If fruit was more fun . . .
If fruit was fun, we wouldn't flee from it.

I eat fruit all the time now. But for a long time, especially when I was younger, I never ate fruit. I hated it. I love it now. So why did I hate it then?

Because fruit is 'good for you.'

Today during lunch we had fresh apples. But I didn't take one. I got to the end of the food line and the volunteer serving food asked if I wanted an apple, as she pointed to a bowl full of pretty decent looking apples. I automatically replied no, and added that I already have an apple upstairs. I don't know why I thought she needed to know I had an apple upstairs in my office. I bring fruit everyday for my afternoon snack.

Yes, I'm on a feeding schedule. I have to have my afternoon snack to make it through the day.

Later, I thought about the apple and scolded myself for not taking the apple. I would totally eat it. I love apples. I eat them all the time. And even if I already brought an apple for today, the apple would keep for another day. DOH! Free apple, idiot.

I then thought about why I'd automatically said no to the apple. I hadn't even hesitated or thought about it. I just said no, flat out. I think it was because I was asked if I wanted one, much like when I was a kid and apples were 'bad' because they were 'good'. (but not 'bad' as 'cool' in the spirit of Michael Jackson's Bad) Saying no to fruit is a reflex I developed at a very young age.

In my younger days, given a choice between a cookie and an apple, I would always go for the cookie. Not that I didn't like apples. And actually, I wasn't all that much of a sweets lover as a child. But because my mom would always make a big deal about apples being a snack that is 'good for you', and often with the threat that it was an apple or nothing at all, I think I developed an aversion to apples and most fruit in general.

Only in the past year, or maybe less, have I gotten onto a fruit kick. I buy fresh fruit at least once a week, and I make sure to eat at least a banana or apple everyday. I buy a wide variety of fruit. I also buy fresh vegetables, and I enjoy that, too. I know fruits and vegetables are 'good for me'. But that's a perk these days. I feel better about what I'm eating. I often choose a peach over a cookie, when I have a choice.

However, many years were lost from the benefits of fruit on a growing kid. There's no telling how much taller, more beautiful, and/or all around more fabulous I would be now had I been on a steady fruit diet my entire life. I don't even know why my mom ever bought fruit, because neither my sister nor I ever ate it, that I can remember. I guess my parents ate all that fruit. Wow, that's a lot of fruit.

I think if fruit were more fun for kids, we would be more attracted to it from the time we are but wee ones, til we get too old to force our dentures to bite into an apple. Babies start off loving that mushed up fruit-esque stuff in a jar. But somewhere along the line, they discover what fruit really looks like, and the stigma of 'goodness' deters them from enjoying fruit in the edible form found in nature.

I think if my mom had never used the phrase 'it's good for you', I would have been more inclined to choose fruit for my snacks. Not that it's her fault I balked at the knowledge that fruit was good for me. She was just being a good mom, trying to raise a kid that wasn't made entirely out of sugar and spice. (contrary to what people think about sugar and spice and everything nice, that is NOT what little girls are made of) But I think as is typical with most kids, we don't always want to do what is good for us, or what mom thinks we should do.

Including eating a yummy apple for a snack.

Oh well. Think of all the fruit trees I saved by not consuming fruit for about 20 years. That's something, right?

C.T.