Amazing that so many people think these are appropriate options for kids.

Plenty of people out in blogger land regularly bemoan the fact that “kid food,” for most people, is fried, fake, and/or filled with artificial colors or flavors. It’s my turn, I guess.

We’ve got a big kid-centric event coming up. We’ve gone for the past five years, and it’s always lots of fun. Quite honestly, the food is really secondary. There’s so much going on that most kids — including my own — aren’t really looking to eat. Still, I’ve always managed to get Big Girl to take a bunch of bites of her pizza, which is what’s always been served. This year, however, the choices were different: hamburgers, hot dogs, or chicken nuggets, all of which are being served with a side of French fries.

My biggest problem is the fact that Big Girl won’t eat any of these things. Not even that I won’t let her eat them. No, it’s more like she just doesn’t see any of these things as a food choice. I’m not a hamburger person, so we don’t have burgers. Hence, the kids don’t eat burgers. The same goes for hot dog. The only time I make them is when I’m preparing for game night, and even then they are uncured, organic hot dogs. By the time they hit the table, the kids are asleep, so they’ve really never eaten them. As for the nuggets: occasionally I will make for dinner either Bell and Evans air-chilled chicken strips or chicken cutlets that I egg, bread, and fry myself. I don’t serve either very often because Little Girl outright refuses to eat them. Big Girl will kinda sorta eat them, but she’d prefer a nice grilled chicken sandwich instead.

Okay, so what to do with my event lunch issue? I ended up asking the person running the event if it was possible to get pizza. Thankfully, I was told that yes, I could get a slice of concession stand pizza. While that’s also iffy — my kids are pizza snobs like my husband — I’ve got a chance of getting a few bites in them. And just to make sure they don’t go hungry I will also be packing a few sandwiches. (Probably sunflower butter and jelly for Big Girl and plain sunflower butter for Little Girl.)

Now would be the time that I would usually start complaining about the lack of healthy kid choices at most events, but I’m just tired of making the effort. I will point out that study after study finds that what kids eat is one of the biggest contributing factors in the childhood obesity problem.

For instance, a University of Michigan study found that, “…children who are obese were more likely to consume school lunch instead of a packed lunch from home and spend two hours a day watching TV or playing a video game.” Hmm. Crappy processed food plus hours sitting on the couch equal extra pounds. Definitely not a stretch. Another study — this one from Southern Methodist University and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture — found a direct link between federal school lunches and childhood obesity. Makes sense to me! Have you seen what most schools are serving for lunch? Hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken fingers!

Unfortunately, we will probably keep seeing studies like this for a while. The bad news is that nothing is going to change until more people start asking for healthy choices and our government and school districts start mandating real, whole, un-fried food. After all, money talks. Until then I’ll just keep packing lunches for my kids. How about you?

This post is how I am participating this week in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays — two awesome campaigns to get people eating real food again.

I watched the guy grumbling and groaning as he looked around for sanitizer and cloths, cleaned the slicer, and then peeled off his gloves, washed his hands, and donned a new pair before breaking out my roast beef. “I might as well be doing surgery,” he complained. “According to the directions we’ve got to be super-careful when slicing this stuff so that we don’t contaminate it.”

His co-worker, a pretty girl, told him to stop his whining, but when I gave her what I’d call an inquisitive look she confirmed what he was saying: There are different procedures for slicing Boar’s Head All Natural. I have a problem with that on several levels.

First off, it is sort of worrisome that, if people aren’t vigilant, I might be serving myself a case of botulism or listeria on my next sandwich. I am really, really weirded out by the idea that my deli guy was afraid to contaminate the All Natural stuff. Yes, I knew it was different in that it doesn’t have preservatives. Heck, the first time I bought it the guy warned me that it “doesn’t keep as long as regular deli meats.” However, I don’t want to think that by trying to do something good — buying healthy, more natural deli food — I am actually doing something really bad.

My other big issue is the idea that in showing how careful they were with my Boar’s Head Natural meat, they were inadvertently telling me that they are not as careful with other deli meats and cheeses. I mean, he cleaned and sanitized the slicer, washed his hands with special soap, and put on fresh gloves. You’d think that they would do some of the above whenever they cut any deli meats. But unfortunately, I know that just isn’t the case.

