Now I just saw a commercial for margarine in different colors like blue and pink.:yuck The commercial was specifically aimed at kids, even joking that it would gross out their parents.

Is it me or are they marketing these things (I won't even call it food) to kids, so that there will come a time when they won't even recognize what healthy, natural, whole foods look or taste like, and everything they eat will be processed crap? Or is it just for fun and maybe I should lighten up? :confused:

No, I think you have a very good point. I'm sure they meant it for fun and PROFIT, but you are right that soon some children won't recognize a healthy meal unless there's a secret decoder ring buried in it!!!
I'm tired of all the marketing in general, directed at children! Case in point: We were at the store the other day and my 4 yr. old aksed for a particular shampoo, I said "no, that's not what we buy" she said "My hair will NEVER be silky soft!":eek:


peggy

Oh this is too weird!
I was delivering my papers yesterday and I happened to see an advertisement for purple ketchup...if that's not strange enough, it even comes in a new easy-to-squeeze bottle. Like the old plastic bottle wasn't easy enough to squeeze?! I think the most offensive "food" I saw was a convenience pack of ready-to-eat cereal, inside of a plastic bowl with a spoon. And no clean up - just toss the whole thing into the garbage when you're done kids. It was "for busy families" that don't even have enough time to pour cereal into a real, reusable bowl.
Don't feel like you should lighten up over this kind of stuff...processed food is poisoning our bodies and our planet.
Invasion of the Classroom - How Corporations Buy Access To Children:
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/classroom.html

I'm with you. And whenever we see food that is not it's natural color, I say to ds, "eww, look at that, pink butter, isn't that disgusting, we don't buy that gross stuff!" He always agrees with me ;)

jtsmom

I know I've been thinking the same thing too.It's really weird.I think these kids will hate real food later.

We occasionally give ds things we're not crazy about but it still appears to be food.In a pinch I will buy him yogurt when out(not the brand we usually use).Now I find purple yogurt with sprinkles or jimmies at the supermarket.At what point is it not worth giving a kid yogurt?

Have you seen Lunchables yuck

That stuff just ain't right:gross

We odn't allow margerine anyway so it is a non issue, but she really pushed for the green ketup today. They used to give it automatically in happymeals and have stopped (as if it isn't bad enough that I am feeding her the happy meal must they put green ketup in there against my will :rolleyes: ) Can you even imagine how much die they must put in there to cover up the dark red? Gross!

As for the youget we try to find funn in other ways like sqeeze youget but not hte kid stuff. Most of the kids flavors are more junk than yogert.

I wonder how safe all those artifical colorings are...

:scratch

My MIL just bought Spanky this purple and green Buzz Lightyear cereal (grrrrrrr) with purlple marshmallows, right? Barf. Well, the worst part is that the box says, verbatim, "A naturally sweetened whole grain cereal...."

WTF is that all about??? MAN. And do we EAT it or waste it?

Oh dear...I thought the green ketchup was marketed to dhs......

is mine the only one who *had* to have it???

pink margerine is just gross.....I am totally not looking forward to all that marketing rubbing off on dd.....

Originally posted by Forest Sage
! I think the most offensive "food" I saw was a convenience pack of ready-to-eat cereal, inside of a plastic bowl with a spoon. And no clean up - just toss the whole thing into the garbage when you're done kids. [url]

eek: You've GOT to be kidding! It hasn't gotten that bad over here yet, but marketers usually look to the US when coming up with new ideas (they've been trying to import the idea of Halloween - mostly just with plastic pumpkins and the like).

The latest thing has been 'functional foods' which, thankfully, is failing miserably.

man, what is the US doing??? we don't see that sort of thing here. I mean, they push lollipops and candy like crazy but you don't see PURPLE ketchup for crying out loud! GEEZ!

