High-fructose corn syrup and Distinction making

Recently Derek told me that high-fructose corn syrup (already on my personal banned foods list--if we must call it food) contains mercury. Yikes. I went home and dispassionately told my eleven-year-old daughter about this. Zeffi, who loves to have big reactions, was appropriately outraged. But added, "It's okay, Mama, there's nothing in this house with that in it."

"Except candy," I said.

She gulped (small gulp). "Oh." (Small oh.)

"Yup," I said. "Another disadvantage to buying conventional candy bars. High-fructose corn syrup."

"Mercury," sighed Z.

I let it go after that. I did not declare we had to throw out what's left of the Halloween candy. But since it's April that may tell you how often we get into it. But sometimes, when Mama hasn't come up with something more delicious (and more wholesome and less sweet), they open a mercury-chocolate bar and have it with whole milk carefully chosen to be free of growth hormones.

But Zeffi didn't let go. She and Aliya, her part-time stepsister at her other house, also eleven, went down to some store in the Ithaca Commons and started reading labels. They just thought this up on their own. They went through several candy bars, scanning the ingredients lists for the dreaded high-fructose corn syrup. I fondly picture them squinting over the bright wrappers.

They had created their own distinction-making exercise: identity, high-fructose corn syrup; other, not-high-fructose corn syrup. Their self-imposed task was to find which candy bars contained which. Thus, the second level of distinction making was good candy bars (without mercurized syrup) and bad candy bars (with mercurized syrup).

Joy of joys! Zeffi's top-favorite candy bar (Aliya's second favorite), Butterfinger, is free of high-fructose corn syrup! And Aliya's top-favorite candy bar (Zeffi's second favorite), Nestle's Crunch, is free of high-fructose corn syrup!

They found a few other good bars and a bunch of bad ones and unceremoniously decided they would never again touch the bad. Time will
tell. . . . (And we can only wonder what might have resulted if the favorites had come out differently in the sorting.)

And aren't these girls amazing?

From a parental perspective: amazing
From a nutritional perspective: amazing
From a take-action perspective: amazing
From an independently motivated perspective: amazing
From a Girls Rule! perspective: amazing

I hear they're reading labels at that other house and letting the parents there know that the ketchup is bad and the jam is bad and . . . I hear this isn't being considered amazing.

But I love it! I find this sort of caring, active, self-motivated response to new information truly beautiful. It's also empowering and builds self-esteem. They could have said, So what, and popped another one in. Zeffi and Aliya created a great small way to learn that it's possible to respond in a positive way to an unwelcome piece of news through a simple act of distinction making. And life is sure to bring more unwelcome news.

I imagine this task translating easily for teachers to an out-of-class assignment. Get students involved in distinction-making exercises that mean something to them in some realm that's part of their world. My teenage stepdaughter, Claire, loves to find which musical artists and movie stars have strong principles that inform their work, time, and spending. She loves Bono! Audrey Hepburn was the best! Have them make distinctions that mean something to them and see where it takes them.