Capri Sun, now with vegetables!

This is ridiculous.
Makes my blood boil.

I couldn't let this pass by without comment.

Kraft aims new Capri Sun ‘secret weapon’ at kids market

Kraft Foods yesterday launched a new fortified Capri Sun variety designed to help US parents feed children fruit and vegetables, and has also rolled-out a larger-sized reclosable pouch for existing lines.

Their secret weapon, targeted at our kids, is adding 25% vegetable juice and some fiber to their sugar laden pseudo-soda.

Adding 25% vegetable juice and some fiber to capri sun does not make it a health food. They've taken the idea of a healthy food and made a pathetic, unhealthy reproduction. This is a marketing gimmick passed off as a service to moms and kids.

How about this: eat fruits and vegetables instead. Yes, even for kids. If we continue to sugar coat their vegetables, literally, they are never going to like them or eat them naturally. 17% of children in the US are obese -- not overweight, obese --  I think its time to wake up and realize that the status quo has got to change. And fake healthy foods are not good enough.

Don't even get me started on their new "larger-sized reclosable pouch."

Full article here.

Food Revolution Day

I've always liked Jaime Oliver, from the naked chef days. But now its bordering on obsession. He is an amazing champion for nutrition, and the passion he brings to the table warms my heart.
Proof positive: this gave me goosebumps.



Guess I work in the right field!

Food Revolution Day is this Saturday May 19th. Want to get involved? Check out the website to see if there are events happening in your area.

Or hold a your own revolution in your home on Saturday, choosing to eat healthy, real foods and be active throughout the day.

There is still so much that needs to change to get us on the path to healthy eating and healthy lifestyles, but this event and the prominence that Jaime Oliver brings to it gives me a boost of hope. We will get there, eventually.

French Kids Eat Everything?

Somehow I've found myself reading books about the french parenting style. (No, I don't have any announcements to make!). Such is the life of a nutrition nerd.

It all started with this article I posted about a few months ago on the superiority of French parenting style. The nutritional implications of the French parenting style are huge. The article wet my appetite, and the prospect of learning how to avoid fights over broccoli at the dinner table was too much for my dietitian ears to ignore. But life got in the way and I kind of forgot about it.

Then a few weeks ago there was a lot of press about a great book by Karen Le Billion called French Kids Eat Everything, which sparked my interest in the subject again, and I pre-ordered a copy of the book on amazon (the first and only book I've ever pre-ordered -- goes to show what a nutrition nerd I am). When it showed up on my Kindle a few weeks later, I was practically giddy. And I devoured the book in just a few days.

Here's a few of the many points I took away:

French parents prioritize meal times, and schedule them. Breakfast, lunch, a 4 o'clock snack for the kids, and dinner. Nothing is to be eaten outside of these times or away from the table. This is a far cry from the snack-at-every occasion childhood kids are experiencing in the US. It's as if we're afraid that if we go more than two hours without given children a snack they're going to plunge into a blood sugar abyss. And we're not reaching for apples during these snacks. These snacking habits warrant a separate post, which I'll plan for sometime soon.

French parents start their babies eating solid food with homemade vegetable purees, not cereal porridge. This trains the palate for vegetables, and seems brilliant to me! The book has recipes and tips if you're interested in this.

The school system is an integral part of a child's food education. Not nutrition education, per se, but food habits, manners, scheduling, and exploration of new foods.

If you're at all interested in child nutrition or eating habits, I suggest you pick up a copy.

But there were also some unanswered questions that came up for me when reading this book. And thanks to the magic that is Amazon (and their strikingly effective "recommendations for you"), I delved further into the French parenting subject with Bringing up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman.

I'm half-way through this book, and have to laugh at myself for reading a book about parenting, but its a great book! And I keep finding places where it ties into nutrition and childhood obesity. I'll report back on this book when I'm done, but so far it's made an impression on me.

Best of all, along the way, I'm learning an awful lot about the food culture I've moved into (France and Belgium have similar food habits and ideals). Now I need to work up to reading books about the french style of nutrition and parenting in French but I'm a ways from that one.