Yes, I think it's deliberate marketing. catch a consumer as early as possible and they'll be in your hands for life. sad.

mamapie-if you're a crafty lady, glue those marshmallows on some paper and give it to MIL as a present LOL "See what Spanky made for you , Grandma?" hehehe

My teenaged nephew who lived with us last year, bought my kids a bottle of it, thinking we'd all love it. In all my life, I have never seen a more disgusting food. I took a taste and it doesn't even taste like ketchup--probably because of all that dye. I felt bad about throwing out an entire bottle of ketchup, but that is exactly what I did as soon as my nephew's back was turned.

What about that "easy mac" by Kraft (of course). It's some sort of single serving microwaveable macaroni & cheese with disposable bowl, no doubt. And Disney characters plastered all over Kellogg's cereals. They've got Buzz Lightyear, Mickey Mouse, and those Monters Inc. characters on practically everything. And lunchables! They used to always come with a juicebox, but now some of them come with a can of soda! Who would give their kids soda for lunch? (Or a lunchable for that matter.) Not that juiceboxes are that great, but they're a little better than soda. And jello single serving snack paks? I mean, if you want jello, how hard is it to make? You just add water! And if your kids want to travel with it, you put it in a little reusable container. Am I the only mother in America who sends her kids to school with lunchboxes packed with reusable plastic dishes, real silverware, and cloth napkins?

Seriously those convenience cereal packs did exist (Kelloggs), I never saw them for sale here but I did see a commercial for them on an American station a couple of years ago. They are in the same vein as Lunchables, same idea...it saves mom or dad (or the child for that matter) from making a meal. The waste these packaged convenience foods produces is disproportionate to the amount of food they contain! I've never actually bought a Lunchable but I assume most of the packaging is recyclable...still that's not it's saving grace! How many kids are going to bring home the package to recycle it?
Those kinds of things send a confusing message...don't you think? Waste no energy preparing a meal but take the effort to recycle the empty container???
I can't believe these things are legal...it makes me SO angry that people think making money is more important than the environment. Don't even get me started about disposable diapers!

Oh, you're all talking about something I think about a LOT. Have any of you read "Fast Food Nation"? In the meat of the book, the author explains how the flavorings and colorings are made. You know, how they flavor the jelly bellies? It's all chemicals, and has more to do with smell than natural flavorings. See, a flavor can be 'natural', but most chemical components ARE natural, they're found in the earth. ARSENIC is natural, but you won't catch me eating it! So, the 'natural strawberry flavor' isn't even strawberry at all but something concocted to make your brain THINK you're tasting strawberry. It's all a magician's trick. And, guess what else the author tells us? The stuff isn't really regulated the way that real FOOD is regulated! So it's not really all that well tested for safety.

We make our own bread here (and English muffins too), and our own yogurt, and our own jam and use fruit to flavor our yogurt. We already have chickens and are going to get a couple goats for dairy. I try to buy my butter at a farm store, boy that sure tastes different from even Cabot. We make our own ice cream too...milk plus cream plus whatever amount of sugar you like plus natural flavorings (real vanilla sticks are my favorite).

Jam is easy to make...you put fruit and some lemon juice and sugar in a pan and boil and mash it to the consistency you like over low heat. Then after about half and hour you pour it into a glass jar, let it cool, and put it in the fridge.

You can make ketchup too. It's easy if you have fresh tomatoes.

I must confess, I put red food coloring into the icing I used on my Valentine cookies.

On St. Patrick's Day we make green pancakes.

At Christmastime I make all different colors of icing for our cookies.


Most children like to make their own ice cream and ketchup and English muffins. Once they taste homemade, they might never want the processed stuff again.

Sarah

Different comment - did you know that Kellogg's started out as a health food company? Kellogg had a 'health spa' where people would stay and at this place they were served the nutritious corn flakes. Then he discovered that it would be more profitable to sell the famous corn flakes instead of running the spa. When the company started out, the workers had 30 hour work weeks and free time and fresh air opportunities - it was like a little idealistic commune. I don't know what happened to change that, but somewhere along the line, the profits became much less...maybe a marketing boo-boo and competition.

