Beat the Sweet

Every person is of elephantine fatness. Drinking “cupcakes-in-a-cup”, they sit immobile on hovering chairs that robotically satisfy all their needs. This portrayal of future humans in Disney-Pixar’s film, Wall-E, may have been used for satirical and comedic purposes, but the characters’ corpulence may not be such an exaggeration if our society becomes too much in thrall to sugar.

Sugar, a commonly acknowledged contributor to the fast growing rates of obesity and diabetes, is so addictive and harmful in large quantities that some have gone so far as to suggest that it is “the new tobacco”.

With sugar being hidden in the large amounts of processed products we consume, it is no surprise that, in 2008, 35% of the global adult population was considered to be overweight, with about one-third of those people being obese.

Is it not rather hypocritical, then, for a school whose third goal calls for “social awareness which impels to action” (“ISSH Goals”) to contribute to making the film’s fictional prophesy a reality through the practice of bake sales?

Almost every week in our school there is a bake sale. I do not deny that I look forward to them and to the delicious brownies that are for sale, but, such frequent intakes of sugar-rich goods surely is not very healthy. Is it not also ironic that we often raise money for starving children by selling and eating cakes?

It may be difficult to think of alternatives that are as lucrative and straightforward as bake sales, but it simply requires greater planning and teamwork.

Perhaps the first step would be to bake and sell somewhat healthier products. A typical cupcake recipe contains roughly 3/4 of a cup of sugar – the equivalent of 36 teaspoons of sugar. However, Heather Millar in the healthy lifestyle magazine Prevention claims that if you reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe by one-third, the resulting taste will be the same.

Another step may be to limit the number of bake sales held by each council and grade to one per year. Every group has at least two opportunities in a year to raise funds for their respective causes, and establishing such a rule will not only aid our students’ health but also will encourage their creativity in proposing fundraising ideas.

There are many potentially successful food-based fundraising alternatives. For example, every year the World Council hosts the ‘International Buffet’, a very successful fundraiser where food from a variety of countries is served. Our school community is so diverse and curious about different cultures that more frequent fundraisers like this should be very profitable. It may be also interesting to sell food that is related to the cause that you are raising money for. For example, if you are raising funds for school children in Nepal, it may be interesting to sell food similar to that which Nepali children eat everyday. This will not only raise funds but also awareness.

Sugar has become so ubiquitous in our lives that its deleterious effects have become difficult to avoid. We must begin to decrease sugar consumption by making small changes in our school to promote healthier diets.