Pears from Concentrate, Sugar, Dried Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Modified Corn Starch, Fructose, Grape Juice from Concentrate. Contains 2% or less of Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Malodextrin, Cottonseed Oil, Citric Acid, Carrageenan, Glycerin, Monoglycerides, Sodium Citrate, Malic Acide, Potassium Citrate, Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), Agar-Agar, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Xanthan Gum, Color (red 40, blue 1, yellow 5).

Uggg. We usually buy Fruitabu. The ingredients:

Apple puree concentrate, natural lemon juice concentrate, natural apple flavor.

And you know what? My kid likes — no, loves — the Fruitabu. So what’s the need for all that other garbage? I’ll tell you: it’s cheaper, so you can turn a better profit. It’s also sweeter so you can hook the kid in and get them wanting more.

That’s why I was not only happy but surprised when — while browsing at Target — I saw a “natural-ized” version of the traditional Fruit Rollups: Simply Fruit Rollups. Could it be because the company is being sued in a class action lawsuit that alleges General Mills made “misleading health claims?” Who knows. But I am so impressed with the new version of the product that I actually bought it! I want to do a side-by-side taste test between Fruitabus and the new General Mills Simply Fruit Roll-Ups. Here’s the ingredients, taken directly from the packaging:

Apple Juice Concentrate, Dried Apples, Blackberry Puree, Strawberry Puree, Canola Oil. Contains 2% or less of: Fruit Pectin, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), Black Carrot Juice Concentrate and Blueberry Juice Concentrate Added for Color, Natural Flavor, Citric Acid, and Sodium Sulfite Added to Protect Color.

Yes, I could do without the preservatives and the oil, but not bad compared to the original version. Definitely a big improvement!

This post is how I am participating this week in Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays — an awesome campaign to get people eating real food again. What do you think of the packaged snacks that are out there? What do you give your kids?

The environmental action group today filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for, “failing to issue a final rule regulating the chemicals triclosan and triclocarban, which are commonly found in antibacterial soaps.”

I’ve written about the topic many times before, but I’ll catch you up again. Triclosan or triclocarbon is the active ingredient in many antibacterial soaps. (You can also find it in a ton of other consumer products such as toothpaste, clothing, toys and furniture, among other items.) Scientists have linked the stuff to a number of different problems. Animal studies show triclosan is a hormone disruptor, changing the way our bodies work. From the NRDC’s press release: “…hormonal interference has the potential to cause long-term health problems including poor sperm quality and infertility, and damage to the developing brain leading to poor learning and memory. Several studies suggest that triclosan and triclocarban also may contribute to the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria.” There’s more in a wonderful NRDC fact sheet. Take a look.

Earlier this year the FDA agreed, saying triclosan studies to date raise “valid concern” about the chemical. At the time, the FDA promised a ruling on the chemical “this spring.” Ummm…the spring has sprung, folks. It’s summer, with fall fast approaching. Which is why the NRDC has filed this lawsuit. It wants the FDA to act now to protect us and our kids. In fact, the NRDC wants to ban the use of triclosan completely.

The sad thing is, triclosan is no more effective at preventing illness and killing germs than plain old soap and water. (Yup, the FDA agrees on that point, too. Check out the What Consumers Should Know section.) So what’s the take-away? Don’t buy anything with triclosan. If you’re worried about your handwashing skills, buy Purell or another alcohol-based hand sanitizer. And keep your fingers crossed that a lawsuit gets the FDA to make the ruling it should have made several months ago.

Do you look out for triclosan when shopping? Are you worried about its effects? (And hey, did you know BPA can be found at high levels on cash register receipts??? So says the Environmental Working Group…)

Kellogg’s said the packages were recalled because it identified a substance in the package liner that can “produce an uncharacteristic waxy-like off-taste and smell.” They were caused, the company said, because of elevated levels of a common substance that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in packaging. The Environmental Working Group identified the substance as methylnaphthalene, a petroleum-based product.

