I try to avoid being a controversial individual, I really do. I hardly ever take a firm stance on a topic, and if I do, I don't go out of my way to start an argument about it. However, there is one pattern I see in today's society that bothers me to no end. I've lost sleep over this. I've lost friendships over this. I've wrestled with the ideologies back and forth thousands of times in my own mind. My opinion of this catastrophe has yet to change.

The topic I am talking about today is fruit in dessert.

I'm talking about apple pie, blueberry muffins, pineapple upside down cake, chocolate covered strawberries, etc - I'm sure you've heard of the lot.

Personally, I don't trust any of them. And I'll tell you why.

I've always been a health addict. I workout four times a week, track my macros, and make sure I have a routine sleep schedule. I believe a healthy body is the first step to having a positive mindset and living each day to its fullest potential. When I decide to eat dessert, food that doesn't really have any outward health benefits, I need to make sure its worth the splurge.

Because of this, I cannot mentally comprehend why anyone would ever want to eat a dessert that tastes like fruit. For instance - apple pie. If I wanted the taste of an apple, I could go ahead and eat an apple. This apple could give me the many benefits of fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins that come with it. Apple pie loses all of these benefits and replaces them with something that is guilt-inducing, causes feelings of heaviness, and overall tastes like a watered-down version of the natural substitute.

Now from this article, you may assume I'm someone who likes to take the fun out of things. That I won't let myself enjoy the small pleasures in life. A culinary pessimist, perhaps.

That is incorrect.

There are a variety of desserts I do respect. My favorite late-night snacks are cookies and brownies - things that include chocolate. The thing about chocolate is it doesn't have a true healthy substitute. There is no natural way to eat chocolate that compares to the manufactured goods that include the substance. Eating raw cocoa does not have the same correlation to fudge brownie ice cream that strawberries have to strawberry shortcake. Cocoa beans are not inherently sweet the way fruits are. On the other hand, the same sweetness and taste received from a blueberry muffin could also be activated with a slightly different texture when having raw blueberries. Cocoa does not have this privilege.

The same applies for the flavors caramel, vanilla, and cinnamon. These non-fruit flavor profiles need the sweetness and indulgentness of appearing in dessert forms so that their existence has meaning. Without dessert, these beautiful flavors would be lost in the grandiose world, unable to find reason on their own.

Fruits do not fall victim to this same fate. Fruit has its own place of providing vitamins, antioxidants, and natural energy to the human body. Eating fruit in the morning allows the body to feel energized and lighter throughout the remainder of the day. Choosing fruit as a snack boosts the variety of foods on one's personal food pyramid. Fruit, at its very core, is meant to provide health benefits and a well-rounded diet to humans across the lands.

By putting fruits in a baked good or drowning out their health benefits in pools of iced lactose, one is doing fruit the injustice of separating the being from its natural, authentic form. Allow fruit to be what it is meant to be, and leave dessert for the real forces of satisfaction and indulgence.