How (literally) sweet it is.



Do you remember being a child

and nothing, seriously nothing, was too sweet or sugary?

What were your secret little sweet fixes when you were a kid?

My two faves...
I used to freeze Coke or lemonade and eat it with a knife and fork
and the old favourite- I ate jelly crystals from the packet.
(I am sure that there were countless other things that I don't want to admit to my kids
lest they get ideas
but the chronic hyperglycaemic attacks seem to have removed any memory of them.
My story. Sticking to it.)

If you asked me up until about 3 years ago if I was a "sweet" or "savoury" person.
I'd say sweet every time.
But now I am not so sure.

I crave sweet food less
(with the understandable exceptions of gelati or raw cookie dough)
and will grab salty food mostly if given a choice.

Today my 3 kids each attacked a "sherbet" treat that I bought
when we were on holidays a month ago
(I was waiting till the kids were eating outside and headed straight in to the bath.
Do you blame me?)

They ate with gusto.
Stuck the lollipop (= spoon) (because a bowl of sugar is just not enough sugar)
into the bowl and slurped the stuff down.
Then it started looking a bit like a challenge scene from Survivor.
They would
 *stop, citing feeling sick,
then felt the need to go back and continue**

Repeat * to ** as long as capable.

When a 5 and 7 year old tell you that it is too sweet,
you have to believe them.

Even after these looks and admitting that she felt sick,
the 3 year old said "just a little bit more"
and "spoon" eaten, started licking straight into the bowl of yellow coloured jelly crystals
or scooping with her fingers.

I tasted it with a bit of excitement from childhood past
and then cringed with the tastebuds of parenthood current.

So can you still stomach those "treats" from your youth?
I am still partial to licorice allsorts and chocolate coated marshmallows
but generally most things don't taste the same
(I cite Wizz Fizzes as proof)
But has the recipe changed or have my tastebuds?
Probably both.

Mind you, for the sake of evolution,
it is probably a good thing that we learn to temper or outgrow
most of our childhood impulses
like living on sugar, pressing any red button that we see
or trying to eat anything green, crawly and with more than 4 legs.

Postscript: the 3 year old's sweet tooth beat her older brothers' sugar tolerance hands down.