From an EWG press release: “This compound, methylnaphthalene (methyl-NAP-tha-lene), has been the subject of major, on-going government and oil industry testing and information-gathering initiatives to identify potential safety issues and fill basic data gaps, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of the scientific literature. Kellogg’s has not publicly identified the chemical but provided the information to EWG in response to our inquiries.”

The EWG did a little research on methylnaphthalene and didn’t find much info, but what it did find is troublesome. For example, four years ago the FDA asked for “toxicology information” about the substance. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said it wasn’t easy to get exposure to it unless you lived near a hazardous waste site. Wow.

So we don’t really know very much about a substance that is commonly detected, according to the EWG’s press release, “cigarette smoke, diesel and gasoline engine exhaust, wood smoke, tar and asphalt.” We do know, however — according to the same EWG research — that “methylnaphthalene causes lung damage when exposure occurs via inhalation, ingestion and skin contact. Mice given feed containing 0.075 percent or 0.15 percent of 1- or 2-methylnaphthalene for 81 weeks had lung damage known as ‘pulmonary alveolar proteinosis,’ marked by abnormal lipids, proteins and fluid in the lung.” And to date no one — no agency or organization — has set safe limits for the chemical. And yet there it is in cereal marketing to and made for children.

I don’t know about you, but that completely and totally ticks me off. Completely and totally. The EWG is calling for the FDA to do its job and actually “investigate and regulate all chemicals that make their way from cardboard boxes, plastic bags, metal cans and coated papers into our breakfasts and our bodies.” I say that’s a good place to start.

Does this recall affect what you’ve been buying for breakfast? Do you worry that the FDA isn’t taking our best interests to heart? What can we do to make our food safer? How can we best work with companies like Kellogg’s and other food manufacturers to ensure they are thinking about our safety? I’d like some answers.

This post is my participation in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays — two awesome campaigns to get people eating real food again. Would love to hear any tips you might have to help keep kids focused on eating. What super-yummy, high calorie foods can you suggest? I’d like to know.

Over the years I’ve kept my toe (okay, right now it’s an entire leg) in the technology waters writing and editing for business and trade pubs, but the reviews slowed down. And yes, I’ve also kept writing for women’s magazines, but the stories are more likely to be about weird toddler habits than which sippy cup is best. Yes, I’ll admit it: I miss the rush of writing a review.

There’s nothing like being able to dissect a product, explain why I like it and what missed the mark. This is why — next week — I will launch reviews. I am committing to at least one review a week, although knowing myself that will balloon up quickly. I’ll have themes, of course. We’ll have Mommy Mondays for toys, baby- and kid-related items, Tech Tuesdays for — what else — technology and consumer electronics reviews — Whatever Wednesdays, which is my catch-all category and Foodie Fridays for food-related items. My first review will be for a reusable diaper. And now on to this week’s Favorite Things…

Yummly.com. This site sounds amazing. (And I intend on reviewing it, actually.) It’s a recipe site that, like Netflix, “learns” the types of recipes you like and makes suggestions based on past usage. With more than 500,000 recipes and a Universal Recipe Box that helps you tweak ingredients, this site may become the answer to this week’s blog post question: What’s for dinner?

Sunnygram.com. This is another one I can’t wait to review. So my mom is okay when it comes to technology. Okay, but not great. She’s not on Snapfish or anything like that. This site lets you upload all your photos and create — get this — a printed color newsletter that features all your pictures. I think it will be amazing for anyone who likes to write Christmas letters or someone who, for example, might be getting married and want to keep everyone up-to-date on the planning.

StorySnoops.com. I really, really love this idea. And yes, I will be reviewing it. So my Big Girl is only in first grade. (Gulp, second now, I guess!) But she’s reading on a fifth grade level. Finding books that challenge her but don’t introduce topics and subjects that I am just not ready to discuss is a chore. This site provides book reviews from a parent’s perspective. Will I, as I learned on the fly when we were reading Superfudge, have to skip an entire chapter about Santa Claus? (Thank goodness we were reading that one together!) I never knew. This site will help me answer that question, I hope!