I don't buy boxed dry cereal - it costs too much for what you get out of it. My kids don't watch TV so they don't start with the preconceived notion that it is supposed to taste good. I must admit that when I go to the grocery store (very infrequently) my toddler is attracted by the boxes in that aisle. We do buy the generic cream of wheat cereal and oatmeal. It's a good bang for the buck and doesn't come with the plastic packaging inside.

Still, the history of boxed, dry, cereal is interesting. I never knew about the Kellogg's history as a health food item. But looking back over the history of food in the US, and what people *used* to eat, I can see how it was.

When we switch from store-bought milk to goat's milk I think I am going to have to give my toddler his Vitamins, especially D, and make more time to go into the sunshine every single day. Rickets!

Sarah

truly sarah-that is so interesting about Kelloggs! Probably what happened was they were doing well and then got bought out by a larger company and they turned them into an evil corporation (or maybe the heirs didn't have the same vision as the parents?).

When we were kids, my little brother was really hyper. My mom did some reading on nutrition, and decided to cut out all red food coloring (mostly Koolaid and Jello and sugared breakfast cereals in the 70's) and as much sugar as she could. She says it helped tremendously. This was in the days before ADD. I wonder if anyone will ever do a study on the diet of ADD children (and their mommies, for that matter).

I was really grossed out by the foods in the stores the last time we went back to the States (last Nov), but I missed the purple katchup! GROSSS!!!:gross

michelle

Thank God I have two healthy eaters. Neither has a sweet tooth, and while they do want the occasional bag of Doritos, for the most part I can keep them happy feeding them fruit and whole grain crackers with (real) cheese, etc.

I must say I take credit for that. As toddlers, I offered them healthy foods and let relatives know that there would be plenty of opportunites down the line for them to eat crap. I think that was one of the best things I ever did for my children. It only takes slightly more time to peel an apple and put it in a (reusable) container to take with on any outing. I especially made sure to bring healthy snacks with us when grocery shopping.

I also think it is WAY important to limit kids exposure to commercial TV. My kids are happily unaware that such creations as purple or green ketchup even exist!

Nope it isn't you. It's disgusting! Profit-oriented-crap-probably financed by the allopathic medical profession to make our kids sick so doctors can charge big bucks to "cure"them! WOW! I'm on a roll!

My dd sees the green ketchup or other such crap and says, "Oh we don't eat that it is all chemicals".

my MIL thinks all this stuff is great for kids to have. I had to point out to her that V8 splash wsa NOT fruit juice....it's about 10% juice "drink" . She thinks I'm crazy for objecting. Ds goes there in emergencies (birth of sister overnite and my week in hosp. for surgery) with out me and comes home wanting all this junk....blue oatmeal w/candy and poptarts for breakfast and lunchables. He says "gramma says it has vitamins"...grrrrr:mad: . she also lets him watch IMO objectinable tv shows. I must admit I am not the most wholesome eater...we eat red meat and the occasional box of froot loops.....but as a special treat, not as the norm. Dh says thats what grammas are for. Sooooo.... I am teaching ds about the world of advertizing. He'll say "look mommy, pink butter" and I ask him if he thinks that will taste good. He usually says no. Then I tell him (not just about food, but junk toys too) that people get paid to make commercials that make a product look like you would really want it. The next time he sees the commercial, he says "look, that stuff is really junk". He said it to MIL the other day!!!! YAY!!:D
~~~truly sara~~ You sound like you have what we would love to have! A few goats, some chickens and an organic garden is our goal! We only have the garden now but one day.....:)
~~~daylily~~ the easy mac comes in little pouches ( a co worker of mine eats it) and one day i tried a bit....NASTY!! But you have to use your own bowl...I'm sure they will soon pack it w/ a throw away one *sigh*. I also bring my lunch in a reuseable bag w/ real silverware and a cloth napkin....my co workers have long since stopped giving me funny looks and I think it makes lunch nicer.

I am going to the grocery store to get some bulk items. I will do a little sightseeing while I'm there. Hope I can find some food!!!

