Mommies Home has a great article on getting kids to eat vegetables. Like her, some of my kids were pretty fussy eaters when they were young, but a few of them were not. At around age 11, all my kids ate just about anything set in front of them (sometimes under duress, lol). I just didn’t serve much else besides the ikky healthy stuff, and they learned that unless they ate what I gave them, they were going to go hungry. Now, they eat eggplant, zucchini, bean soup (which I hate), and they’ll even eat peas if I threaten loudly enough. But the key, I think, was giving the children no other choice. We rarely ever go to McDonald’s (maybe once a year or two), rarely eat out (maybe once or twice a year). We do eat take-out Chinese (more vegetables!) and we do eat pizza. But overall, I think the kids eat very, very well. And since we grow our own food in the summer, that’s basically all we eat– vegetables.

But the Mommies Home article made me think, espcecially when she asked:

But with the fast food culture, and many children fixed on chicken nuggets, hot dogs and mac and cheese, how do you get them to get to the recommended amount?

That’s it right there– the fast food culture.

If you are an Entrecarder like me, you no doubt have seen all those Asian blogs, where the bloggers are always talking about their food. And what kinds of foods are they always talking about? Rice, fruits, and vegetables! And what do American and Canadian bloggers blog about when they discuss food? Chocolate, diet soda, fast food, and diet pills. I think the difference between the two is very telling.

So the idea that children are fussy eaters because they are children is an illusion. Our culture has a lot of influence of our health, for better or for worse. And I think in our Western culture, it’s for the worse.

Our food industry is bankrolled by those who have more concern for their bottom dollar than public health. Just look at this propaganda piece made by the high-fructose corn syrup lobbyists.

What a disgusting ad, as if we are just a bunch of idiotic peons who don’t know what’s good for us. And to rebut the ad that says HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is fine “in moderation,” well that’s just an outright lie. We all know that no American gets HFCS in “moderation.” That poison is everywhere, and in everything. But they treat us as if we are tongue-tied idiots. Grr.

So no wonder kids are fussy, fat, and sick all the time. Really, we need to start growing our own food, don’t you think?

Poor Ronald McDonald. He gets blamed for everything!

I am one of those Americans who thinks that the “obesity epidemic” is not due so much to larger appetites or McDonald’s, but due to the chemical junk dumped into all the processed foods we eat. When my husband and I started paying attention to what was contained within our foods, we wondered what on earth “high fructose corn syrup” was. It was in everything! It became a running gag between the two of us.

Honey, what are we having for dinner?
High fructose corn syrup, dear!

Honey, would you like cream and sugar in your tea.
No, thanks– just high fructose corn syrup!

I have been thinking that this sugary soup has been causing all our health problems in this country. A grocery store chain in Seattle, Washington, is refusing to stock its shelves with any food that contains high fructose corn syrup. Hurray! Too bad it’s all the way over on the other side of the continent. I found this from The Seattle Times:

The syrup began appearing in a multitude of foods in the early 1980s at a savings to manufacturers because it took less to sweeten a product. Between then and now, Americans went from consuming less than a pound of high-fructose corn syrup per person per year in 1970 to 42 pounds in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.

The nation’s obesity rate has soared along nearly the same trajectory. And those who warn against consuming too much of the syrup began connecting these occurrences over the past five years, as public health officials declared obesity an epidemic and began searching for answers. Researchers have said that fructose may contribute to obesity by failing to trigger the body’s internal switch that it’s full.

Could this move by the Seattle grocery store be a new trend? I for one am very pleased about their decision. Now if only they would do something like this in New York!

I also wonder why those news magazines TV shows are always “exposing” fast food restaurants but don’t say much about Big Sugar and the high fructose corn-syrup poisoning going on? Hmm.