And now I’m faced with another what-to-do decision. Do I keep buying the Natural line and hope that the folks behind the counter are following the special rules or do I skip deli meat all together? Or maybe (just for me and not for my girls) I should just go back to the preservative-laden version? What to do, what to do? I guess the last option is buy [insert meat here], cook it, and slice it fresh here in my house when I want a French dip or a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. What would you do?

This post is how I am participating this week in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays — two awesome campaigns to get people eating real food again.

Tired of being the one who had to tell a group of parents not to bring snacks with food dyes or high fructose corn syrup to our meetings. I just couldn’t deal with the fallout of those two ingredients, which made the group bounce off the walls. I’m fairly sure those who didn’t think I was nuts before have placed me into the “nuts” category.

Tired of telling my mother to stop buying my kids crap. Her latest: buying Little Girl a McDonald’s strawberry sundae, which resulted in said little girl begging to go into her crib because she “feels sick, Mama.”

Tired of having to read labels. Shouldn’t the government take some role in protecting its citizens like the European Union has done?

Tired of the apathy. I peeked into my kid’s school lunchroom last week. The most prominent items on the lunch line were Doritos and other bags of chips and ice cream. That day the kids got pizza, sliced peaches in heavy syrup, juice, and chocolate milk. Well, I guess they had the choice of plain milk, too, but most kids had chocolate on their Styrofoam trays. (Don’t even get me STARTED on the Styrofoam!) What a crappy meal.

Tired of hearing about Big Agriculture trying to make it illegal for people to take photos inside of farms or processing plants. (Great video by Perez Hilton via Eccorazzi about the topic, BTW.) If this goes through I wonder who is going to be looking out for the bulk of Americans who buy meat at supermarkets and warehouse clubs. I wonder how many atrocities will happen behind those closed doors?

Tired of watching parents feed their babies crap. Hot dogs with nitrates. Lollipops with food dyes. Yogurt with preservatives, food dyes, and high fructose. Babies that have bleeding, cracking eczema. I have learned my lesson and I keep my mouth shut, but my heart aches for those kids, especially since many studies have shown a direct link between diet and eczema. In fact, researchers think specific foods can cause flare-ups in about one third of eczema patients, according to a recent study.

Mostly, I’m just tired of people assuming — because I am tired of all of the above — that I am judging them for their choices. I’m not. I am a live and let live kind of person.

This post is how I am participating in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays, two great blog carnivals to help people start eating better!

Little Girl is tasting stuff without coercion. I don’t know what to attribute it to. Is she trying to follow her sister’s lead? Is she getting curious about what things taste like? Is she really hungry? Who knows. The point is, after two years of offering her new things, she’s finally receptive.

This makes things SO much easier for me. I used to get so frustrated when Little Girl would clamp her mouth shut when I offered her tastes of whatever I was eating. I wondered how I could have two kids that are so different. But now, finally, Little Girl is willing to taste nearly anything. No, I won’t say she likes everything she eats, but it’s nice, as it was last night, when she’ll try balsamic grilled turkey with orzo. (She loved the turkey and hated the orzo!)

The point of this blog: Keep trying. Whether you have a reluctant spouse, fussy baby, or headstrong toddler, it is possible to get your family member to try new things. The key is not to give up.

What? No chemicals anymore? How refreshing!

I was in Target the other day shopping for Valentine’s Day cards for Little Girl. (Big Girl got more expensive, infinitely cooler cootie catcher cards.) As we were walking past an endcap, Little Girl spotted fishies, asking me to buy them. Knowing that the Pepperidge Farm pretzel Goldfish are one of my husband’s favorites, I tossed a bag into the cart. I was about to walk away when something caught my eye: the Goldfish Colors bag looked different. I picked it up to examine it closer and found the following item: Now colors from natural ingredients! Wow. Goldfish Colors have always been off-limits for us. I just won’t give my kids artificial food coloring, and Goldfish Colors had more than its share.

When I turned the bag around and saw the ingredients, though, I was surprised to see that all those artificial colors and numbers were gone. All the food dyes came from actual FOODS! The Blue 2, Red 40, and  Red 3 — all things that have been linked to a ton of negative effects in kids such as attention deficit and concentration problems — had been transformed into watermelon juice concentrate, beet juice concentrate, huito juice concentrate, and annatto extract. Aside from the fact that they are not organic, there was absolutely nothing in the ingredients that gave me pause. The kids, sensing an opening, asked for them. I complied.

