Does Hello Kitty Candy Look Too Much like Pills?

The candy industry has never pretended to be a paradigm of good health. From the lack of nutritional value of the very products themselves to the health hazards inherent in consuming too much sugar, "candy" and "health" just don't play in the same sandbox.

Of course, when you're in the midst of eating some multi-layered confection, who really cares? Certainly not your taste buds.

But what about candy that's not merely "unhealthy," but potentially dangerous?

This morning, my wife was sorting through a favor bag my 2-year-old daughter had received after being a guest at a birthday party. The bag contained a typical assortment of toys and goodies -- a Tootsie Pop, a mini bubble blower, some stickers. There were also "themed" items, one of which was a "Hello Kitty" tin.

When my wife opened the tin, she was surprised to see the canister packed with tiny pill-shaped candies. She showed the contents to me and without having to say it herself, I immediately knew her concern.

Have a look at the photograph to the left of this text. Can you tell which pink dots are pills and which is candy?

The top dot is a Prandin tablet. The bottom dot is an aspirin. And the middle dot is the Hello Kitty candy. The pills in the picture came directly from my medicine cabinet. No trip to a drugstore was necessary to find look-alikes. If the Prandin tablet were about 50% bigger, it would be an exact match of the Hello Kitty candy in both shape and color.

Prandin is a drug that reduces blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics. If someone with normal blood sugar ingests Prandin, it could have the same effect on that person as it would a diabetic who overdoses on the drug. Mild side-effects of a Prandin overdose include dizziness, cold sweats and blurry vision. More severe symptoms include confusion, seizures, coma and death.

Earlier this year, the Hershey candy company experienced a backlash from police bureaus and child advocacy groups in response to the packaging of their breath mint "Ice Breakers Pacs." Critics argued that the pacs resembled bags of illegal narcotics such as cocaine and heroine. Hershey subsequently pulled the vacuum-sealed mints from shelves.

Hershey Shelves Cocaine Look-Alike Candy.

Advocacy groups feared that the Ice Breakers packaging could train children to view misplaced narcotics as candy. This notion was obviously not apparent to The Hershey Company until it was pointed out. Perhaps Sanrio (the company responsible for the Hello Kitty candy) also is unaware of the extent to which their product could render tragic Pavlovian results.

When I was 6 years old, I used to "smoke" a whole pack of candy cigarettes in a day or two. This habit never trained me to become a real smoker, but I distinctly remember the "realism" to which my playmates and I strove in consuming the packs. Mimicking our parents and other adults, we'd dangle the cigarettes between two fingers, take long, "stress-reducing" drags and blow out imaginary smoke. It made us all feel quite sophisticated.

I doubt any of my peers who later went on to become smokers were necessarily influenced by their childhood consumption of candy cigarettes. But it does illustrate the extent to which innocent naivete will embrace unhealthy behavior. The obvious differences between candy cigarettes and real cigarettes places a safety barrier in regard to direct influence. But the resemblance of small, pill-shaped candy to real prescription meds offers no barriers.

Instead, it is an entirely dangerous influence.

Needles to say, we tossed the candy.

*Hello Kitty candy is distributed by Boston America Corp.

BostonAmerica.com