Hope you have a great weekend! As usual we have ten parties and five events to run to. But I still plan on relaxing a bit. How about you?

It’s not all my fault. My husband is what I would call a picky eater. And then there’s my meat issue. I am not a vegetarian, but there are a whole bunch of meats that I can’t eat. I am allergic to pork; it makes me throw up. I won’t eat lamb or veal. Chicken has become iffy ever since I learned about the whole dipping in chlorine bleach thing. (Poultry providers take chickens and dunk them in a bleach water solution to kill germs. But as Consumer Reports found, the practice doesn’t work so well.) So we’re down to beef and turkey. I only buy organic, free-range beef, which gets crazy-expensive sometimes. And you can only eat turkey so often, you know?

My typical meal for the kids is turkey meatballs, pasta, broccoli and sweet potatoes. We’ll mix in some grilled chicken sometimes, maybe a chicken burger or two or, if I am feeling ambitious, a whole roasted chicken. Pizza is always a hit, especially if we make it ourselves. Steak is nice. For sides the kids like roasted red potatoes, carrots, corn, peas, summer squash (well, the little one likes summer squash), tomatoes, salad, and spinach if it’s concealed well. Me, I’d eat veggies every single meal if I could. But I know the kids need more sustenance than a big bowl of sauteed vegetables (summer squash, carrots, artichokes, spinach, broccoli rabe and whatever else I have on hand) tossed over pasta. Right? And so here I am: Trying to find ways to add more variety to our diets.

I remember eating so many things growing up. My mom made meatloaf, pork chops, steak pizzaiola, baked ziti, kielbasi, hamburgers, grilled chicken, whole baked chicken — and we ate it all. Tons of vegetables. Lots of different pasta side dishes. Mashed potatoes from scratch. Peas sauteed in fresh garlic. Escarole in oil. Spinach. Corn. We really had something different every single night. Thinking about this makes me feel even worse about my lack of imagination when it comes to feeding my family. And I can’t even say my mom had it easier, because she didn’t. She was a widow with three kids who worked full-time. You can’t get any sadder or a heavier load than that, and yet she cooked for us every single night. Sigh. I have to get off my butt and get motivated. Now where’s that cookbook…

This post is my participation in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays — two awesome campaigns to get people eating real food again. What’s your favorite quickie meal? Would love to hear more suggestions!

M.A.C. Cosmetics. For every six pieces of M.A.C packaging that you send back to the company, you’ll receive a free lipstick via its Back to M.A.C. program. Yes, you have to mail it in, but the packages are pretty light so it shouldn’t cost too much — or create too large of a carbon footprint.

Origins. This company rocks. It just does. Aside from the fact that many of the products are organic and free-trade and are rated pretty solidly on the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, they are willing to take back any and all cosmetics packaging for recycling or energy recovery. (Plus, you’ll take home a free sample of an Origins product.)

Aveda. While you can’t drop off your product bottles, the company will take back caps — all your caps, actually. From the website: “This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter.” Yes, you’ll have to get your school involved, but it’s such a good program!

EcoTools. When brushes go bad — or hand creams or body washes get old — you don’t have to throw them out. According to the company’s site, you can turn in old items and get coupons for an EcoTools equivalent. From the site: “For each item turned in, participants will receive a coupon for a free EcoTools alternative! [Up to $7.99 value, limit 2 coupons per person, per household]. To continue to show respect to the earth, items collected will be recycled.” Nice, right?

Bond No. 9. Got old perfume bottles? Heading to New York City? While you’re there you can bring your old bottles to the company’s store and it will take them for recycling and give you a free purse spray.

Know of any programs I’ve missed? Please let me know. Up until now what did you do with your old bottles, sticks and tubes?

Not much selection -- and slim pickings -- at my church's food pantry.

As many of you know, I belong to an amazing community-supported agriculture program called the Golden Earthworm Farm. This year, in fact, I am a drop-off location, which means my house is the place where 19 people come to get their just-picked organic veggies. While the price is pretty reasonable — about $20 per week — it’s still an expense, so you’d think that everyone would come and collect their boxes of swiss chard, baby bok choi and escarole. That’s not the case, though. For whatever reason people sometimes don’t come, which means for the past two weeks I have been left with big boxes of perishable veggies sitting in my garage.

