17-year-old friends Sierra & Mia answered my long quest to clarify, “What better to call tasty ‘eats’ that do NOT serve our health?” Doesn’t the word “Treat” sound more like delicious foods that can’t hurt us, or in fact, are GOOD for our health? Sierra’s great answer was, “What is tasty but not healthy is an ‘indulgence’.”
Happily, we have ever more ways to be “treated” to delicious foods that BOOST our immune system (like a rainbow-arrangement of organic fruits with fresh, young coconut creme on healthy crusts, even! 
Even better, I am one of thousands creating countless “delicious-cycle”* foods that are health neutral, at worst. Whereas “indulgences,” often challenge our immune system, organs, and more.
What a disservice to children, especially, to ever use the word, “treat” with sugary, over-processed, sweetened cow-dairy and other challenging addictions! Enough confusion saying:
“…it’s only a cookie!” or “who doesn’t love ice cream?” or “cookies and milk can’t be bad for us!”
Sugar and pasteurized cow dairy together are “destructive” to human bodies over time, and often ridiculously overpriced, too. – despite that these are two highly subsidized products, too. Especially destructive to us in large quantities, they are also greatly addictive.
Most are FINE in moderation, so that calling them “indulgences” can help. Remember, any serving over 25 grams of processed sugar is enough to be an indulgence. Each gram equals about 1/4 teaspoon of white sugar. Fresh fruit is NOT a processed sugar, and when eaten as fruit (as opposed to juiced) it is far easier to digest as food – even diabetics can often assimilate many fruits healthfully.
Cow dairy and sugar are both immune system depressants, but together they create even worse challenges, far from “treats,” – we’ve been tricked long enough.
Start shedding light on this subject, especially with children, by clarifying that indulgences are fine if less common, and real treats are worth seeking.
I’d love your feedback, and any other words you have used to keep such a distinction…
* A “Delicious Cycle” is the opposite of a ‘vicious cycle’ where everything can make everything else worse. In a Delicious Cycle, a new lifestyle addition helps us feel enough better to take on yet another new lifestyle that can truly support our health.
**”True Health Care” is the system we are all seeking, since what is currently called ‘health care’ is actually disease care and/or medical care.