Oh, the irony that within 24 hours of finishing The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick I, not only had a few headache days (storms? moment of chocolate weakness?), but I also had two germy children AGAIN. William woke us up Saturday night with illness that demanded immediate laundry attention. Anna missed a much-anticipated birthday party, Sunday School, and school on Monday. Everyone seems to be back to normal today, if the running through the house with giggles and slamming of doors was any indication, but I have to say its incredibly disheartening to try so hard to enhance my own heath and, of course, keep my children well, and to be dealing with upset tummies and coughs nearly all the time. I know, I know. It's just normal childhood illnesses, but it is very discouraging.
When we keep seeing the same sorts of stomach upsets in the kids, I keep wondering if it's a diet problem or an allergy problem instead of the usual school germs. Of course, I know that there are viruses zipping through the school regularly. Wouldn't it be nice if I could create immunity by getting them to eat just healthy foods? Unfortunately, they are normal kids who want to live on a diet of cheese sticks, sausage, crackers, and candy. Fortunately, they do enjoy many fruits and veggies, and I don't want to deprive them of all eating pleasure by becoming the mom who forbids most foods. Seriously, though, I feel like I can't ever be the one to give them fun foods because every time we leave the house some one is offering them a sucker because they got a hair cut or walked through the grocery line or a candy-filled goodie bag because it's Earth Day, which you can only eat when you get home (i.e. in the van in front of your baby brother who didn't get one). It is impossible to feed kids well. I often become the "Ask your mom" ogre who doesn't let my kids have any food enjoyment, because I prefer to say no to many of the sweets. Why? Kids + sugar = crazy
As long as I'm on the sugar-food rant, isn't it amazing what you find in the simplest foods when you read the labels? When I get cereal, I get the dull stuff because it's low in sugar. I recently bought big bag of generic Cheerios, then as I was pouring it, I read the label:
This is the most boring cereal you can buy and someone thought it needed some extra color and natural flavor. Huh? No one's getting this for the joy. I though the other ingredients were a bit unpronounceable, so I looked at the generic Wal-Mart version:
Well, that's an even longer list. Here's the original, brand name Cheerios:
They get kudos for telling us what those "mixed tocopherols" are doing in the box and having more actual words my kids can read. All three packages are, in theory, the same thing. Nope. There's a reason cheaper food is cheaper food. Even good old real Cheerios puts sugar right in there at the top of the list, not as much as in most other cereals but in the top three ingredients. This is why the incessant candy culture wears on me so much. The sugar is in everything. It's taking up room in my kids' bodies where they need nutrients to fight off the germs that keep getting them sick. Let's take it down a notch. Let's enjoy the treat of special occasion cakes and cookies, but say goodbye to the every day, candy-all-the-time diets we have now.
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