I’m Addicted to Skittles!

But will tasting the rainbow kill me?

My addiction began innocently enough. 

“Taste the rainbow!” a school aged girl urged as I passed her on the course of the One City Half Marathon in 2020. Ooooh… Skittles! They sounded delicious. I took two fun-sized packs. 

Over halfway into the race at that point, I was grateful for the sugar rush. And, wow, tart and chewy candy never tasted so good! 

I’ve never hated Skittles, but they were also never on my radar as a must-have candy until that race, even though I love fruity, chewy candy. I took to eating these during my races as a backup source of glucose. 

I suppose I can blame this relatively newfound addiction on that kind little girl. 

It didn’t help that these are handed out at one of the aid stations during the Blue Ridge Marathon. I look forward to getting cups of these every time I’ve run the race!

My run club, the Richmond Road Runners, also hands these out on the Richmond Marathon course at around the halfway point. The promise of these is a great incentive for me to run out to their tent and hang out for a bit as I coach my team through to the next stage of their race. 

When I began working at my current place of employment, it was part of the office candy that was ordered for us, along with M&Ms. Except that milk chocolate isn’t vegan. But Skittles I can have!

We also periodically have a snack cart that hospital administrators take around to employees to cheer us up. And, yes, full size bags of Skittles are on the cart, and one of the few vegan things they include as choices.

Recently I’ve taken to munching on these as I type my notes. It really seems to help me get through this tedious process a bit faster. 

Are these healthy? Absolutely not! Any candy is really a waste of calories. But there was some recent controversy over the chemicals used in the candy, some of which are deemed toxic to humans. Lovely. 

Titanium Dioxide is the main culprit, used as a whitening agent to make the rainbow of Skittles colors brighter. It is a known carcinogen. 

Even more notable is that this food additive has been banned in Europe. One of my few regrets when I was in England was not trying the Skittles there! 

In the US, however, titanium dioxide is a common food additive in many processed items on the shelves of our grocery stores. It seems almost unavoidable in our food supply unless you only eat whole foods.

I broke myself of the habit of eating Skittles for a while, but I was recently tempted and bought a big bag during my last grocery store trip. Sigh. 

There is no doubt that consuming ultra processed food is not good for you. But I do eat plenty of very healthy foods! Skittles definitely isn’t on that list. But they are one of my few food vices, especially when documenting at work or while running long distances! 

It seems I’m destined to be addicted to tasting the rainbow for now. 

___________

Do you have any foods that you seem to always crave? I’d love to hear about it!

Lead photo by author.

As always, I hope you all are safe and healthy.