I went to the commissary in Japan on the AF Base when I went there to have DS #1 (interesting field trip in itself). I wandered around for a while because I couldn't find any FOOD. I finally gave up and ate soba noodles and veggies every day at the officer's mess and went out for (safe) sushi and developed a commerical relationship with the old fruit guy who came to base twice a week. I did get some Cheerios and milk and bananas for breakfasts though. Easy to eat while nursing, well, relatively so.

In officer training school I had a food waiver, no kidding! The food they served in the mess hall was horrible. All starch. So in my briefcase along with training materials, I had fruit, and cheese, and natural PB and whole weat crackers and packets of oatmeal. I was allowed to eat these things on break after I passed out during classes due to unstable blood sugar. I can't believe the stuff we feed our highly trained defenders. It's horrible. In the snack machines they had only candy bars and in the soda machines only sugary sodas. I hope that has changed somewhat in the past decade or so.

To their credit, they do serve alternate proteins in the chow hall at Lackland, like rabbit!

Sarah

Oh, it's definitely not just you! I can't stand the whole food-as-entertainment thing. My dd eats well and enjoys a variety of healthy foods and occasional sweet treats, and that works for us. I don't think food should be seen as a toy. It's like the corporations think children need to be tricked into eating.

The "contains vitamins" marketing ploy really ticks me off, too. So many people are so ignorant of basic nutrition that they actually think they are giving their kids something healthy just because the label says it contains calcium or vitamin c or whatever. It seems like calcium is the big one these days - you see the word emblazoned in large letters on all sorts of junky snacks and cereals. It amazes me how many people I know buy into this.

Dd has occasionally asked for something in the grocery store because of the packaging or bright color (blue applesauce, ugh! It had "Blue's Clues" on it), and I've explained to her that it is junky and not healthy for our bodies. She's fine with that, at least for now! :)

I am so glad you ladies think the same way I do about these things. I just started reading fast food nation. I read a book a while ago called something like "how the food we eat is ruining our children and making you crazy" Interesting. I saw the other day on a can of spaghettios, "a good source of calcium" HA!

I've been looking for preschools for ds, one of the schools gives out cheese puffs for snacks every day, one had a list of supplies they like for families to bring at the start of each year. Know what was on the bottom of the list? 8 PACKETS OF KOOL AID!!!!! The last school I went to said it has a no sugar policy.

truly sarah, can I come to your house for dinner?

jtsmom

jtsmom- the schools are really feeding PRESCHOOLERS that crap???? Oh wow. Things have really changed since I left... My French dh always says (of things like cheese puffs and that cheese sauce they use at fast food places), "Anything THAT color isn't cheese!" Kool-Aid?? and I thought too much juice wasn't good for them...

I am so shocked!!:jaw

I was watching a morning program this past week while I was in bed with a migraine and they were showing a new item that is coming to market soon - FLAVORED FRENCH FRIES AND "TATER TOTS". One of them was actually blue - really blue! I can't remember what that "flavor" was. But, I think one of them was a sour cream and chives kind and another was chocolate. YUCK! They said the company (I don't remember which) was trying to make potatoes more palatable for kids. Are they kidding or what? Try it with brocolli, zuchini, or brussel sprouts maybe. But, greasy, starchy french fries and tater tots. What is this world coming to?

My dd goes to pre-school twice a week and I give her a "snack" to take with her so she doesn't eat the snack that is provided. It works really well and she has never said she wants what the other kids are having or feels left out. Even if one of the kids is celebrating a birthday and the snack mom provides ice cream, the teachers have a pint of Soy Delicious in the freezer so my dd can celebrate with them. For the most part, they do provide a healthy snack, but they allow dairy, wheat, refined sugar and flour products and we just don't do that stuff. I've noticed that a lot of people are under the impression that the sugar is the culprit and all the other stuff is okay.

Here's to healthy eating!!! Love and Light!!