Maggie, one of the farmers, told me this might happen when I agreed to be a drop-off location. People go away, they get stuck at work, they just forget, she said. She told me she didn’t want the food to go to waste so I should donate the leftovers to a worthy charity. I was so excited. I knew my church’s food bank is always in need of donations. All food banks, actually, are in dire need of food — fresh produce especially.

According to a recent Feeding America study –Hunger in America 2010 — more than 37 million people receive emergency assistance from book banks across the U.S. These are not homeless people. They are people who work hard, pay their taxes but just can’t get by. Food banks get by on donations from corporate America and from regular folks like us, but with the recession and the swelling ranks of those who are utilizing the service, the cupboards are getting bare. My local pantry is no different.

When I walked into the church this morning I was stunned to see how many people were filling up bags. It looked like the supermarket on a Saturday morning. Mostly elderly people, but there was one woman who was about my age. When she saw me dropping off food she hung her head down and turned around so I couldn’t see her face. I could tell she was embarrassed to be there. I felt terrible. I wanted to walk over, put my arms around her, give her a hug and tell her that I understood. That I know that anyone at any time can go from living well to living day-to-day. An illness. A job loss. A divorce. Any of the above can hobble anyone. She certainly has nothing to be ashamed of. I walked out thinking good thoughts for her and for everyone else who will have something to eat thanks to that food bank and others like it.

I also felt happy that I — through the Golden Earthworm Farm — was able to help. I am thrilled that at least some of those folks will have a salad or turnips or escarole with their cans of soup and tuna and boxes of pasta and stuffing. (OMG — think of all the BPA these folks must be taking in!). I hated the fact that, before I got there, there was no meat or fruit or leafy greens. No sweets, either, which is why I ran home and shopped in my own pantry. (I brought over some organic muffin mixes, sunflower seed butter, bread mix and other items I wouldn’t miss.)

And so, since I know so many of my readers are blessed, I ask you this: Do you know where your local food pantry is? Do you have food in your home that you know you won’t miss? Did you buy a big bag of apples, for example? Or is your garden already overflowing? If you answered yes, how about making someone’s day and giving back? You will be all the richer for your service. I guarantee it.

This post links me into Real Food Wednesdays, a real food movement taking place across the Web. Check out some of my fellow bloggers by clicking through.

Researchers analyzed 84 hours of television on the big four networks — ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. According to researchers, if someone selected only foods advertised on TV during that time they would end up eating 25 times — yes twenty-five times! — the recommended servings of sugars and 20 times the recommended servings of fat. Oh, and less than half the recommended servings of veggies, dairy and fruit. And the same diet would also be missing 12 nutrients that we need to stay healthy: iron, phosphorus, vitamin A, carbohydrates, calcium, vitamin E, magnesium, copper, potassium, pantothenic acid, fiber, and vitamin D.

From the study release: “The results of this study suggest the foods advertised on television tend to oversupply nutrients associated with chronic illness (eg, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium) and undersupply nutrients that help protect against illness (eg, fiber, vitamins A, E, and D, calcium, and potassium),” according to lead investigator Michael Mink, PhD, Assistant Professor and MPH Program Coordinator, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, GA.

The most important part of this study was that the researchers included Saturday morning cartoon time (8 to 11 a.m.) in their sample. This is significant because kids are highly susceptible. They want what they see, especially if a cute cartoon character or catchy slogan is telling them they want it. And there was lots of food advertising during that time period.

My daughter — my big girl — an I have been discussing TV ads since she could talk. She understands why yogurt with pictures of Dora on it is probably unhealthy. She understands that advertisers are smart, and expect people to be stupid. She gets that we need to be smarter than they want us to be. And it’s probably no surprise that none of the stuff we buy is advertised on TV. Except for my husband’s occasionally party beer. How about you and your kids (if you have them)? Do you get that, too?

