‘My Coco Pop addiction serves as a warning that my mental health might need attention’

FOR: Aoife McElwain:

As a kid, I figured the greatest luxury of being an adult would be the power to buy Variety Packs of Kellogg’s cereal whenever the hell I damn well pleased.

Unfortunately, my Mum cared about what her kids ate. She always cooked our meals and made sure our diets were well balanced. Boxes of Cornflakes and Cheerios (not the honey nut type) sat atop our fridge, staring down at me with unsweetened contempt.

About once a year, on summer holidays, Mum relinquished her totalitarian grip over our kitchen and we were allowed to pick out a box of sugary breakfast cereal. Mum would still heavily police our portion sizes and those boxes would last for weeks, but we felt gloriously free and high on sugar.

These days, my ultimate guilty pleasure is a bowl of Coco Pops. I giddily fill a bowl to the brim and drown these nutritionally vacuous chocolate-flavoured puffballs in cold milk, sometimes even eating them for dinner at the end of a particularly less-than-awesome day.

I enjoy these moments of indulgence, yes, but I must admit that the glee is temporary and fleeting. Perhaps my greatest case in supporting my Coco Pop addiction is that it serves as a gentle warning that my mental health might need a little attention. When I’m feeling low, they’re what I crave.

So when that cheeky little monkey starts making eyes at me from the convenience store shelf, it gives me an opportunity to do a little check-in with myself. “Are you ok? Do you need some Coco Pops? Ok, you can have them. In fact, you deserve them.”

I indulge myself, answering the call of comfort food that is the basis of my bond with Coco Pops. I’ll sit on the sofa, cross-legged like I used to when I was a kid, and eat my bowl, telling myself that tomorrow is a new day. It’s all going to be ok.

AGAINST: Gerard Maguire:

I am against all chocolate cereals and sugared cereals.

I listen about the benefits of bringing up our kids on breast milk. There is no argument against the benefits of Mum’s milk. Why, then, do we stuff our kids with chocolate cereals and sugared cereals once the same much loved child is old enough to have a tantrum in the cereal aisle in the supermarket?

Is there a diet statement that defines us more than pouring wonderful fresh milk onto Sugar Puffs or Coco Pops before we send our kids off to school?

If we exercised a little more discipline with our children’s health and sent them out with a fresh fruit, good bread and porridge kick-start, it would benefit everyone.

I would go further and say that the right to choose should be removed and these products should be banned or prohibitively taxed. I have no recollection of ever eating them and never allowed my two girls to try them – no matter how loud they shrieked.

Aoife McElwain is a food writer and events planner. Gerard Maguire is proprietor of 64Wine in Glasthule, Co Dublin