This is a wonderful example of the marketplace responding to parental concerns. Pepperidge Farm all but acknowledged it in its August 25 press release: “Throughout the decades, families have trusted Goldfish crackers as a wholesome, fun and delicious snack that has evolved to meet the demands of the many Goldfish cracker fans around the world,” said Stephen White, Vice President Crackers. (Digression: Wow, what an interesting title!) “With the scrutiny surrounding artificial colors in foods, we were thrilled to be able to make this change in our Goldfish Colors crackers and introduce Goldfish Colors Neon using the same formula,” added White.

It’s also tangible evidence that we, as parents, have more power than we think. I’ve said it time and time and time again. Don’t like something? Vote with your wallets, tweet about it, post on Facebook, blog, call, email, write letters. Because as Pepperidge Farm shows us, yes, the food manufacturers are listening.

This post is how I am participating this week in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays — two awesome campaigns to get people eating real food again.

Okay, so whatever. But now, as I sit here planning the menu for my own playdate, I am nervously wondering if they will all hate me because I refuse to put out kid food. Or at least dread having to figure out what to feed their kids at my house. Usually, I’ll just order the one “kid” food I can stomach, which is pizza. (Little Girl likes pizza, but would rather spoon hummus out of the container.) Still, there are no nuggets anywhere. There’s a reason for that. Research keeps proving that kids will eat whatever you put out for them.

A December 2010 study — Mothers’ Diets Have Biggest Influence on Children Eating Healthy — out of Michigan State University’s College of Nursing found that “toddlers were less likely to consume fruits and vegetables four or more times a week if their mothers did not consume that amount or if their mothers viewed their children as picky eaters.”

So by putting out what I view as unhealthy stuff just because kids are picky eaters, I’m sending Little Girl a message: Kids should eat kid food. Not something that I believe. Still, I stress over it. I like to be the hostess with the mostess. I like my guest to be happy. I guess I’ll just have to hope they can be happy without fried food.

I felt sheepish and stupid and uncomfortable all at the same time. How crazy was I that this teacher remembered our deal four years (and probably 150 kids) later? I shudder when I think about how I probably made that teacher feel way back when. “Yes,” I said. “we are still all organic, but it’s okay. She can have the occasional Goldfish cracker.” The director was standing there listening. I looked over and felt like I had to explain. I told her something that most parents of more than one kid have probably said: “I’ve mellowed a bit with the second one.” She smiled and made me feel better by telling me quite honestly, “That happens a lot.”

So why have I relaxed my stance on Goldfish? Here are the ingredients in the cheddar version:

Unbleached Enriched Wheat Flour [Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid], Cheddar Cheese [(Pasteurized Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes), Water, Salt], Vegetable Oils (Canola, Sunflower and/or Soybean), Contains 2 Percent of less of: Salt, Yeast, Sugar, Yeast Extract, Leavening (Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate, Ammonium Bicarbonate), Spices, Annatto (Color) and Onion Powder.

It doesn’t seem all that offensive. Are Goldfish crackers organic? No, but a handful here and there isn’t going to hurt my kid, either. Now, let me add that the cheddar ones are the only flavor I will feed Little Girl. I hate the colorful ones — my kid doesn’t need artificial dyes (Blue 2, Red 40, Red 3, and Blue 1), thank you very much. My husband likes the pretzel ones, but I think they are too hard for a toddler. Definitely a choking hazard. And the flavor blast version? I want my child to like subtle tastes and textures. There’s no need to give her that much salt and flavoring.

Still, I decided that I was going to be a good parent and help the school out so we went shopping yesterday for healthy snacks. Little Girl was allowed to pick out five bags and boxes to bring into the classroom. She picked some organic cheddar duck crackers, Earth’s Best Organic Sesame Street Letter of the Day Cookies, a bag of organic raisins, some Pirate’s Booty. This morning we delivered our little care package to the school. (And as a result Little Girl got to be the snack helper today! She was thrilled!) Plus, now I don’t have to think about Goldfish for a while. That’s a really good thing.

This post is how I am participating this week in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays — two awesome campaigns to get people eating real food again.

