Research: consume an extra 17,000 kcal during Easter

Geschatte leestijd: 3 minuten Research in Great Britain has shown that British youth consume an extra 17,000 calories during and around Easter. Those Easter eggs are delicious.

Easter Bunny Massacre

I’ve always perceived my earliest memory of Easter bunnies as a lesson in generosity. Or rather, as a punishment for stinginess. Acquaintances of my parents would come around during the Easter period. They had a son around my age, sort of a ‘related friend’, you might say. Anticipating their visit, I had hidden away my best Transformers and He-Man toys. But first and foremost, I had made sure to hide my large chocolate Easter bunny in my parents’ bedroom. It had taken me three days to decapitate the rabbit. It wouldn’t survive the day if discovered by my visitors. However, the day went by successfully. After the visit, I went to retrieve my Easter bunny from my parents’ room. I opened the door, and our dog immediately ran out of the room. Quite hastily. Which wouldn’t be strange after her confinement due to our allergic visitors… Except that she literally licked her lips as she passed by. My dog had been locked up in a room with a large chocolate rabbit for 2 hours. I never got over the trauma. So, I have absolutely nothing to do with chocolate bunnies, or eggs, or Easter. If you haven’t experienced an Easter trauma, you might still be susceptible to the bowls of Easter eggs that seem to appear on every table and every counter. At work, they are practically forced down your throat, and there are always colleagues who eagerly jump up when such a bowl is dumped in the cubicle. “Oh, yummy Easter eggs!” they say, grateful that there’s still a bright spot in the day. “Oh, yummy. Calorie bombs,” I say, only to see that blissful smile turn into guilt. I no fun, nobody fun.

’47 Easter Eggs per Year’

According to research by HEMA, the average Dutch person eats 47 Easter eggs per year. With 45 kcal per Easter egg, you’d consume about 2,100 extra kcal. However, that doesn’t say much. That would add just 5 kcal to your total intake per day, which doesn’t seem like much. However, that number of 47 per year is for the average Dutch person. Not this Dutch person. On the other hand, there are people who eat double that amount, or more. Moreover, it’s likely that most of these are consumed in a fairly short period, around Easter. An extra 2,100 kcal in a week would disrupt a carefully planned diet. But then that week is over, and you have 49 more to make up for it, taking into account the Christmas holidays.

Easter: More Than Just Easter Eggs

According to the British, however, the damage is much greater. Depending on your personal interpretation of Easter, the extra calories can come from more sources than just Easter eggs. English research purportedly showed that British children consume an extra 17,000 calories and 2,000 grams of sugar during the Easter period. That’s twice as many calories as would be recommended for a ten-year-old in a four-day period. Ten times the recommended sugar intake. 2,000 parents and their children (up to 15 years old) were surveyed about the total amount of chocolate they expected to eat over the four days. These extra calories came from various types of snacks. On the right, you can see the average amount of chocolate children ate. There were quite a few large eggs among them. You might also wonder to what extent a Mars bar should be counted as “Easter chocolate”. Who says it wasn’t already on the menu daily? More importantly, the research was conducted by Wrens Kitchens and was picked up by the Daily Mail. Like a study from KeukenConcurrent published in the Telegraaf.

Killer Bunnies

Unfortunately, more reliable sources have focused mainly on Christmas and its destructive influence on your diet. Those are the notorious holidays when scales disappear en masse towards the attic. Easter then seems like such a silent killer, a sneaky diet destroyer. Small, cute yet ruthless chocolate eggs and big killer bunnies. Dieting is no walk in the park after all. I’m more into the old school Easter celebration. Matzos with brown creatine and eggs filled with hydrolyzed broccoli.