“Treat” Yourself

 

Today is Blog Action Day 2011, which happens to coincide with World Food Day. Being the passionate food advocate that he is, 2010 Inspire Fellow David DeVaughn reflects on his early memories of food.

My parents separated soon after my younger sister was born when I was two years old. Once the legal piece was settled, my mother got custody and my sister and me started a routine of traveling to my dad’s apartment (and later house) every other weekend. Like many children of divorced parents we saw contrasts in our living situations; house vs. apartment, town demographics, even crime rates, but the aspect that I’ve started to remember recently and connect to my interest in food, is the “treat.”

I have no memory of my parents being together and what sorts of meals (probably puréed for me) we ate then, but the kind food they bought after they separated varied widely. The dinners were pretty similar; a baked or sautéed protein, a salad or other vegetable and some sort of starch, usually rice or potatoes. Breakfast at my mom’s house would consist of oatmeal or Kix cereal (with skim milk of course), some fruit and maybe some turkey bacon (still can’t stand it to this day) and on certain Sunday’s, waffles or pancakes. Our dad knew that we wanted the “fun” cereals, so we’d have Corn Pops, Count Cholula, Frosted Flakes, etc., of course with red-cap gallon whole milk, and on weekends, a full breakfast of eggs, toast, and real thick-sliced slab bacon from Virginia (yes, my dad owned a meat slicer). While my mom might have some chips and salsa or popcorn in the kitchen, my dad had soda, candy, snack cakes, ice-cream and other “treats” around at all times.

I put “treat” in quotes in the title and throughout this post, because looking at myself back then and the way many Americans look at “treats” now, I think we’ve lost the meaning of the word. I thought I understood from an early age that calling something a “treat” automatically meant I’d get to experience whatever it was very infrequently. “Treating yourself,” meant exactly that: a once and a while reward. I used to think that my dad would get Hostess products and Hamburger Helper because he wanted to do something special for us, but I’ve started to realize that it was based more on what was on sale at the supermarket, and less on it being a celebration of us being at his house.

I hope as individuals and as a nation that we recognize we’re heading down a dangerous path when food items our grandparents ate on holidays are in our daily rotation and are more convenient/cheaper than healthier foods. I have come to realize that the “treats” taste better and are more satisfying, when they are indulged as actual treats. Let’s strive to frequently reward ourselves with foods that will make us healthier, more energetic and primed for activity. Not ready to take a nap.