October 20, 2004
Sugar cereal bad daddy breakfast
By
Herald Editor
Confiscate my "World's Greatest Dad" coffee mug. I let my child partake in forbidden fruit - as in Fruity Pebbles.
Right now, grandmothers everywhere are gritting their teeth. Yes, I fortified our two and half year old with riboflavin and questionable "essential" vitamins. I've given new meaning to the term sugar daddy.
When it comes to cereal consumption, Ella is a mommy's girl. However, my wife dishes out fruit, fiber and very little fructose at the breakfast table. While my cravings are less than ravenous, I've been known to indulge my taste buds with the red dye #40 of sugar cereals.
So there is a logical reason why Ella ended up at the kitchen table with Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. Daddy did the grocery shopping last week. With no other breakfast staples in the cupboard - unless you count a jar of Fluff - Ella had her first bowl of sugared cereal; naturally she ate it up.
Unfortunately, Fruity Pebbles is not really a fruit or a cornerstone in the Food Pyramid. Nor does an Apple Jacks a day keep the doctor away, or the dentist for that matter.
Growing up in the era of Orwellian school Swish programs, I was raised in a sugar cereal free home. It didn't help that my mother was a former dental hygienist. Breakfast was oats, corn flakes and rice without much snap, crackle or pop. Then there was the epitome of blas‚ breakfast: Wheat Puffs, better known as Styrofoam in milk.
My one Saturday morning let down was the lack of sugared cereals inhabiting our kitchen cupboards. After all, a sugar-induced cartoon catatonic state was the only way to endure Scrappy-Doo. Noblemen such as Cap'n Crunch, Count Chocula and King Vitamin could not set foot in the family grocery cart. Even Ralston Grins and Smiles and Giggles and Laughs cereal was frowned upon.
Ironically, I wasn't barred from using the sugar bowl. My Saturday morning cereal was awash in two percent milk and 50 percent sugar.
By the time I turned eight, I discovered a cereal law loophole - the sleep over. My cousins had the coolest walk-in pantry and there, just above the Tang, two or three boxes of the good bad stuff. Naturally, I'd go right for the hard-core Sugar Smacks or Sugar Crisp. Cereals unabashed about their main ingredient. Cereals with a prize inside like a soldering iron for do-it-yourself filings.
These days, however, I am obliged to turn out the likes of Lucky Charms. I'm sure the struggle over no sugar cereal will be bitter at times; as will other parent-child confrontations. Perhaps when the teen-angst years hit, we can bend a rule and share something besides awkward silence.
Grand Traverse Herald editor Garret Leiva can be reached at 933-1416 or e-mail gleiva@gtherald.com