CHOCOLATE FRENCH FRIES!!!:jaw


What will they think up next? Sometimes I wonder why we're thinking of moving back to the States, and I really wonder what I'll feed my family when we do. Actually, I think dh wants to move there so he can educate people on "real food"(he wants to be a rent-a-chef). Ahh, French cooking. Unfortunately, they're starting to pick up our bad habits...

katchup wouldn't be "red" if they didn't put red dye in it
it would be sort of reddish/brown/orange (the color of insides of tomatoes and stuff)

i don't mind a little food coloring myself.


green is a "healthy" color! : )

sleepies- Your kidding right.

"katchup wouldn't be "red" if they didn't put red dye in it
it would be sort of reddish/brown/orange (the color of insides of tomatoes and stuff)"

Tomatoes come in a variety of colors. But the ones used commercially really are red. No dye needed. :) Check out at natural food store. Lots of natural ketchups with no added color. Even my mother's homemade ketchup was red.

Of course, with the variety of heirloom tomatoes out there, you could make yellow, green or purple natural ketchup too. I made 'purple' salsa last summer. :)

Wow, this thread is sooo gross. I can't believe all the horrible things that people want us to feed our children. This world scares me sometimes. Where are we heading with all this?

~Jennifer

Originally posted by PumpkinSeed
I wonder how safe all those artifical colorings are...



Not at all. Despite what the FDA says-and it only labels things as GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe)-I don't buy it. Red dye to my son, and yellow dye for me, is like shoving uppers in the poor dear. He goes berserk. I'd be willing to bet ADD would decrease a good 80% if all that colored and corned crap were eliminated from our children's diets!!

OK, I don't dictate anything to my mil, she so rarely sees the boys. They get sugar cereal and lots of juice there. It lasts a day or so. My mother eats like us--hardly any prepared foods--so that is not an issue.
Oldest DS likes to hate anything on a commercial, and the two of us are slowly reprograming DS2 to distrust commercials, too. It's fun.
I find that eating fewer prepared foods is simply cheaper. I don't shun MSG, but it's not a staple, either. Ditto for food colors, but we're not especially sensitive to these types of things either.
I do want to brag that our sons' school has a NO POP/SODA policy--if the kids bring it, it gets thrown away. Ditto for any candy in their lunches. They send home a snack suggestion list for the preschoolers--all really healthy foods.
But what irritates/angers me the most is the way Coke and Pepsi contract in schools for free stuff---now we have all these kids drinking pop all day instead of water, and being sujected to false advertising. Pepsi/Coke can't "quench your thirst"--it has too much caffeine! It dehydrates you! GRRR, this really pisses me off more than TV advertising.:angry

RasJane-exactly what I said earlier in the thread! At long last, someone who shares my beliefs on this subject!!!:D Actually, I do have one friend in Seattle who doesn't think I'm crazy, lol.

As I have said, generally here in Europe things are better. That said, yesterday at my AMERICAN church in sunday school ds strung honey nut cheerios and froot loops on a necklace and then ate them on the way home. Not only did I object to the sugar, but the timing as well (right before lunch). He hardly ate any lunch, and then it was hard to get him down for a nap. I'm going to talk to the sunday school coordinator.

Sleepies, you scared me. But I checked my bottle of traditional red ketchup and no dyes are listed in the ingredients. There is, however, nonesense on the label about how ketchup is a good source of Lycopene, a cancer fighter. Give me a break! How much ketchup are you supposed to eat in order to successfully head off cancer?

That preschool that wanted kool-aid: Could they have wanted it for crafts projects? Kool-aid makes an excellent fabric dye. Dd's kindergarten has been dying wool with it. Which makes you wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to drink it.

Sunmountain, my kids' school also has a no soda/no candy policy. Some teachers are even stricter than the principal about this. A girl in my ds's class brought in a big bag of Doritos for her mid morning snack and the teacher took them away and threw them out. But this is an elementary school. I think the high school may have one of those obnoxious Pepsi machines. It's reprehensible the way soft drink companies try to get kids addicted to their products. They're as bad as the cigarette companies and they can be blatant about it because the average joe thinks soft drinks are harmless.

