At Wellspring Academies, diet sodas are “uncontrolled,” meaning students have unlimited access to them during meal times. We do post signs around the dining hall noting that diet soda actually dehydrates you rather than hydrating you, and that the best way to quench thirst and stay hydrated is to drink water. But we don’t fight a battle against diet soda or sugar substitutes in general. Many other foods consumed at Wellspring, such as our many wonderful fat-free desserts, include various sugar substitutes.
When parents ask us why we do this, we respond with an analogy developed by Ryan Madamba, a Wellspring Executive Director, and one of our organization’s founders.
Learning the ABCs
Ryan is an experienced outdoor educator, having worked for many years with Outward Bound. Ryan has led hundreds of teens on month-long adventure trips around the U.S. He is also an accomplished whitewater canoe and kayak instructor. Thanks to Ryan’s background, both Wellspring Academy of the Carolinas and Wellspring Adventure Camp have a very strong outdoor/adventure component. At Wellspring Academy of the Carolinas, where the 220-acre campus borders on the Pisgah National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains, students typically hit the trails every Friday through Sunday for hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, whitewater rafting and mountain biking.
As these trips often bring students far from the nearest hospital, all our instructors have extensive first aid and CPR training and certification. Here’s what Ryan has to say about what our instructors learn, and why it’s relevant to sugar substitutes:
Pick Your Battles: The Analogy of Sugar Substitutes and CPR
In basic first aid and CPR, you’re taught that if you come across an unconscious patient, the first thing you do is the ABCs (Airway, Breathing, and Circulation). The reason for this is simple: without these things, there is no life.
Wellspring students have serious weight problems. These problems are not only emotionally and psychologically troublesome for them now, but they will cause serious physical health problems down the road.
It’s clear to all the professionals at Wellspring that the clear and present danger to their life is the 50-100 lbs. of excess weight they are carrying.
The ABCs require that we focus on this danger first. If we can’t help a student return to a normal weight range, there may be no life – or at least, not a very happy one.
Our ABCs require that we focus on weight loss and weight control first.
Once we are able to return our students to a normal weight range and provide them with the skills they need to be LTWCs, then we can have a discussion about diet soda vs. other beverages.
Until that time, I say don’t let the diet soda arguments get in the airway.
- Ryan Madamba, Wellspring Executive Director
We hear the same kind of arguments about a 100% vegetarian diet, or organic foods. Why doesn’t Wellspring Academies encourage vegetarian or organic eating? Aren’t these healthier ways to eat? Isn’t Wellspring a “Healthy Living Academy?”
We answer with Ryan’s ABCs. Or, said differently, we don’t let the best be the enemy of the good. Although it might be most healthy to cut out diet soda and sugar substitutes, to eat only protein that comes from vegetable sources or 100% organic food, each of these steps would significantly reduce the likelihood of compliance with our goal of < 20 grams of fat per day. We don’t let an ideal diet – but largely unenjoyable and therefore impractical diet for most teens – distract our focus from our goal.