It started with green ketchup.... - Page 3

[truly_sarah]

Good reading (my son's homeschool books I got to before he did for a change):

The Jungle (Upton Sinclair)
My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising (two different books but published together as one)
Fast Food Nation

It will make you want to buy a goat and chickens and throw your TV and glossies out the window.

Especially The Jungle. Only now we don't use the immigrants; instead, we just export the misery to other countries, via advertising AND jobs. It's terrible. I worry we've got to a point where everyone knows that some industries don't make sense at all, but if they shut down, people will go hungry and homeless and riot, so the industry keeps right on going. There are few alternative economies to choose from at this point as there is no momentum. Forgive me if I misquote, but it does remind me somewhat of "Well, then, let them eat cake." --> "Well, then, let them eat chocolate fries!" I wonder how malnutritioned the populace will have to be before they revolt? Oh yes, that's RIGHT, if they're malnutritioned, then they can't THINK enough to know that they SHOULD revolt. Silly me!

Does anyone remember that awful movie from when we were kids? I never got to see it as we didn't have TV and hardly ever went to the movies, but I think it was called "Color it Green"?

Sarah

[daylily]

You guys are so funny. I can see it now: "Studies show that processed potato products are high in the cancer-fighting enzyme___."

And I too am a fan of vinegar on french fries. Unfortunately, that's not big in the South. I've never seen a restaurant here that supplied vinegar for your fries like we had back in Buffalo. I think fries with vinegar is really a big Canadian thing.

[truly_sarah]

I remember in 7th grade social studies class being shown a picture of food on a plate that was all green...and how color and preconceptions changed out opinions of how things would taste, as well as odors (good or bad).

You're right, kids will eat stuff that tastes good and makes them feel good. The marketers have a tough job appealing to children whose moms can cook well.

My son (11) just returned from a weeklong trip...he is eager to have pan-fried potatoes with eggs for lunch and tofu-miso-veggie shish-kebabs for dinner...and is psyched because I told him it would be worth our food $ to switch to brown rice.

He wants to be a professional hockey player and recognizes the importance of good food in that goal.

Sarah

[pie]

Great point Yammer. Spanky has wacked taste in food but while I don't feed him twinkies, if all he wants all day is crackers, fine. I struggle w the food issue but the thing is, dh and I eat interesting (he is my iron chef) healthy food and in the long run I believe Spanky will too. I was a fussy eater as a child and now all I do not like is meat and nasty overprocessed crap! And my mom let me have WHATEVER I wanted from the store when I was a kid. I eat well now, so look. THe Buzz cereal is gross, whatever but I know that if you FORBID certain foods the child is likely to rebel and mack down all he can when you are not looking. If your kids don't eat perfectly healthy, try not to worry too much. Just make sure the staples are good for them as you can.

[Cookiemomster]

truly_sarah were you thinking of Soilent Green.That movie really freaked me out as a kid.

"Soilent Green is people..."

[Jish]

As for my favorite french fry dip -- I put my vote in for Ranch Dressing -- yummmmm!! Also goes great with onion rings. I am also a big fan of sausage gravy on french fries. We go to the local DQ and get the chicken strip basket that comes with that gravy. It is the only time I eat gravy and I love it on both the chicken and the fries. I'm personally not a big fan of ketchup, although my oldest ds thinks it's great, but he never goes overboard with it.

I agree with offering healthy choices whenever possible. We are a meat eating, non organic family for the most part (my dh freaks out at the grocery bill as it is), but I strive to ensure that the choices we make are the best -- whole grain breads as opposed to white, we have friends who farm so we buy our meat in cow and pig form and have it processed ourselves so we know that it is not exposed to antibiotics or any of the other strange toxins that seem so common today. We do, however, allow some "treats" so that they don't become forbidden fruit. DS's get fruit snacks at church on Sunday, and as a snack at the weekly tot lot. Ds gets sherbet as an occasional snack, as well as the once in a while trip to the ice cream store. Overall they eat a very healthy diet when compared to the average toddler, and it shows.

Here is what I wish some money grubbing company would invent -- Calcium fortified bottled water. DS1 and I both hate milk but love water. Fortified OJ gives us both stomach aches. That would actually be usefull, but evidently pastel butter must be a better seller: .

