Their Carb Intake is None of my Business

We celebrated my son Guy’s 10^th birthday today with his entire class.  Because we can’t hold a party for 25 kids in our apartment, we held the event at a local museum.  A guide gave the kids a tour of the archeology wing, then they saw a short movie in the planetarium.  After the movie, they made aliens out of clay.  As far as I could tell, it was a huge success. 

While the kids created aliens, I ordered pizza.  I calculated 2-3 slices per kid and expected to have more than enough.  Unlike other birthday parties we’ve thrown, I decided to keep the food, especially the junk food, to a minimum.  We’d have pizza and cake, but not any other sweets – no cookies and candy on the side.  I had a small amount of salty snacks – potato chips and pretzels, just in case there were kids who didn’t like pizza.

Turns out, there was not enough food.  I felt both sorry and angry.  On one hand, I truly felt bad telling the kids that there was no more pizza, and that there was only enough cake for each kid to have one piece.  On the other hand, it upset me to see little kids eating three or four slices of pizza and coming back for more.  I explained that there would be cake afterwards and that they should save room. That didn’t stop them from wanting to eat more pizza.  And after they’d each received a generous slice of cake, many wanted seconds.  I recognize that it’s not my place to judge whether or not a kid is eating too much carb, but I judged anyway.  Although none of the kids was diabetic, all I could think about as they grabbed a third slice of pizza was that they were easily at 75 grams of carb before the cake! 

100+ grams of carbohydrate for lunch.

I know the stress that much carb puts on a pancreas, and I feel guilty for serving food that causes that kind of stress.  But I’m also stuck in an impossible position: pizza and cake are expected, much more of it than I provided.  No doubt there will be kids who tell their parents that Guy’s mother didn’t give them seconds.  And those parents will probably think I’m stingy and mean.  Mostly, I’m concerned.  In my professional life I spend a great deal of time thinking about the prevention type 2 diabetes.  It’s a bit disconcerting to feel like I’m promoting it.

Jessica Apple

Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and has continued to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets).

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Jessica Apple

Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and continues to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets). Jessica’s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, The Southern Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the diabetes correspondent for The Faster Times. In 2009 she and her husband, both type 1 diabetics, founded A Sweet Life, where she serves as editor-in-chief. Jessica loves spending time with her sons, cooking with her husband, playing with her cats, reading, biking, drinking coffee, and whenever possible, taking a nap. Follow Jessica on Twitter (@jessapple)