Cover of a coloring book passed out to elementary school students from the Sugar Association. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Hey kids!

Welcome to our story! Your hosts will be Sugar Cane and Sugar Beet, two happy, innocuous characters that grow up on farms — what could be more wholesome than that?

Today, we have a special coloring book about how important foods — like sugar! — come from farms, and about how you need food with lots of vitamins and minerals every day. And did you know sugar can make foods with lots of vitamins and minerals taste delicious?

So eat good foods, and remember, playing outside in the sunshine is important, because it helps you grow — why, just like the sunshine helps Sugar Cane and Sugar Beet grow! What a coincidence!

Or maybe not.

The above, which has only been slightly embellished, is the message of a coloring book handed out to some students in Martin County's J.D. Parker Elementary School in mid-February.

Click here to see the coloring book.

It's actually the third year in a row the coloring book has been distributed in Martin County schools, handed out by dentists.

Right, that was my reaction, too: Dentists touting the virtues of sugar? What's next, ophthalmologists singing the praises of sharp sticks?

Odder still was the fact the coloring book contains no attribution whatsoever. No author or artist listed, no nothing. Maybe it just appeared out of thin air!

Ah, but my Google-Fu is strong, and it took about 30 seconds to confirm what, by this point, you've probably guessed:

This is sugar industry propaganda.

It's produced by the Sugar Association, a nationwide industry group that counts the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida and two Florida Crystals subsidiaries as "sustaining members," along with a fourth Florida-based firm as an associate member. The coloring book can downloaded from the association's website, but curiously, the online version contains four additional pages, including an attribution missing from the books handed out to at J.D. Parker.

A mere oversight, I'm sure.

Children's Dentistry of Stuart, which handed out the coloring book as part of a packet that also included a toothbrush and toothpaste, didn't return a phone call and email seeking comment. The well-regarded practice is helmed by Dr. Nancy Torres and her daughter, whose name I swear I'm not making up: Dr. Julie Sugar.

Tonya Allen, a spokesperson for the Washington D.C.-based Sugar Association, provided a statement noting the association has long "provided science-based informational brochures and fact sheets on sugar and related matters, including those that can be used by educators, professionals and parents with younger audiences. We emphasize the importance of heathy diets and being active ... We also maintain that sugar-containing foods that do not contribute nutritional value should only be consumed as treats."

To be fair, this accurately characterizes the content of the coloring book featuring our awesome new friends Sugar Cane and Sugar Beet.

However, the statement also asserted that "All of our materials are clearly attributed to the Sugar Association" — which wasn't the case with the coloring book handed out at J.D. Parker.

The principal of J.D. Parker Elementary, Christopher Jones, sounded mortified when I talked to him. "The dentist handed out a care package to students after coming in to give a presentation on dental health," said Jones. "We have many kids in our school living in poverty who may not have the opportunity to learn about (dental health) basics."

All good. But Jones admits he didn't know the coloring book would be handed out. "If a dentist is coming in and is going to give out a care package, typically I don't inspect it," he said. "Should it have been preapproved? Yes. But I wouldn't have expected a book about sugar in the dentist's bag."

Jones said he's gotten no complaints from parents, but river activist Ken Hinkle Jr. said parents and activists deluged the dentist's office with complaints. "It was all over social media," Hinkle said.

Callers included Crystal Lucas, a Democrat who's challenging state Rep. Gayle Harrell in District 83 — and the mother of a second-grader at J.D. Parker.

"This first happened in 2013," she said. "I never called to complain in the past, but this year my daughter came home with it," said Lucas.

Spreading like tooth decay, it seems.

Look, I don't begrudge the sugar industry its public relations. You might have noticed other aspects of the campaign, including the full-page ads that have appeared in this newspaper touting the industry's commitment to the community and the environment. This is what industries do, particularly when the heat gets cranked up — as it has in recent weeks, with the polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee. "Big sugar" takes a lot of lumps from people who blame the industry for fouling the waters and for its disinclination to sell land south of the lake.

So yeah, in this environment, the sugar industry is going to go on the offensive, as it has.

But in the schools?

As this has become a recurring theme in the Martin County School District, and because the issue is so politically fraught, it might behoove school officials to try a little harder to make sure corporate propaganda isn't distributed in the classroom.

Sugar Cane and Sugar Beet need to take a powder. Lest the whole thing leave a sour taste in everyone's mouth.