[dfoy]

I am a teacher at the high school and I can tell you that I am repulsed by what is served at lunch as well as the access students have to junk food from the cafeteria and the machines.

I see students walking around with big coca colas (400 calories in the plastic bottle), a "big grab" bag of doritos and some Hostess doghnuts for breakfast. Then they will drink the same size coke and have 2 pieces of Pappa Johns Pizza (the district has a contract with them:mad: ) for lunch. Often there is a snack from the machine during our "nutrition break" (a 10 minute passing period instead of the usual 5 to allow access to the machines...not a nutrition thing in there except for the bottled water but even it is a Coke product...we have a contract with them, too:mad: ).

The lunch made by the cafeteria today:

Chicken fried steak patty on a bun
or
Italian dippers with sauce (these are leftover hotdog buns drenched in butter & loaded with cheese, then broiled)
or
Nachos (melted processed cheese and a mound of tortilla chips)

No salad bar today...the only choices for vegetarians were the fatty Italian dippers or junk food nachos. They do have yogurt but it is really yucky tasting, aspertame sweetened, contains food coloring, "natural and artificially flavored". Yuck! If you've read Fast Food Nation, you know what that means!

And not a thing for vegans.

No wonder we have overweight, type 2 diabetic teenagers.

BTW, my 17 yo dd is taking a great class called Science & Survival. They had a 'food day' last week for 1st world, 2nd world and 3rd world countries. Students were assigned a food to bring and were then assigned one of the 3 groups. Good lesson. They talk about how it is better for the individual and the world to eat lower on the food chain (veggies, fruits, grains).

They also watched Soilent Green the week before that.

I respectfully disagree that if you give your kids healthful food at home, they will come back to that even when subjected to junk at school or friends homes. My 17 yo dd was always given healthful food at home. They do reach the age, however, when they can't help but be subjected to the junk. The junk is flavored the way it is so that they can make repeat sales. It becomes truly addictive. My 17 yo is overweight. She eats lots of junk. I never bring it into my home or serve it for meals. But she buys it herself with her own $. She has started recently to change her eating habits but she says she is having trouble with craving the junk. I wish I could help her more but it has to be up to her to start eating differently.

[Jish]

Will someone please tell me a little about this "Soilent Green" movie. I'm clueless here.

[dfoy]

Charlton Heston stars in this flick about food supply, governmental control & manipulation, and aging issues.

Soilent green is made from ederly people who have mysteriously died.

Probably a review of it somewhere on line.

That's why the famous line is "soilent green is people". At the end you see Charlton Heston screaming "ITS PEOPLE", refering to soilent green.

There is also a band named Soilent Green so if you do a search you will get some hits that lead you to the band.

[Gigi]

This thread is really getting my goat!! I still can't believe all that I'm reading - blue applesauce! blue french fries! And then parents wonder why their children are hyperactive and always sick??

I was talking to my mother today about all of this and she said she had my nephew over for a few days and she bought that Tommy train - or whatever it's called - cereal. She said she read the box (after bringing it home) and it was basically all chemicals (surprise!) and the cereal turned the milk blue (disgusting!) and my nephew didn't even like it.

I was wondering about the ketchup, so I looked at our bottle of Heinz in the fridge - no sign of red dye.

BTW - there are many kindergartens here that ban BANANAS from the children's snack boxes because of the high 'sugar' content - I think more because of their teeth than anything else. The kids could probably bring blue potato chips if you wanted...

[dotcommama]

dfoy - talking about high school reminded me of something. When I was in highschool one of the options every day for lunch was nachos and french fries. When parents complained that this wasn't a nutritious options they were told by the school that is was served with ketsup and that was considered a veggie.:

Ummm. . . how healthy!

[Gigi]

Soilent Green - ewww - what a disgusting (and BAD!) film!

[pie]

You can, in part, thank the master of disaster Ronald Reagan for yhe ketchup/vegetable thing...

[sunmountain]

mamapie, you beat me to my point again! re:Reagan

Yammer, you are absolutely right about not forbidding foods.

