A three-story-high pile of sugar was dumped in Times Square to serve as shocking evidence of the amount that is being consumed by children in the US every five minutes.
The 24-foot-wide installation, which contained more than 45,400lbs of sugar was created by snack company Kind to highlight the staggering levels of over-consumption of added sugar in the US, which is at an all-time high.
The sugar pile, which took five hours to build, was surrounded by sugar statues of young children, which served as a physical reminder that the average kid is currently eating their own body weight in added sugar every year.
That’s a lot of sugar: a 45,485-pound pile of sugar was built in the heart of Times Square to show the amount American children consume every five minutes
‘I eat my weight in added sugar every year’: US children currently eat 4.7 billion pounds of added sugar every year, enough to cover 1,740 football fields.
Children currently eat three times the daily recommended amount of added sugar each day, which equals to around 64lbs per year, meaning that an average eight-year-old child in New York is essentially eating their weight in added sugar every year.
Kind also set up several signs around the installation to highlight other shocking figures, such as the fact that children in the US eat 4.7 billion pounds of added sugar every year, which would cover 1,740 football fields.
Just as jaw-dropping: American kids are eating 13.1 million pounds of added sugar every day, enough to fill 273 yellow school buses.
‘In a poll conducted by Kind and Morning Consult of parents of three- to 10-year old kids, we found that 77 per cent of them think their child consumes less added sugar than the average child, yet 76 per cent are unaware there is even a daily limit for added sugar,’ Kind’s Head of Integrated Communications, Drew Nannis, told DailyMail.com.
Sugary education: The three-story-high and five-story-wide educational installation took five hours to build, beginning on Tuesday at 12:01am
Signs also help: The sugar pile is surrounded by signs with alarming facts, like the incredible amount of added sugar American children eat every five minutes
‘We also found that about two-thirds (61 per cent) of those parents when shown the ingredient list for the leading fruit snack thought those ingredients were for a soda, sweetened cereal, candy or a toaster pastry,’ said Nannis.
As well as visiting the astonishing statue, Times Square visitors were also given the chance to see their image on the famous NASQAD sign, simply by taking a selfie with the sugar tower or the sugar children that surrounded it.
‘We’re hoping that the installation in Times Square better helps raise awareness of the over-consumption of added sugar in children’s diets and encourages parents to make more informed food choices when choosing snacks for their kids,’ Nannis added to DailyMail.com.