Oh man, sugar cereal was something we campaigned for on a weekly basis and got like twice a year. When my sister was growing up (she's ten years younger) my mom had given up a bit and was also less involved in the shopping and she got it pretty much all the time. I think my brother and I still resent her a little for it.

Very slowly I am gaining control over the junk food. Mostly by feeding my taste buds good food

This is me now. One of the (many) reasons it kills me my mom's not still around - she'd be so amazed at where I've ended up. (On a lot of things actually - she lived through the epic battles but not long enough to see how many of them she won.)

I only got sugar ceral at camp... then my mom became a director of the camp and it went bye-bye. Evil.

White bread, Wylers lemonade, powdered ice-tea, the cheese in the plastic... we had those down the shore with our grandparents. It was AWESOME.

Hah! I went to a Girl Scout camp that was on a carob-instead-of-chocolate style healthfood kick. I felt so betrayed!

Just before I was diagnosed with diabetes I started working on eating better . The first rule, don't eat what you don't like. Which originally was a bout 5 things. But there are tons of things I am indifferent too. And aren't really worth eating from a satisfaction level.

and ther , while there are a lot of foods that are rare, letting myself eat anything I really like to eat stopped the deprived feelings.

of course, I don't eat as well as I should , or even could, but better than before

But there are tons of things I am indifferent too. And aren't really worth eating from a satisfaction level.

This. I still owe Teppy a write-up, but learning to pay attention to this has been so key.

We only got sugar cereal as a treat when we went camping, and we'd buy those little single-serving boxes in a 10-pack, and fight over the froot loops. (You could pay me to eat froot loops now, but it would have to be folding money.)

My far-away grandparents always had sugar cereal for me, which was SUPER EXCITING. My downstairs grandmother had white bread, which is still the best for her tuna salad. And Queen of Hearts sandwiches for when you're sick -- white bread with strawberry jam, in a bowl with milk poured over.

I've noticed that when I eat something with a lot of sugar or salt, especially if it's corn syrup and not regular sugar, then I can't taste other flavors as well for a while. Like, I take a bite of salad and can taste all the different vegetables and the different flavors in the dressing, then I drink some soda, then I take another bite of salad and it now seems really bland. I was just noticing this again this weekend, when I was eating some Thai peanut noodle salad, then had a few fries, and then I went back to the salad and it just tasted like it needed way more salt and oil.

Growing up third world meant no sugar cereal. In fact, it meant no cereal at all, until my mother started making her own muesli. She continued to do this even after we moved to England. I have a very limited range of cereals I like, even of mueslis--mother's own, Alpen, or Sainsbury's home brand. I do snack on sugar cereals from time to time, but I need to dilute them. I can't have a full bowl of one of them--it's at least half and half with Special K.

We usually had Roman Meal or some kind of brown bread, although my sister picked up low tastes from her friends and kept asking for Wonderbread. We always had dessert. My sister liked chocolate or strawberry milk, usually made with Quik, and I avoided milk when at all possible. Otherwise it was orange juice and unsweetened ice tea. I only remember sodas when we were on vacation and got bottles out of a machine, although my mother was also a proponent of ginger ale or 7-Up for any stomach upset.