Chocolate and Sugar

I got a candy bar from work today. It was for my birthday. I'm not a chocolate enthusiast, but I'll eat the stuff.

I was feeling pretty down about my chocolate gift, but I started thinking about how much power the substance has. And not just chocolate, but candy in general. The military puts Hershey bars in their K-rations. Why is that? In the 1800's, pioneers would give their kids lumps of brown sugar to suck on. We have an entire holiday devoted to candy. If my kids are having a rough time, I offer them a piece of candy, and they cheer right up. Sugar makes us happy. Somehow it has the magical power to warm our hearts.

When I was in Mexico, I lived in a town called Los Mochis for over a year. There was a sugar processing plant in the middle of town. The plant was the city's spine. The city was founded because of the existence of that plant. Workers and farm equipment would harvest the sugar cane, and truck it to the plant. After the sugar was extracted, the cane was incinerated, and cinders would fly up out of the smokestacks. For weeks, black and grey ash would snow on the city. The entire community lived or died by the sugar crop.

(By the way, the cane sugar is the good stuff. Most of the sugar produced here in the U.S. is beet sugar.)

"Sugar is poison" is the old saying, and part of my brain is ranting about diabetes and hyperactivity and obesity and empty calories. And chocolate is messy. I rarely let my kids touch chocolate, because just cleaning them up afterward requires a sand blaster. I should be making a hand-painted sign to wave around: "Sugar is killing us!"

I was feeling down about chocolate.

Then I ate the whole candy bar. I felt a lot better.

I'll go running tonight.