Great thread!

I always tell my little ones "that's paint. We don't eat paint"

Dr. Andrew Weil says artificial colorings in food and medicine are strongly suspected of causing cancer.

http://www.drweil.com

Although I agree with everyone as a whole, I must admit that my kids LOVE Kraft Easy Mac. It's simply macaroni that you place in a bowl -- your bowl, as it doesn't come with a bowl or tablewear -- add water and microwave for 3 1/2 minutes, then you stir in the powdered cheese. It isn't much different than the boxed variety except you don't add butter or milk.

I prefer to make my kids mac and cheese myself, but it is a handy, quick, single serving meal. I typically make one quick and toss it into a container when we go out to eat. My 16 month old can be a picky eater when it comes to restaurant food. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than ordering a meal for him that he won't eat, less wasteful too.:D

The idea of chocolate french fries is still turning my stomach -- and I love chocolate. At least I did before I read that.

here is the big question.

Since when did we have to entice children to eat french fries and ketsup?

Around our house the rule is "we don't drink ketsup from the bottle"

And how many people have really had to say "Honey, would you please put a little more margerine on you food you just haven't got enough partially hydrogenated crap there"

Lilyka that is sooooo funny:rotflmao

lilyka - lol - that's what I was thinking. Why do we need to make butter more kid friendly? Has there been some study I'm not aware of that kids just aren't getting enough butter in their diet?

And chocolate french fries - not only does that sound totally gross, but do you think they could make a more un-natural and nutritionally void product? Hmmm. . . maybe they'll dye them purple!

LMK

When we lived in Bayonne, we took DD to our local Polish restaurant at least once a week. They served this awesome European brown bread, which we dipped in our soup or ate plain. DD would eat it topped with butter, but she preferred to eat the butter straight from the packet! So, while awaiting the main course, DH and I would give her a butter packet to keep her occupied! (P.S. She also likes to drink the little half-and-half packets...) Anyway, she doesn't have a weight problem and otherwise eats pretty healthy, so we figured she must need the extra fat or something.

My question is this. What moron came up with the idea that butter needed added food coloring to make it more palatable? Is our problem not that we, as Americans, like butter a little TOO much?

Still scratching my head over this one,
Paula

Phooey on ketchup on fries. Ketchup is for homemade baked beans!!! I like mayonnaise on my fries, or malt vinegar, and plenty of salt too. And make those fries homemade please (and the mayo too)!!! A deep fat fryer is on my list of appliances I would like. Sorry if I grossed anyone out. I also want the fryer so we can make our own spring rolls.

Sarah

truly_sarah----I am so with you about the mayo and vinegar!:thumb (Today is my day to talk like a like 15 year like old like I guess)

And my $.02 on why they create these products...MORE MONEY. Capitalism is based on an ever-growing economy. It's not good enough to fill a need, you have to create a need and then fill it, always be ahead of the next guy, etc...
Of course we don't NEED green ketchup, but kids like blue cereal, so why not? Of course we could just drink water when we're thirsty, but instead let's drink something that makes us even MORE thirsty, so we drink MORE of the product. Advertisers think of this shit, not even the company producing the product. And yet there are companies with good products who advertise, the problem lies in detecting who is whom (or whom is who, I can't remember, fer sher).
Excuse me it's a goofy day.:Peace

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

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.

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

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.

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

"Soilent Green is people..."

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:rolleyes: .

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.

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

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.

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...

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.:rolleyes:

Ummm. . . how healthy!

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

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

mamapie, you beat me to my point again!:p 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.

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.

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.

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?

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. :)

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:sick

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.

Wow....this thread took of like wild fire!! LOL

The Good Eating forum is kinda lonely so I'm going
to move this on over there now!

Keep talking.........

Green ketchup grossed me out from the start, but even more so when I killed a tomato worm that was on my tomatoes. Green ketchup came out! Ewwwww!!!

