Hypocrite!?

Occasionally I give talks at local schools on health and wellness, life stuff or whatever they need me to talk about.

A couple of weeks ago I was at Eden Prairie High School to talk to a Teen Issues class about Stress Management. Toward the end of the talk a few students shot out some quick questions?

"So, if diet pop has all these harmful chemicals, if you were told that you had to drink one or the other, which one would it be?"

To me this was a clear answer, "The regular soda, even with all of its high fructose corn syrup."

Another quick question came from a sharp young man in the front row, whose scheme behind his words became more obvious with each word, "You said that we shouldn't drink pop or coffee, why did you say that it's okay for adults to drink coffee?"

There was so much more to this answer than I could explain in the few minutes we had left and with the noise of the bustling students as they shuffled to the door. Although, the question I knew that I really had to answer was, "Are you speaking hypocritically?"

"First of all, I do not speak in 'should's', 'must's', 'aught to's' and the like, I provide information for individuals to make a decision on their own. As for coffee, there are many studies that show that just drinking one cup of coffee encourages the body to flush a days worth of minerals down the toilet. Your growing bodies need those minerals."

His slight grimace turned to a look of perhaps slight surprise that I had not been cornered. We exchanged looks of acceptance and satisfaction as I asked if that answered his question and the class was dismissed. Bright kid- keep asking questions!

Teenagers- they keep you on your toes!

By the way- I got a stack of wonderful thank you cards from this class. What a great job Ms. Shufman does in instilling these good habits and finding resources for her students! Thanks- I love reading the cards!


Perhaps I will write later how coffee can benefit some adults.