As easy as taking candy from a baby.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Joy Archer For The Register-Guard

I know the words are uncomfortable. I know we're in an age when adults who are overweight work on positive self-image, body acceptance and `big is beautiful.' I know we cringe at the word `fat.'

This is not about the adults. It's about children, and let's say it like it is: We have an epidemic of fat kids on our hands.

There's a lot of talk about child obesity: Television is blamed. Portion size is blamed. Food choice is blamed. Schools are blamed. It doesn't surprise me that this problem has attracted national attention.

What surprises me is that nobody's blaming the adults.

Accepting accountability is even more uncomfortable than calling the kids fat. The adults who have influence over our children - their parents, teachers, coaches and relatives - are not being held accountable. The businesses we visit and the people we come into contact with on a daily basis are not being held accountable. It seems that withholding candy from children is a very unpopular position.

My teenage stepdaughters often come home from school and talk about the candy they got from teachers in class. It has become so common, in fact, that I assume they are eating candy at school, given to them by teachers, every day.

Candy is used as a reward, as a comfort and as a distraction. Candy is used for behavior modification.

When we visit the bank, lollipops are pushed on my youngest daughter. At the grocery store, the bakery counter screams free cookies. At restaurants, candy comes with the check, just enough for every member of the family.

Halloween made me see the monster. The monster is me. It's adults, parents, grown-ups who make the choice to allow candy and other sugary foods into the diets of children.

This year, having seen the monster, I couldn't bring myself to hand children candy. Our house gave peanuts and walnuts in the shell.

It could have been an unpopular move. When costume-clad visitors came knocking at the door, we all held our breath. It's one thing to take a theoretical stand against candy. It's quite another to stand in front of a group of trick-or-treaters with a bowl of peanuts. I had expected indifference, jeers, even the cold shoulder. I had not expected children to dig their hands into the bowl, crying out, `Cool! Nuts!' But they did.

Giving peanuts instead of candy at Halloween isn't a big deal. It's not going to make chubby children less so. They'll toss the walnuts in the bag along with the chocolate, taffy, suckers and gum. It's not going to convince them to alter their eating habits, to get more exercise, to question the offers of candy from strangers (which is really, after all, who the tellers at the bank are). The only thing I get out of offering peanuts instead of candy is an acceptance of my accountability.

As long as I'm making the other choice, to personally contribute to the obesity of the children around me, I have a hard time blaming myself; schools, society and television are much more comfortable targets. Recognizing my part, however small it is, is all I can really do in this fight against child obesity.

If more adults did it, we could create a quiet mass movement to reverse the problem of having too many fat kids around. Imagine that. Imagine adults taking a stand against sugar in the diets of children.

Imagine your child being rewarded for a high test score with a new pencil from the teacher. Imagine your high schooler accumulating happy points from a teacher that lead to a gift card to Borders or Smith Family Books.

What teenager wouldn't love a certificate for a free download from iTunes? Think what it would be like if the businesses in town that are accustomed to handing out free candy to visitors switched to balloons, pens, superballs, stickers - even books.

There is a person at the bank who makes the choice to supply the counters with candy. There is a person at the shoe store who makes the choice to provide gumballs to young visitors. There are people with names in our schools who are making the choice to bring bags of candy to school and offer them to our children. Please rethink these choices, people.

Let's imagine our children recognizing that candy is not an obligation. Just because it's a holiday doesn't mean we have to supply our homes with candy. Let's imagine our children free from the constant presence of sugar in their lives.

Let's not get me started on soda, the liquid candy in a can.

Somebody help me understand why we can't get the candy out of the hands of the adults. Somebody help me understand why nobody is blaming the adults for the fat kids.

Joy Archer of Eugene (jarcher@ erupts.com) is a parent, a writer and a partner in Volcano, an advertising agency.