It really annoys me when I tell people I’m not going to eat a piece of their birthday cake — because I avoid consuming things created specifically to soothe a sweet tooth — and they say, “I don’t see how you do that. Cake is so good, I could never give it up.” Really?
Yeah, cake is a delicious poison. Enjoy. Why don’t you drink some Drano® while you’re at it?
Not the same? Okay, yeah, Drano will kill you quicker, but that sugar you eat and drink every day will kill you just as surely, by packing on pounds, creating insulin resistance, feeding cancer, increasing triglycerides … you get the picture.
And we feed this stuff to our kids, often as a reward!
Yesterday at Costco a mother was walking in behind me with her two young children. The kids didn’t want to be there, I guess, because kids don’t like shopping. (I don’t get this — I always liked shopping with my mom when I was a kid.) She told them they’d finish up here and then go get ice cream. One of the kids said something I couldn’t hear, and mom said, “And cinnamon rolls.”
Wow. No wonder the United States is in the midst of an obesity epidemic. We get our kids hooked on these sugary “foods”, and when they are old enough to know better, they have the damnedest time kicking the habit. Thanks, mom!
I am very thankful that my parents never treated us that way. We had sweets from time to time, but there was not a lot of soda around the house, and desserts were not a regular part of the dinner meal, usually only served as part of some special occasion.
(Now, I do recall consuming a lot of vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips added to it. Hmmmm…. To this day, that is my biggest food weakness — I cannot have vanilla ice cream in the house or I will eat it. Coincidence?)
How about you? Do you give your kids the junk food that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, the kind of food that has caused “adult-onset” diabetes to be renamed “type 2” diabetes, because more and more kids are being diagnosed with the disease. Are you that parent?
I know, I know. “You don’t have kids, Steve, you don’t understand.” True enough. I am also an adult and can more easily control my sugar intake. Plus, after all, I ate a lot of sugar in my lifetime, so, yeah, been there, done that, enjoyed it. Should we really deprive our kids of those delicious cupcakes and beverages?
We should, but I acknowledge that this is a difficult task. After all, Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries is a damn tasty cereal! (Even though it does tear up the roof of your mouth.)
Still, you can do your part to help keep your kids healthier by not having these poisonous foods and snacks at home and — seriously — not using them to bribe your kids. Don’t serve dessert all the time. Leave sugary sodas at the store. Don’t buy Cap’n Crunch. Help your kids create good habits, instead of feeding their bad ones.
You do a lot of stuff for your kids that you know they will thank you for later in life. Keeping their sugar intake down is just another one of those things. Let’s stop poisoning our children.