I love you with chocolate!

With the winter holidays in the near past and Valentine's Day just around the corner, I really began to wonder why the heck we use food (and mostly sweets) to show our affection for others.

I did some research on the history of giving sweets to your "sweet" and here's what I came up with.  2000 years ago, when Chocolate was first discovered in Latin America, it became evident to the rulers of that time, that it was an aphrodisiac.  (later discovered that the chemical phenylethylamine in chocolate is linked to feelings of excitement, attraction, and even pleasure!)  Well, you can now draw the conclusion of how this got all hooked up with Valentine's Day!

But what about all the Christmas Cookies and Pies we eat in November and December?  Evidently candies and cookies were once used as Christmas ornaments, and candy canes were given to children to keep them quiet during ceremonies.  We know the history of feasts and harvests - but what about brownies, rice crispy treats, fudge and cookies?  And why do we feel the need to give these items to each other as gifts?

Here's what bothers me about the "tradition" of baked goods around holidays (and candy around Valentine's Day and Easter).  It is a fact that more than a third of all adults and 20% of all children in the US are obese.  Almost 10% of the entire population in the US already has diabetes (that's almost 26 million people) - and, there are another 7.0 million people with "undiagnosed" diabetes and another 79 million people considered "pre-diabetic."  Epidemic?  I think so.

Yet, with all of this - and more diseases and illness - all related to unstable blood sugar, we still insist on giving each other sweets to signify love and affection.  To me - it seems to give an overweight person a batch of brownies is pretty darn close to giving a bottle of wine to an alcoholic.  

There are SOOOOO many other things to give people as gifts.  And the act of making something homemade - like baking - can be satisfied in so many other ways.  Two years ago, I made my own sugar body scrubs to give as gifts. This past year, I made stove top potpourri (cranberries, oranges, spices).  Flowers on Valentine's Day can substitute for chocolate, or home made crafts and picture frames.

There are a ton of great "non-food" ideas to be found on Pinterest - of course, you have to shuffle through the millions of pins of sweet food, baked goods, cookies, candies and cakes.  But it is all there. So I ask you - this year, could we all try to give non-baked good, non-candy gifts to each other for holidays - show affection by actually caring about the health and wellbeing of your loved ones!