Chocolate: Not Your Child’s Best Friend
July 27, 2012
I was once a little child, innocent and fun-lovin'. All that mattered to me was waking up in the morning and rushing downstairs to play with my toys or go outside the house and play with my friends.
I did not mind what I was eating, surprise surprise. It was my parents' or my guardians' job to prepare my meal. I just thought then that they were adults, thus they should know better about what to give to a child like me with a devil-may-care attitude.
As I grew older and became more aware of my surroundings, I started having a hard time dealing with food. I became an uberpicky eater. I was crazy stubborn. I can even imagine my mom nodding in agreement right now. I would just sit on the couch and watch trash TV rather than staying at the dining table to eat. They would have to run around just to catch me and shove something into my mouth.
If you ask other parents, feeding their children is one of the most natural dilemmas a family encounters. Which is why they might make it a point to introduce to kids to all possible options, in the hopes of finding the kind of food that they will love. And one of those foods is definitely chocolate, no argument there.
As the popular adage goes, all good things come to an end. I remember the time when I dreaded the trips to the dentist because of a damaged tooth. I was so furious about it but my parents forced me to go. The moment I got out of the clinic, I was prohibited to eat anything sweet, let alone chocolate. I was screaming in my head that a child without chocolate is a miserable child. Ha ha I was not built for that!
Across the globe, kids and parents share the same sentiment. But now that I have come of age, now that I am old and wise enough (I think), I also have come to understand why I had to get through such things. Chocolate and all the other sweet stuff are damaging to our teeth.
According to the experts, sweets when taken excessively can damage the tooth enamel which will eventually decay teeth. Children are more prone because they tend to neglect oral hygiene and their enamels are more breakable.
Chocolate comes in all kinds of preparations. It could be the usual candy or bar. It could be a drink or a cereal. It could be a spread, a cake, or a flavor in a meal. Chocolate is something a lot of people cannot do without.
Such situation gets all the stickier if your kids have already developed a dysfunctional relationship with chocolate. But if you are persistent with explaining things to them, then that's a good start in dealing with this problem and in helping save your child from later problems.
It's not the cocoa that's the problem, but rather the sugars in the versions that children like most. Alas, there are millions of chocolates out there, but there are only a limited number of teeth inside one's mouth. Unlike chocolate, teeth are not something you can conveniently buy from your favorite grocery store.
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