Next time you go shopping take the time to think about why you’re buying something. Have you read the label? Is it good for you? Is there a lesser-known and probably healthier option? And if you have kids: Do they really like what you’re buying or do they like what it stands for? Could you, maybe just once, pick an alternative and try it out?

I just re-read the above paragraph. Yes, it sounds a little judgmental, but I am weary today. Our entire southern coast is being assaulted by a brand. BP is a master of advertising deception with its new “green” logo and its environmental stewardship commercials. I’m just sick of being lied to, and I want other people to feel the same way, I guess.

How do you shop? Does brand or advertising matter? I’d like to know. Oh, and this post is part of Fight Back Fridays, a real food movement that’s great fun to be a part of. Check out the other participants here.

Anyway, didn’t watch the SATC television shows. Didn’t see the first movie. But tonight, when a few friends wanted a girls’ night out, I agreed to see SATC 2. It was a LOOOONG movie. I am an antsy person. Ask my husband. He will tell you that watching movies with me is tortuous. I get up. I go to the bathroom. I make him pause all the time. I don’t like to sit in one place. Sometimes I fall asleep. Maybe it’s because I sit in front of this computer for hours and hours at a time, but I am almost incapable of sitting through a two-hour movie. But tonight I made it through the entire 146 minutes in that theater.

It was a pretty good movie. I knew the characters. (Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t know them?) I knew the back story. (I love reading Entertainment Weekly, which has — over the years — reported on the SATC trend ad nauseum.) I can honestly say I enjoyed the movie. But my biggest take away: there was too much product placement in the movie.

Again, maybe it’s because I write about advertising and marketing (among other things) for a living, but I kept being pulled out of the story by the very obvious-to-me placements. A Cuisinart coffeemaker wakes Carrie up one morning. She gives Big a gorgeous Rolex watch their anniversary. There’s a giant HP logo on Samantha’s monitor. The girls hold up Pringles cans on the private jet. And Carrie even SAYS the brand’s name! In another scene, Samantha finds her Hermes Birkin bag acting as a pivotal plot point. And screams the brand name out loud. In the middle of a market.

What’s my biggest problem with the placements? They were too and obvious to me. I understand why they are in there. The movie is going to make a ton of money. Lots of women are going to see it. Women admire and love the franchise and the characters. So of course marketers want to link their brands to the movie and the franchise. But people, people, we’re not idiots. We really don’t need to pan that long on the coffeemaker and the Cuisinart logo, do we? We get it, we get it. Carrie and Big own a Cuisinart, so we should go buy one, too. (And I have nothing against Cuisinart. I actually WANTED that model way before I saw the movie.)

I think there is a very fine line between integrated, integral product placement and pure huckstering. And to me, lots of what I saw fell into the second category. Still, the movie was really good. It was a whimsical way to spend a Friday night. Even if I did have a big problem with the Aiden/Carrie plot line. I won’t say any more since it’s a big-time spoiler…

How’s your weekend going? Stay safe, and stay healthy!

I lived in Bath, England, just over thirty years ago, from June 1979 to the following summer. I had arrived in England in 1976 as a member of the U.S. Air Force and then stayed on after my time was up. I was attending college in Bath, hoping to get accepted to an English university. Money was tight, and I didn’t eat very well, not to mention suffering a variety of the angsty stresses idealistic young men are wont to suffer. As a result, I lost twenty pounds that winter. And at that time, unlike now, I did not have a spare twenty pounds to lose.

After leaving Bath in the summer of 1980, I lived with friends in Falmouth, Cornwall, for a few months, and that is when I discovered whole, natural foods. I learned that for the kind of money I had spent to eat badly the previous winter, I could eat well and healthily — I could eat nutritious, affordable food that tasted good. It took me a while to get the hang of cooking whole foods from scratch, but when I realized that good, filling food was available to me even if a good wage wasn’t, my life was changed forever.

