Please stop feeding our kids sugar.

Let's start by establishing that I am not a candy-hating witch.

I eat chocolate every single day. I'm not exaggerating there. Some days that small chocolate square is the only thing that keeps me sane. Yesterday I ate a baseball size serving of Swedish Fish because I have no willpower. I love candy. I am also a mom trying to feed my children healthy food, and I am making this request on behalf of moms like me: Please STOP feeding our kids sugar.

The AHA recommends that children ages 4-8 eat no more than 130 calories from sugar per day. That's the same as 3 teaspoons or 12.5 grams of sugar. Studies suggest that the average kid actually eats around 21 teaspoons per day.

I want you to stop for a moment and image a child you know eating 21 teaspoons of sugar.

We've all heard the facts. Anything processed or packaged in any way usually has added sugar. The Cheerios my kids eat for breakfast have 1g. The "healthy" greek yogurt has 13g. A Capri Sun drink pouch also has 13g- that's all their recommended sugar in one little pouch. I can't speak for other kids, but mine don't consider yogurt or a drink pouch their treat for the day.

Treats are everywhere in a child's world. Restaurants and offices have bowls of suckers. The grocery pick-up place gives out fruit snacks. I ration Halloween candy to one per day. I threw out the remaining Halloween candy the day before Valentine's Day. The candy stashes were restocked from the class parties. On St. Patty's day there is now a leprechaun that brings treats to school. Last year our kids were really confused why he didn't come to our house too. I could keep going...

I feel like I am fighting against a constant bombardment of sugary junk food, and I am always losing.

The actual candy situation at our house right now. I guess I missed some Halloween candy.

Just as an example, last Sunday my own children found fruit snacks and powdered sugar doughnuts at church, they ate pancakes for brunch, had a sucker from some errand I don't even remember, and then asked for some of their Valentine's Day candy in the afternoon.

What all of these statistics and anecdotes mean is that whether you are a teacher, a babysitter, a grandparent or just some well-meaning stranger at a football game, by the time you see our kids they have already FAR exceeded their 3 teaspoons of sugar for the day. That "one little treat" that you rationalize won't hurt at all is adding to the extra 18 teaspoons of sugar every day.

We are beyond thankful for all of the people who help us care for our children and want to spoil them with treats, but therein lies the problem: Everyone wants to spoil them with treats.

Maybe even more important, I would like to spoil my children sometimes. I love taking them for ice cream or giving them a treat once in a while. But every time I do I think of the fact that they already got all of their allotted sugar for the day just from their regular food. I read the articles that say sugar, not fat, may be the #1 cause of heart disease. Processed sugar intake has been linked to cancer. I'm not worried about ruining their dinner, I'm worried about not killing them.

I say "no" to treats more times in a day than I can count. I don't like that. I want to be the fun mom who says "Here, eat a Starburst." But when three other people have already fed my kids treats that day, I'm stuck being the witch.

Please don't make me be the candy-hating witch.