We allow the 3ds to eat candy, ice cream, mac and cheese---BUT they always seem to know when they have had enough, AND this is not every day. The bulk of their diet consists of healthy foods--whole grains, fresh fuits and veggies, fish, the best meat I can get/afford--venison is plentiful this time of year especially. The major problem I am having is that the coffee/pizza shop we own uses bleached white flour for the dough. And we eat there a lot. DH is trying to find a cost-similar alternative.

I was fortunate to have gone to a Catholic high school, our lunches were catered by the nuns, our choices always included a FRESH fruit and/or veggie, a protein (if it was mac&cheese, it was homemade), sandwiches, and dessert. They tried installing the coke/pepsi machines, but there was a problem with the students leaving the cans everywhere, so after about 2 months they were removed.

dfoy, could you work on petitioning the school district to not renew the contract next time around? It worked here--and it never got into the grade schools because of the big racket the parents and teachers made about it.

[dfoy]

Sunmountain- I've done the petition thing, even got some students involved, and talked to the board. Bottom line is this...we don't get enough state funding and the state no longer lets us ask voters to pass bond issues within our own communities to fund our schools. The school funding in my state is the Robin Hood method - rob from the rich and give to the poor. Our community would raise taxes in a heartbeat to fund our nationally recognized excellent schools but the state doesn't allow it. We are facing a half-billion dollar deficit next year (we are a very large suburban district). Many programs will be cut (foreign language at the elementary, elementary counselors, full time nurses at all schools will be a thing of the past...even some elementaries will have lead teachers instead of principals). Sales from the machines, contracted Pappa Johns and Subway funds some of the programs already cut from the budget. Unfortunately, there are those elected to our KS legislature that are trying to hurt public education. Anyone know the name Kay O'Connor? She is the one responsible for the negative publicity that KS got over the evolution issue. She pushed that bill through. And she is trying her best to kill public education in this state.

Unfortunately it is all about $.:mad:

Oh, BTW, the district will tell you that the school lunches are nutrititious. Here's how:
Italian dippers have a protien - cheese, a veggie - tomato sauce, and grains - white, processed bread. There is also a choice of a rock hard pear and about 3 little stems of broccoli to accompany the meal for your fresh fruit &/or veg. Yuck.

[kama'aina mama]

Originally posted by Yammer

If we give them good-tasting real food, they will have that as a baseline to establish their palates.

Excellent point! I have a big issue with the whole idea of 'kids food'. It's all dreadful, tasteless crap. My toddler eats what we eat, and it ain't mac n cheese. It's spinach ravioli tossed with sauted tomatoes and basil with a little parmesan (the actual cheese, not from a can). She gobbles it up. I could go on and on, but why do we (as a society, not US here) teach our kids to eat junk and then act surprised when we notice the obesity levels? Gee, you mean living on McD's isn't good for me?

I have also been wondering if the earliest training of the palate might not be partially responsible for the lower rates of obesity in BFed babies (as adults). BF babies are eating exactly what they should, FF babies are getting refined sugar and salt from the day they are born.

[peacemama]

I agree that the idea that kids need special "kid food" is a huge part of the problem. Also, in regards to your comment about breastfed babies having their palates trained, kama'aina mama, I've heard that breastfed babies tend to be less picky because the taste of breastmilk changes depending on the mother's diet while formula always tastes exactly the same - has anyone else heard this? Not that there aren't picky breastfed kids or non-picky bottlefed ones, but just overall as a group, kwim?

[geomom]

I just saw the other day...

When I was searching on medline for studies about breastfeeding, a study in which half a group of breastfeeding mothers were give gobs of carrot juice to drink. The other mothers only drank water. The babies whose mothers drank the carrot juice showed fewer negative responses when carrots were introduced into their diets. No wonder dd likes garlic and greens.

[sunmountain]

What a freakin bummer about your school system, dfoy! I'd like to see the school board and your state reps sit down to a lunch like that every day.
GRRRRRRRRRRR

[Bekka]

Okay, when I was at Giant last week (not in my own city) I bought some "organic flour tortillas" that were "garden vegetable" etc. flavored, thinking we'd have some fun sandwich wraps. As I was reading the package at home, I found that it had an artificial blue and an artificial yellow, plus sodium benzoate or something like that as a preservative and lots of other stuff. When I just buy plain cheap tortillas they don't have that! So they green ones had organic flour and that's it. What a mess.