I really thought about my purchase. Yes, I could buy a half-pound of turkey, a head of lettuce and a tomato and make it myself. But here’s the thing: It just tastes better when the nice deli guy makes it for me. He uses far more turkey than I’d use. He has a perfect amount of mixed lettuce greens to balance the bright, thinly cut tomatoes. He sprinkles just the right amount of salt and pepper on it, too. The rolls come from the in-house bakery. I’ve often sat there and watched the pastry chef mixing up a new batch of something fluffy, seeing the eggs and the flour go into the large mixing bowl.

You know that cheap $4.99 hero? It’s not as good. The lettuce is iceburg; there are no leafy greens to be seen. The rolls come out of a big bag. They weren’t freshly baked the same morning. Even the turkey seems of a lesser quality.

So, was my sandwich worth the extra $1 or so? Absolutely. I put less food into my body, but the food that went in was high quality. I’m lucky I can make this decision. There are an awful lot of people out there who, because of finances, have to make an even harder choice: buy something off the $.99 menu at some fast food joint or skip lunch all together.

And what’s in that $.99 menu choice? Let’s take a random item off the McDonald’s menu: The 360-calorie McChicken sandwich. Here’s what’s in it:

McChicken Patty: Chicken, water, salt, sodium phosphates. Battered and breaded with: bleached wheat four, water, wheat flour, food starch-modified, salt, spices, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and cottonseed oil with mono -and diglycerides, egg whites, wheat gluten, paprika, dextrose, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate, ammonium bicarbonate), garlic powder, yeast, natural flavor (plant source), extractives of paprika. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.

Regular Bun: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour), calcium propionate and sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

Mayonnaise Dressing: Water, soybean oil, distilled vinegar, maltodextrin, food starch-modified, enzyme modified egg yolk, salt, sugar, xanthan gum, mustard flour, potassium sorbate (preservative), lemon juice concentrate, polysorbate 80, natural flavor (animal source), calcium disodium EDTA to protect flavor, beta carotene (color).

All those ingredients for $.99? And you know they must be making some sort of profit. How can this be? And an even more important question: Why would you want any of that in your body or — even worse — your child’s body. (And, BTW, buying McDonald’s may not even be cheaper. At least that’s what another smart blogger found out when she figured out how much it costs to cook at home versus buying McDonald’s for a family of four. Scroll down past the yummy-sounding recipe if you click through…)

Anyway, digressing as always: I won’t stand here and condemn anyone for eating their McChicken sandwich because that’s all they could afford. (I will make a wish that some day soon everyone will be able to have access to healthy, fresh foods regardless of their income.) But for anyone who can afford to make a different choice I ask: Aren’t you and your health worth the extra couple of bucks?

This post is how I am participating this week in Real Food Wednesdays, an awesome campaign to get people thinking about and eating real food. Would love to hear about your lunch. What did you have? Was it worth the time and effort?

We hold a member meeting once a month. This past spring someone stood up and questioned why we were using Styrofoam given the fact that it is so SO terrible for the environment. I will quote from yesterday’s Daily Green story, The 6 Least Green Types of Packaging: “…polystyrene foam is the worst of the packaging offenders. It’s made of non-renewable petroleum and once manufactured, it’s not biodegradable. As soon as polystyrene is contaminated by food (like crumbs or grease from your french fries) it is no longer recyclable, and very few recycling facilities accept it even when it’s clean. Polystyrene is also hazardous to human health. It contains the neurotoxins styrene and benzene, which are widely accepted to be carcinogens. These toxins can leach into food that’s acidic, warm, alcoholic or oily and into the environment after exposure to rain and other weather.”

The question sparked much debate. There were people who were passionately for the change from Styrofoam to paper. There were people against it, too. After some discussion, the club’s board promised to take the issue up with the catering vendor. They did and were told that switching from Styrofoam to paper would cost more. A lot more. Still, we, the environmentally-conscious of the club, won on the cup issue. It was an easy swap, and it didn’t even end up costing the members a dime. (I guess the markup on soda is pretty high, so the vendor ate the difference.)

We didn’t fare as well when it came to the Styrofoam clamshell food boxes. The consensus from the board was that people didn’t like having their french fries and chicken nuggets “blowing in the wind.” They wanted to eat hot food, and also be able to bring it on their boats without worrying about spillage. They also didn’t want to pay the $.25 or $.50 it was going to cost to switch to a paper to compostable alternative. Harumph. And blech.

