Life is Short

Yesterday I saw these words printed on the sign of a restaurant: “Life is short; Eat dessert first.” I have always considered this a humorous saying and as I drove by I laughed again. Then I began to think. Maybe it's my upbringing, or maybe it's just things I have learned over the years but as I thought about it, I started to see that sayings of that nature, and there are many, have an underlying message that is diametrically opposed to life as I know it. In other words, I wasn't laughing anymore.

In raising my children I have tried to teach them that life can be short, especially if you do things that might shorten your life. I teach them to be careful and wise and to think ahead and consider consequences. I have known far too many people who shortened their lives by not doing those things. Although eating dessert might not seem like a drastically dangerous practice, to me it represents the principle of taking reckless action without forethought.

Every day there are new studies coming out that show the dangers of processed food. Sugar is one of the longest running processed foods on the planet and even moderate indulgence in it can cause addiction, disease and death. I went down the breakfast cereal isle of the grocery store the other day to determine if the findings of one of those studies were even close to the truth. I read an article recently that asserted that most breakfast cereal is not cereal at all but sugar. And some cereals, designed for children, were over half sugar. Half! As I read the ingredients on the boxes I was amazed to find that in all but one brand, sugar was at least the second or third ingredient, and in some it was the first. In other words, there was more sugar in the box than flour, or anything else. Essentially, people are eating their dessert first, every day without knowing it.

One of the things that has always bothered me about Christmas time is the apparent fixation with sugar during the entire month of December. I cannot go anywhere without people offering candy canes, sugar cookies, fudge and confections of every kind. Children especially are loaded up with bags of candy from every possible source. Santa is all about candy, stockings are all about candy, parties are all about cookies and candy and the list goes on and on. Before that there's Halloween with buckets of candy, all for the children. Before that, we go to the fair to eat and drink sugar all day while going on rides. Every holiday, every birthday, every trip to the bank and every visit to grandma we are eating dessert first.

Something I've noticed as a mother is that when children have had something sweet to eat they lose their appetite for anything else. When that happens they will turn up their noses at an otherwise favorite meal simply because they don't feel like eating. I have met many parents who have asked me how they can get their children to eat good food. They tell me that their children just refuse to eat. The children are plagued with frequent illnesses and seem to have a poor attitude as well. Some mothers today would like to have a special pill to relieve them of the challenges of raising children. From eating disorders to behavioral problems mothers have demanded and have been given a magic pill to 'take care of it'. And is the quality of our life improving because we are eating dessert first and making sure that our children get an extra dose of that dessert? Do our children eat better, live healthier and live longer? Rather it seems that now life is short, because we all eat dessert first. That's not funny at all.