Sugar awareness in children's lunchboxes

Kristen Curran

The Hidden Sweet Poison Awareness of the hidden sugar in children’s lunchboxes.

It has been referred to as a poison, addictive, dangerous and extremely satisfying on your sweet tooth.

Sugar.

4 grams of this additive is equivalent to 1 teaspoon. Now keep that in mind as you pack your wee one's lunchbox. First comes morning tea - 1 pottle of fruit yogurt totalling a whopping 5.5 teaspoons of sugar and then a single chocolate wafer biscuit on the side totalling 2.6 teaspoons.

Don't stop there. The little one has got to stay refreshed, right? Why not chuck in a Ribena drink that has plenty of vitamin C to ward off those dreaded winter bugs but did you consider the 3.5 teaspoons of sugar that 'healthy' refreshment has? Totalling at a whopping 11.6 teaspoons of sugar these morning tea snacks are not as innocent as they appear. According to life.familyeducation.com, the daily-recommended intake of sugar for children aged 4-8 is around 3 teaspoons.

This short lasting additive is addictive and potentially dangerous if consumed regularly in excessive amounts.

School lunchboxes should fuel children's activity levels, and be low in saturated fat, salt and sugar. I'm all for having the odd treat but when one is uneducated on the hidden sugar in foods, that's where the problem lies.

As a designer aspiring to create awareness why not start with a focus on the next generation and consumption of this so called addictive poison. I needed to be smart, straight to the point and convey the right message to the right people in a way that's non-offensive and nonexcluding. Therefore I have created a learning document targeted at children and their parents, which is to be distributed to health organisations such as dentists and doctors along with primary schools.

This learning document is a pamphlet, structured to represent a look alike lunchbox. The shape was decided on as it is a visual reminder what the topic is about, also to act as an interactive device for the viewers to open up and reveal the content. Inside this ‘lunchbox’ is an easy pull out Info graphic poster, detailing the amount of sugar in common lunchbox foods.

Sugar facts and statements where added to capture my target audience.

Catching a child's attention can be hard. In order to do this colour was considered carefully along with visuals. An illustrative style on the front of the lunchbox and a reasonably simplistic feel for the documents design was my way of doing this.

This document was purely created for awareness not to make you feel bad about all your food choices. Yes, sugar is in everything but my point is that people need to aware of the hidden sugar they are consuming, because yes food companies and advertising has and will get alot smarter.

Food and advertising market to us in ways that make us feel better about our choices. 'Sugar free' and 'Zero sugar' sound like familiar phrases but really are they just sugar coating the facts? Agave syrup has been marketed as a 'healthier sweetener', but in fact has been criticised for its high fructose content, which can contribute to insulin resistance and trigger risk factor for heart disease. Using the 'fruit is healthy' approach is a common way companies market their products, for example the fruit yogurt I mentioned earlier. Read the fine print and you will often find more sugar in some of those ‘fruity’ choices than other products.

Times are changing; ready to eat processed food has become a lot more accessible. So making the right choices is becoming even harder.

Specifically those parents who may have busier schedules and pack their child's lunchbox with 'convenient' food. The bottom section of my info graphic poster specifies common lunchbox foods and their sugar content.

I wanted to emphasize that these common choices where all very bad for your children. With a lot of them reaching above or just above the daily recommended intake of 3 teaspoons.

At the end of the day it's your decision if you choose that chocolate wafer biscuit over an apple for your wee ones morning tea snack, that's your choice. Im here as a designer to create awareness of an issue Im passionate about in hope that you will listen to my visual message.

Parents, your training your kids for life, your setting their habits.