Brandy in TX:

:yuck

has anyone seen the peanut butter SLICES? like spreading it is too hard...:rolleyes:

and what about this new stuff from Ragu (I do not remember what they called the product)?
teh commercial goes on to say how damn hard and long it takes to make a pasta dish, but now it became so much easier - with Ragu individual packets of quick cooking pasta. Mix and microwave for 3 minutes.
Not only do I try to limit my use of microwave, but also angel hair pasta is done in 5 minues. Mix it with a tomatoe sauce from a big jar and that's it (or any other form of tomatoe you want).
why in the world are those servings from ragu easier???
I did not search for them in the store, so I'm not sure how expensive they are, but I bet I can eat pasta all week for breakfast, lunch and dinner *lol* (if I cook it) for the price of one box (i.e. one serving)

ARGH!!! One of my pet peeves - my teenagers know if they want me to snarl at them all they have to do is SAY "lunchables" It drives me NUTS the way they advertise these things and fruit roll ups and chocolate milk and sugary cereals and hot dogs and.... and... the list goes on forever.... as HEALTHY food - like you're a bad parent who doesn't love the kids if you DON'T feed them this GARBAGE...On top of that they market this stuff to the kids in effect telling them "If your mommy doen't buy you this stuff, she doesn't love you!" DH is on a low fat, low sodium diet - the sodium labels are the MOST appalling! if all you get is 2000mg of sodium per day (which is the recommended amount for anyone!) eat 1 lunchable and you are there!

And on another note - why are 10 yr olds menstruating? Why are junior high school students 6 feet tall these days? Why do girls grow breasts at 11? HORMONES!!! We feed them to chickens to make them grow bigger breasts, to cows so they produce more milk, more meat and have more babies! You can't tell me in any scientific realm that this has NOTHING to do with it!!! I can see it in the difference between my 19 year old (Who was raised on organic meat when she ate meat at all, and no hormone added milk and eggs) and my 14 year old who was fed other things (different chain of groceries where we lived at both times)

Don't EVEN get me started on pharmaceutical advertising! YOU pay higher insurance premiums to pay for the TV ads for Paxil, Ambien, and other drugs - I won't let my doctor prescribe me ANYTHING that is advertised on TV - Boycott them all I say!!!

just my (heated) thoughts!

Michelle:eek:

As gross as all the food is, I think what bothers me the most is the advertising to kids. It's just sick and wrong. I mean who sits around plotting ways to make kids believe that their crap (bad food, unnecessary or dangerous toys, etc) are great and mommy and daddy don't love you if they don't buy them. How do these people sleep at night?

We were at the grocery store yesterday. I went down the cereal aisle with my 18 month old looking for whole wheat crackers (processed, but he loves them). He had a fit over all of the Winnie the Pooh cereal and Elmo snacks. All I could think was who could do this to a kid?

More than banning pink butter, I think we need to ban advertising to children under 16. In all forms - TV, radio, magazine, ads, etc.

www.adbusters.com (http://www.adbusters.com)

I was reading this site yesterday - rude awakening let me tell you!!!

If enough parents were A: aware of what their kids were being slammed with everyday and B: active enough to write letters to congressmen, then we could do something.

In the meantime, all we can do is explain and prove to kids that the ads are lies made to want them buy things!!! Unfortunately, advertising can be a huge influence in our kids self images and overall psyche no matter how ad proof we try to have them be.

APRIL 22-26 IS NATIONAL TURN OFF THE TV WEEK!!!

I turned off my TV a few years ago - when the OKC bombing was all that was on, I turned it off and didn't turn it back on for four years! After the first year I got rid of the TV. My parents bought me one a year later because they thought the kids should have one, but if we watched anything on it it was only a rented movie here and there.

We didn't suffer for it! and I didn't have young teens screaming "I want I want I want!!!!!!!" at every turn.

:D
Michelle

oops wrong URL - make that

www.adbusters.org (http://www.adbusters.org/home/)