like chips and pretzels on the bottom, candy in the middle, and on top are sugary drinks like Powerade, Gatorade, and soda, which the school gives out like they’re prizes. Eating lunch with its fish sticks and potatoes and corn is nerdy. They’re not really even given a chance to make healthy choices. While the school lunches might be nutritious and filling, there’s no pressure for the boys to actually eat or enjoy it. If they can live off their own junk food, why not?”

The problem is the same in Los Angeles. “The kids still bring in junky snacks. It’s not that they don’t get junk, they just don’t get it from the school,” says Rabbi Goldberg. “I can’t police what parents give their kids. We can encourage and educate, and that’s about it.  But sometimes I look at what the kids have in their lunchboxes and I wonder how parents expect their kids to learn when there’s absolutely nothing healthy in their lunch.”

I ask Rabbi Avrom Pollak, president of the Star-K kashrus agency, how a kashrus agency can certify products that are objectively unhealthy. “It’s a bit of a paradox,” he replies. While different agencies have different policies and the Star-K does refuse to certify products like flavor pods for vapes or products with marijuana, many agencies are reluctant to wade into the business of deciding which foods are healthy and which aren’t.

“Maybe there will come a time when kosher certifying agencies will take a more careful look at the nutritional value of foods, but I don’t think it’s going to be anytime soon. It would have to be a coordinated effort where every single agency at the same time would stop, otherwise the food company would just go to a different agency,” says Rabbi Pollak. “And even if all the large agencies refused to give a hechsher, there are plenty of independent smaller agencies who would fill the void.”

Balancing Act

While creating a balanced approach is essential, the reality is that parents find themselves overwhelmed and frustrated by the chasm between the healthy choices and what actually works for their family. In a culture full of sugar, making healthy choices can feel like a constant uphill battle, one many parents may not even want to engage in.

“Food is for pleasure. It’s not just for nutrition. Hashem wants us to enjoy this world and that means enjoying food,” says Plonka. “There is pleasure from sweets and treats. I love doughnuts, for instance. There’s also a more nuanced pleasure and enjoyment from other sensations besides for sweet. When we allow ourselves to experiment and try new foods and get used to new flavors, we can experience pleasure and enjoyment from unique spices we’ve never had in our life, herbs we’ve never tried, combinations of flavor we’ve never tried.”

Plonka notes that every family has its own food culture. Things like what kind of beverages are regularly in the fridge, whether or not dinner is eaten together, having dessert during the week, including a protein, carb, and vegetable for the meal, having a special treat Erev Shabbos — these are all examples of norms. “None of these are good or bad,” says Plonka. “Different families have different norms, and as parents, we need to set the norms for our family.”

Sugar is undeniably irresistible — but so is a parent’s quiet power to shape the norms at home. We may not be able to stop our kids from licking the frosting off every cupcake, but we can give them a foundation that helps them navigate a sugar-filled world with just a little more balance — and a lot more intention.

Spoonful(s) of Sugar

Cane Sugar was introduced to Western society during the Crusades, and by the 18th century, it was the most important commodity in the world. In the United States, the yearly sugar consumption increased 16-fold between the 18th and 19th centuries, and by the early 20th century sugar could be found at every meal, as well as in our snacks.

In Gary Taubes groundbreaking book, The Case Against Sugar, he takes a deep dive into why we are so powerless to resist the allure of something sweet. He makes the case that sugar is an addictive substance, and the reason it hasn’t been subjected to the same scrutiny as other addictive substances is its subtlety. Its dangers weren’t immediately apparent, but its pleasures were.

Taubes notes that the positive associations begin in childhood when parents give their children sugar. “It calms their distress, eases their pain, focuses their attention, and then leaves them excited and full of joy until the dose wears off.”

“There are certain aspects about food and our dopamine response to food that parallels the dopamine response to certain addictive drugs,” confirms Plonka. “Is it technically an addiction? I don’t know, and I don’t think it’s even important to make that decision. But there is feedback in our brains of pleasure when we eat sugar and it feeds into that craving. And some people experience this more than others.”