It was later that I learned about organics and gained a larger perspective of what “natural” meant, both personally and politically. At first, I was excited to learn about cooking in this way; I didn’t care about the meta of it all. My first natural foods store, the one in Falmouth, was a typical hole-in-the-wall place like those familiar to many who tried shopping and eating that way all the way through the 80s. The produce selection was limited, pricey and frequently not of the best quality. There were few producers making the kinds of products we now take for granted at our local whole/natural food stores and mainstream supermarkets. To get your entire diet from such stores back then meant a hard-core commitment, not to your diet but to The Cause: organics, fighting the system, personal lifestyle-based advocacy for change. Not many people opted for that level of commitment, and I was not one of them.

I was, however, committed to moving my life in that direction. Soon after I moved to Portland in June 1982 (I had been accepted to university in England but could not afford the outrageous tuition the Thatcher government instituted to drive away non-wealthy non-white oversea students: $5,000 a year tuition — in 1982), I joined Food Front in NW Portland. I took advantage of the opportunity to be a working member and lucked out: I was assigned to do orientation. I only had to work once every few weeks, and I learned the history of the co-op movement. The gig only lasted a few weeks before work and a new living situation made it problematic (i.e., I was 25 and had better things to do with the evening).

I continued to learn about natural and organic foods — I am a knowledge pig — and I tried making that a part of my life, but it wasn’t until my first son was born that my reasons for doing so became more important than just my own health. Becoming a father turned my tepid commitment into a desire to do the best I could for my child. This is a human norm, I believe: life taking on greater meaning upon becoming a parent. With Alex’s birth, things that I was committed to in a superficial way took on new meaning. That included my commitment to eating healthy and to being a consumer who actively supported sustainable market practices.

That was over half-a-lifetime ago. My two sons are now in their twenties, I’m a grandfather, and while my commitment has grown stronger, my ability to live out that commitment has been made easier because millions of other Americans have joined me, in varying degrees, in seeking a healthier, more natural diet. We are now a large enough market that products and manufacturers are now commonplace. Organic is defined by the government (whether or not they have done that correctly is still being debated) and mainstream grocery stores, from Safeway to Kroger’s, feature organic products as prominently as the stuff made from chemistry kits.

Thirty years ago, I was an oddity, a freak. Today I’m a target demographic.

I don’t buy 100% organic, natural or whole foods; I never have. A lot of the foods I eat a lot are OG: flour, beans, rice, raisins, most fruits and veg, coffee and tea, oils, and the few canned items I buy: tomatoes, refried beans, and such (I buy these OG about half the time, depending on prices and my checking account). Dairy is almost all non-OG, and that’s both a matter of cost — OG dairy is very expensive — and the fact that fairly clean (non-bht) milk, half-and-half, and cheeses are readily available in Oregon. I am guilty of buying standard meats, and again, that’s a matter of cost. If my income allowed, I would buy naturally raised pork, beef and chicken more, but it’s a level of commitment I have yet to make.

For now, I’m cool with that. I am in the middle of making a batch of sweet rolls, and most of the ingredients are organic, including the sugars. To me, the essence of eating “natural” is to live the whole life. I bicycle everywhere; I make almost all my meals from scratch; I purchase natural and organic foods from my local co-op and local semi-supermarket. I am moderately frugal, trying to reduce my impact on the planet without living a hermit’s life. What has enable me to maintain and grow my commitment to this kind of life is not the bare idea that “this is better.” Humans cannot function on the rational level alone. I can maintain this commitment because I have learned how to make the foods I like. My black bean chili may be 80% organic, but it’s also damn good chili.

I’ll never go through a period like I did 30 years ago in Bath because of all I have learned. Not only will I keep myself healthy and well-fed, I’ll do so with foods I enjoy. That’s the big secret: make the ideal a pleasure to fulfill. Thankfully these days the variety and cost of the products necessary to do that are so much greater than when my kids were little. I wish I had had this plenitude when my boys were little. I did my best, but the opportunity to raise healthy kids in this century is wonderful. My new job will be to keep an eye on my granddaughter and make sure her folks are getting that right.

Thanks again, T.A. Beautiful story!