It's Never "Just One"

Did you know that February 7th was "National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast" Day?

Surprising as it was for me to learn that we North Americans find so few opportunities to eat ice cream that we also need a special day to encourage its consumption, far more surprising was watching The Cleveland Clinic, "America's No. 1 Heart Hospital", tweeting out encouragement to its 346,000 followers to feed ice-cream to their children for breakfast in the name of this important National holiday.

I called them out on their encouragement (their tweet has since been deleted, that's just a screenshot up above), and what happened next was sadly not even remotely surprising. People rose to The Cleveland Clinic's give your kids ice-cream for breakfast endorsement's defence. Here's a smattering from my blog's Facebook page:

And of course it's reasonable to have a treat once in a while, but really? Once in a while? Do we really live in a society that only "once in a while" indulges? Are we really deficient in our collective intake of ice-cream?

Much to our population's health's chagrin, when it comes to food, the word "treat" doesn't really have much meaning anymore, because how can you call something that's constant, that's encouraged for truly the most pointless of reasons (like up above), a "treat"?

That the Cleveland Clinic initially felt comfortable sending out their original tweet, and that people felt it important to rise to that tweet's defence, speak to just how pervasive and normal the constant use of treats has become in our lives. Yes, food is comforting. Yes, food is pleasurable. And yes, we should absolutely ensure our lives include the joy that comes from dietary indulgences, but for the folks coming to National Eat Ice-Cream for Breakfast Day's promotional defence, these days, it's never "just one".