Dear Dad,
Did you celebrate Easter last weekend with any chocolate bunnies, chocolate peanut butter eggs, or marshmallow peeps?
No matter how you celebrate Easter can we agree the strangleholds of chocolate, bunnies, peanut butter eggs, and all sorts of sugary delicacies are a little ridiculous?
I can almost picture the boardroom where the plan was hatched. People in suits sitting around a conference table discussing how to make us eat more sugar…
“The mascot will be a bunny. The bunny will hide hollow eggs filled with colorful candy…”
“What? That makes no sense, it won’t catch on.”
“Of course it will. We’ll add molded chocolate bunnies and creamy chocolate peanut butter eggs.”
“I don’t know. It seems far fetched. Why would people eat that to celebrate Easter?”
“An excuse to eat more candy always catches on. People love it because they’re addicted to it. Candy companies love it because sales surge. Not to mention more candy makes the economy spin! Medicine, dental care, gym memberships for loathing, then more candy to cope. Remember back in October—concocting to have kids dress up and go door-to-door, in the dark & cold, and collect bags of candy. Smashing success! It doesn’t have to make sense. It just has to include chocolate. That’s why chocolate bunnies will work!”
The notion that all occasions must be celebrated with calorie dense feasts is one promoted by industry—Halloween, Valentines Day, Easter, July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas—and generational traditions that began when eating in excess was quite rare. Food is emotional and easily linked to good times. It’s the perfect storm. Labor Day marks the end of summer, so we must celebrate by throwing some steaks on the grill…and burgers, hot-dogs, ribs, and a potato salad for good measure…
In her book Food Politics, nutrition and public health expert Marion Nestle, highlighted the “eat more” movement supported by the food industry and all of it’s connected enterprises. She noted that since dietary guidelines were established the implied underlying principle has always been “eat more.” With phrases like “include in a balanced diet,” or “high protein,” or “get your calcium.” Food producers can take their products and slap a sticker like “part of a balanced diet” on their cereal boxes, or “high protein” on their granola bars, or “rich in calcium” on their pints of ice cream. If the guidelines were true to what we really needed to hear (eat less), then someone’s product is getting squeezed out and that is not ok with the food, pharma, & Ag lobbying machines. Therefore, we have monthly holidays with mandatory feasts, required menus, and absurd candy traditions like chocolate bunnies and peanut butter eggs.
There’s nothing wrong with marking an occasion with enjoyable food. The problem lies when it’s reinforced subconsciously, as a pawn for industry, and we over eat to be compliant. Eat mindfully and make feasting and non-nutritional treats genuinely occasional.
Prepping my garden last week I learned the real reason how bunnies got linked to the Easter holiday…
…a spring bunny’s nest!
With Love,
JSR