I was so angry, and was going to fight the decision at the next meeting. However, at the time I was asked by my husband to please let the issue drop. He loves and supports me and my causes — and puts up with my composting, my insane recycling and my commitment to buying local and organic — but he didn’t want me to get a bad reputation at the club. He didn’t want his wife to become known as the rabble-rouser. (Which is sort of a joke since everyone knows who I am and what I do since I wear my heart and issues on my sleeve.) So I dropped it.

Now, however, as more research comes out about the environmental and human dangers of Styrofoam, and the more I see those Styrofoam clamshells getting thrown away, the angrier I get. Just the process exasperates me. Someone orders a food item. It gets poured into the container and sits in it for maybe ten minutes max. And then that big, white Styrofoam container gets tossed into the garbage forever. Yes, FOREVER. No chance of recycling. No chance of reusing. No chance of biodegrading. How is that right?

As The Daily Green points out there are plenty of cities like Portland, San Francisco and Freeport, Maine that have banned the nasty stuff, and plenty more like Chicago and Edmonds, Wash. have it on their to-do lists. Why shouldn’t we, as a beach community do the same? So despite my promise to my husband to keep my mouth shut, I just can’t do it anymore. I’m going to my next member meeting with printed materials to hand out and a single question: Isn’t our environment worth a quarter? I think it is, especially since there are plenty of great renewable and compostable alternatives out there. If and when I can help get the change made, I’m going to move onto my local politicians and ask them the same questions. To me, it’s pretty clear: Long Island should be taking a page from cities like Portland and San Francisco and banning Styrofoam here, too.

Does your town have a plastic or Styrofoam ban in place? Are they considering one? How do you feel about the subject? BTW: NaturalAsPossibleMom.com has a Facebook page. Come check it out!

I brought her along last Friday to her sister’s sick visit. While we were there I decided to stick her on the scale. It read about the same as it did two months ago when I got chastised for her poor weight gain. Then I stuck her under the measuring stick. Uh-oh. She was about the same size. Drat.

We have a well visit today so I decided that I would spend the week tracking her food intake and making sure she was getting the recommended 1,000 to 1,400 calories a day. Surprise, surprise! She wasn’t. Once I figured that out I became a strict food task master. Little Girl was going to eat. And a lot.

I went to the supermarket with a goal: Find healthy, calorie-rich items to add to Little Girl’s diet. I found cottage cheese with pineapple, rice pudding, Stonyfield Farm’s Yogurt Meals (yogurt with fruit and veggies mixed right in), and whole wheat bagels that I could slather with plenty of full-fat cream cheese. And I also renewed my commitment to get her to drink at least 16 ounces of whole milk, which adds a whopping 320 calories to her daily total. And so the fattening up began.

It’s been a tough week. I hate writing down everything my little one eats. I hate worrying that she’s not getting enough sustenance. Yesterday, though, she ate 1,400 calories. The biggest help has been strapping her into her high chair. For a while she kept begging to sit in a real chair like her big sister. But the real chair was too easy for her. It was a distraction, and I often ended up chasing her around the house — she’s so fast and headstrong. Now, she sits and eats and doesn’t get up. And as much as she likes to tell me, “I do it, Mommy. I do it,” I am the one feeding her. Yes, she can hold her own spoon and fork, but I’m right there shoveling it in in between her baby bites, laughing and pretending to feed her baby.

The sickest part of this is something my husband pointed out to me. Yes, my kid wasn’t eating enough, but if she was eating the equivalent amount of a typical toddler’s diet she’d probably be gaining. Three ounces of strawberries has far fewer calories than three ounces of McDonald’s french fries. Also, the Mighty Bites she eats for breakfast don’t have the same number of calories, for example, as Cinnamon Toast Crunch. One cup of Mighty Bites is 100 calories. There are 130 calories in 3/4 of a cup of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. The Trader Joe’s frozen waffles she likes have 100 calories. Eggo waffles, filled with artificial flavors have 190 calories. How much does that SUCK? My kid isn’t gaining weight like the rest of the world because I don’t feed her crap. So unfair.

I wouldn’t change our diet, though, so now there’s nothing else to do but keep our fingers crossed. The doctor appointment is only 45 minutes away. Let’s see if our efforts will be rewarded with a few ticks of the scale.

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.