As a student of the St. Luke’s community, I have undergone my fair share of academic stress. Between back-to-back tests, multiple essays at a time, or projects (endless projects!), I’m left with little time to collect myself. The one thing that prevents the school day from becoming grueling and monotonous is lunch.
The comforting hot lunch, the fresh and crisp vegetables of the salad bar, and the inviting cold cuts of the deli bar, all work together to build a soothing experience for the consumer. But the cherry on top, the best of all? Dessert.
The baked goods served at St. Luke’s work to comfort and relieve students and teachers alike of the stress they’ve built up through the school day and give them the boost of happiness needed to power through the afternoon.
Unfortunately, at St. Luke’s, the offering of desserts, besides banal fruits, are few and far between. Without something sweet to divide the day into more manageable parts, time passes at an excruciatingly slow and sullen pace.
Despite the multitude of benefits deserts provide for the overworked and overburdened minds of spry students, many shun sweets, deeming them “unhealthy,” “harmful,” and “addicting.”
While all of these concerns aren’t wrong per se, they are misguided. Desserts are only harmful when the portion sizes are too large, or when other added sugars are being consumed on top of dessert. The American Heart Association advises women to consume a maximum of 25 grams, and men to consume a maximum of 36 grams of added sugar daily.
In addition, the negative side effects of a little dessert can be compounded if the consumer isn’t exercising enough. The CDC recommends that children ages 6 through 17 do moderate to vigorous exercise for 60 minutes a day or more to stay healthy.
Contrary to popular belief, desserts can, in fact, be part of a balanced diet, and when a person consumes something sweet, pleasure-generating brain circuitry is activated. This chemical reaction makes us feel happy and is also part of the reason ingesting sweet-tasting foods can have a soothing effect. The consumption of foods that make you happy, like desserts, has been reported to alleviate depression, which 4 in 10 students in America report to have.
With the immense amount of pressure and high expectations for students in this ever-changing world, a little dessert couldn’t hurt to ease the tension.