Historically, sugar was initially viewed as harmless and considered much better to consume than, say, alcohol. The initial health concerns were about tooth decay, but as doctors and researchers began to better understand the metabolic effect of sugar, more troubling links arose. Obesity and diabetes were very rare in the 1800s but are major health conditions in the 20th and 21st centuries. Sugar consumption went from one spoonful a week in 1800s to three pounds a week for Americans today. That’s 288 teaspoons.

Studies showed as early as 1950 that sugar was linked to coronary heart disease, but during the 1960s, research starting putting the blame on fat. This was the prevailing attitude until more recently, when it was revealed that for at least five decades, the sugar industry funded research that downplayed the negative health effects of sugar and highlighted the hazards of fat.

Current research has now linked sugar to chronic diseases like obesity, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, as well as to tooth decay, as well as potentially increasing the risk of some cancers and cognitive decline.

But even as we are more aware of the risks, sugar is very hard to avoid. When fat became taboo in the 1980s, food companies removed it from their products, but then increased the sugar content so the food would still taste good. Fruit juices could easily be marketed as healthful additions to the American diet, even though they were full of sugar. By the late 1990s, Americans were drinking over nine gallons of fruit juice a year, roughly the equivalent of an additional eight pounds of sugar a year. And that’s just juice.

The Many Faces of Sugar

According to the American Heart Association, a woman should not consume more than 25g (6 teaspoons) of sugar a day.

When checking food labels for sugar content, you want to look for added sugars. Simple sugars end in “ose,” like fructose, glucose, maltose, and sucrose, and are found in fruits, vegetables, and some complex carbohydrates. There are naturally occurring sweeteners, like honey, maple syrup, molasses, agave, stevia, and monk fruit. The list of processed sugars is far longer, including Cane Sugar, Beet Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, raw sugar, syrup, or fruit juice concentrates.

On the bright side, high-fructose corn syrup, a popular cheap replacement for sugar found in many ultra-processed foods, seems to be falling out of vogue. “We don’t see it as an ingredient as much as we did years ago,” notes Rabbi Pollak.

Artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, sucralose, and Acesulfame potassium are not really any better. They can potentially be a short-term way to help some people lessen their use of sugar and lose or manage weight, but can also affect the way tastebuds get used to sweetness. “Today the most popular sweetener seems to be stevia, and while it’s not exactly artificial, as it’s derived from plants, the level of sweetness is much greater than regular cane sugar,” says Rabbi Pollak.

Artificial sweeteners have also been linked to increased appetite, weight gain, poorly regulated blood sugar, increased risk of stroke, and heart disease. Products made with sugar substitutes also send the wrong message about processed foods. A snack labeled low sugar or no sugar is unlikely to be a nutritious choice.

Surprisingly Sugary

Granola: Often marketed as healthy, granola contains plenty of natural sugar. One cup of homemade granola can have 36 grams of sugar. The store-bought varieties often contain added sugars, and can contain up to 61 total grams of sugar.

Tomato-Based Products: Ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and tomato soup have more sugar because of their fruit content, and then more sugar is added in. Spaghetti sauce can contain 16 grams of sugar in just one 1/2 cup serving. That is 28 percent of the recommended daily value.

Yogurt : These are full of sugar in these, even without the granola or candy toppings. A four-ounce serving of a popular vanilla kids’ yogurt has 21 grams of sugar.

Salad Dressings: Many store-bought dressings have eight grams of added sugar per two tablespoons. That’s 32 percent of the daily limit.

Dried Fruit: Even though it’s fruit, the drying process concentrates the sugar, and many brands add even more sugar for sweetness.

Cereals: The obviously sugary ones need no disclaimer, but Honey Nut Cheerios has 12 times more sugar than regular Cheerios.

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 958)