Do you know how much sugar is in the Easter eggs that you buy?
Safe Food Ireland has found that some Easter eggs contain up to 73 spoons of sugar, and is recommending that children should be limited to one or two small eggs, or one medium sized egg.
Louise Reynolds is a registered dietitian and Communications Manager for the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute. She says the guideline for children should be no more than 6-7 teaspoons of sugar.
"It's the excess that people need to be conscious of — 25% of children are overweight or obese, and people need to be aware."
"Unless children are extremely active, they're not going to be burning off all that energy."
Professor Jane Ogden, health psychologist at the University of Surrey and author of The Good Parenting Food Guide, says parents need to be firm with the rules they make about sugar consumption: "The first thing parents can do is just not buy it or bring it into the house."
"The next thing is to be a good role model. If you don't want your children to eat it, then you shouldn't eat it either."
John Mallen of Forest, a pro-smokers rights and anti-nanny state group, thinks the increase in children's Easter egg consumption is due to the fact that "nobody observes Lent any longer, so children aren't being raised like they used to be raised."
"The secret of avoiding obesity is to understand that the more you eat, the more exercise you're going to need to get rid of it."
