That Little Voice

Luke is currently very interested in why we choose and eat the foods we do. We talk about our meals in terms of proteins, vegetables, fruits, and starches and recently, we've been talking about the fact that certain kinds of proteins and starches are healthier than others. Along the way, he said that cookies are a starch, and that they therefore should be part of a healthy meal and I countered by saying that yes, they do contain starch, but that since they're generally made with white flour and a lot of sugar, they're not exactly healthy. Since then, he has been overly conscious of the sugar content of things, but in a very four-year-old way. He's perfectly happy to eat cake and ice cream and cookies, but balks at things like salsa and pasta sauce, which also contain sugar among their ingredient lists. (Real reason he won't eat salsa and pasta sauce: tomatoes. But tomatoes are a fruit, so he refuses to flat out admit that they are the offensive ingredient, choosing instead to scapegoat the sugar.) Today, I was adding sugar to my very, very strong coffee in small increments so as to not over-sweeten it and he watched me with an increasingly horrified expression:

Luke, as I added the first half-spoon of sugar: Mama, you know sugar isn't really good for you.
Me: Yes, thanks for being concerned, Luke. I'm just adding a little bit.
Luke, as I added the second half-spoon of sugar: Mama. That's a LOT of sugar.
Me: It's just half a spoonful. Don't worry about it.
Luke, as I added the third less-than-half-spoon of sugar: MAMA. Do NOT add ANY more sugar to that! It is very, very bad for you!

Ay-yi-yi. I need a four-year-old food-conscience like a moose needs a hat.