Saturday, September 16, 2006

Maybe I should just feed them e-numbers?


I'm pretty damn conscientious when it come to my children's diet. They get a multitude of fresh fruit and vegetables, plenty of beans and pulses and only organic dairy. There's no meat but a fair amount of wild fish (of the less overfished varieties). We bake most of our own bread so there's no unnecessary preservatives and a lot less salt. Of course there are the occasional instant veggie sausages, some sugary treats and a takeaway once in a blue moon but on the whole its pretty good stuff.

However, I wonder whether I might be setting them up for a hard time later on in life. Those of us who've indulged in a bit of drug taking will recognise that substances your body is used to have a far more mild effect than something unfamiliar to the bodies chemistry. So, this evening, watching my kids run around like maniacs on the energy rush they always get after a meal (when I feel sluggish and tired because all my energy is digesting) I wondered how they would cope if they'd been fed some tasty e-number rich meal. Well of course they have been to birthday parties and the effect is much the same but with the pleasant addition of the sugar crash. Usually following the formula of strop, followed by tantrum, followed by tears. But my quandary is whether I ought to get them better at coping with it through a gradual introduction of all available additives, like a sort of test run for adolescence? Well, I think not, but thankfully I'm only responsible for feeding them half the week!!!