Holidays are centered around eating, and that is mostly good because it means friends, family and fun. But the problem with most holidays anymore is they have morphed into a prolonged national sugar high.
I hate to ruin your Valentine's Day, but honestly, what is it about? Sugar and spice and little candy hearts, of course. Then comes Easter — is anyone thinking jelly beans here? And what would Mother's Day be without a big box of Russell Stover chocolates?
Fortunately, the Fourth of July hasn't become a sugar day (the fat content of all those hot dogs and hamburgers probably makes up for it), but next comes Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving (pies) and Christmas — pass the sugarplums, please. When I saw Santa-shaped marshmallow Peeps, I knew we had become a nation addicted to sugar.
Here in Utah, where many people still do their own baking, neighborhood children sneak onto porches to leave goodies of all kinds — sort of a reverse trick or treat. Especially delicious are the sugar cookies covered with icing and candy hearts (so please, neighbors, don't let this tirade discourage you. Go ahead and bring some over because I am very disciplined).
Dr. Elson M. Haas, author of the "Staying Healthy" books, warns us, "Industry is the pusher and many humans, especially children, are the addicted victims. I make it sound like a huge drug deal, because it is. Sugar is the number one drug on the planet Earth ... These sweets will sit in us, stored as added body fat (in an already overweight population) unless we utilize the energy, which is usually short-lived, and sweat out the excess to keep current."
Most foods except meat contain a bit of sugar, and our brain and our body need some sugar to function, so it is not harmful if we limit it in our diet. It is when we let sugary soda and candy replace good food that it begins to hurt us.
Haas goes on to say, "In Western cultures, we have turned sugar into a reward system (a tangible symbol of material nurturing) to the degree that many of us have been conditioned to need some sweet treat to feel complete or satisfied." He believes that the pattern is continued in our children as we show our affection for them with sugary foods.
Looking back, I sure did fit into that pattern as I remember baking a lot of chocolate chip cookies, and as a mom I would think, "Here — be happy, have a cookie!" I am lucky my kids were active and had high metabolisms.
Now, as a grandmother, I try to make up for that thinking. I say, "Here — be happy, have an orange, or a banana, or ... a Rice Krispie square, which, I must admit, I do keep in the house. In my mind they are a great improvement over suckers and such. Seeing a child licking or chomping on a sucker makes me cringe. I can just imagine those tooth bugs (I'm dating myself here) rotting their teeth. But totally denying children sweets can be harmful as well.
The Food and Drug Administration recently advised that for both children and adults sugar has a soothing effect. It makes them become calm or even sleepy because sugar raises the amount of the chemical serotonin in a person's brain.
Well, now I have really put a damper on Valentine's Day. But really, think about it, the holiday used to be about a red paper heart stuck on a round lacy doily. And if you were really lucky, someone wrote "I love you" inside that little paper heart. That's better than all the sugar in the world.
E-mail: sasyoung2@aol.com