Getting Rid of Blue, possibly the best story I have EVER heard
I am an avid NPR listener. To be a part of my family you kinda have to be. Lots of conversations include the phrases "I heard on NPR..." and "Did you hear on NPR?" I usually listen to All Things Considered in the Evening while making dinner, and the other night I heard a story that tops all the others I have heard. If you arent familiar with NPR let me just give you the briefest overview of what NPR includes. Sure you have the news stories, but you also have some light jazz (just to help you transition from one story to another), and special interest stories about... random things. The other night I heard this story. I laughed throughout the whole story then promptly told several people about it, yes it was that ridiculous.
Let me give you a brief overview of the story, then I will of course share my unsolicited opinion (just a warning in the event that you want to click off this blog). There is a mother in Jamestown, NY petitioning Mars to replace the artificial dyes in M&Ms with natural dyes. She is particularly concerned with the blue M&Ms. She claims that the artificial dye makes her child hyperactive. She also went on to say that many of the foods in her home contained artificial coloring, wait let me just quote it. ""I went through all our cupboards and I couldn't believe how much of the stuff had dyes in it," Shutters told us. The chicken tenders in her freezer had dyes, as did the yogurts — even "the macaroni and cheese I was giving [my kids] had it."
Ok so here is my commentary. It's the dye that is making your kid crazy? You are giving him M&M's! Those are candy, own up to the fact that candy is bad for you, delicious, but not as good for you as say an apple. Eat the candy sparingly and just enjoy it. And seriously, you can't blame bad behavior on the dye... it is an M&M what else is in that? Nothing good. And you just now realized there was dye in yogurt, chicken tenders, and mac and cheese? With the exception of the yogurt the other options arent really food. If you feed your family packaged foods you have to be prepared for them to contain dyes and yes... preservatives. That is what happens when something needs to be shelf stable or last more than a week! Did you think that mac and cheese only contained noodles and cheese? If so please listen to the Bill Engvall skit on "broke food", he describes what is in mac and cheese, you know orange powder... there is the slight possibility that if you are looking to actually eat cheese you might want to shop in the dairy section. I have little to no concern about Michael having artificial dye. I probably should be more concerned, but after listening to the story I looked carefully at what he ate the remainder of the week and I have come to the conclusion that I dont care. This is basically what he had: several strawberry greek yogurts, 2-3 v8s, an apple or two, several applesauce packets, about 1 cucumber, 2-4 scrambled eggs, 1/2 cup steel cut oatmeal, linguini with homemade bolognese sauce, a grilled chicken thigh, brown rice, grilled carrots, 2-3 slices frozen costco pizza, 1/2 a peanut butter and honey sandwich on whole wheat bread, a few bites of pear, a delicious in-n-out cheeseburger, fries, and a vanilla shake (we shared this), goldfish crackers, reduced fat wheat thins, and lots and lots of 2% lactose free milk. Ok I could have made some smarter nutrition choices for him, but all in all I feel fine about it. So this is what I want to say to the mom with the petition.
Dear Petition Mom,
Stop creating these ridiculous petitions. They are a waste of time, we all know that M&Ms are bad for us, they are delicious, meant to be eaten in small amounts, and not as a meal. If you dont like what is in them or the reaction your child has to them, then stop giving them M&Ms. People can live without M&Ms, you dont even need to come up with an alternative, there is absolutely no part of your diet that will be missing if you skip them all together. And while I have your attention, please stop complaining that packaged convenience foods have artificial dyes in them. NO kidding mac and cheese and chicken tenders have artificial dyes, and no kidding that fun yogurts have artificial dyes. You know what doesnt? Real food, just plain chicken and the boring grown up yogurt. Let me just say we go through an awful lot of yogurt in our house and shockingly none of it has artificial dyes, granted it is boring greek yogurt so it is missing a lot of fun, but my 2 year old loves it, and hey no dye. And as a bonus I bet the boring yogurt is the same price or cheaper than the cool kid yogurts that have ll sorts of fun in them. How about instead of complaining you spend the 20 extra minutes and make something real for dinner, think outside the box. Stop buying things in the middle of the grocery store, shop the outsides, the meat section, the produce section, and the dairy case. You will find far less artificial dyes in the perimeter. And maybe if you can reduce the dye in let's say the main dish cause you stopped feeding your kids mac and cheese (which isnt actually food), it would be ok if once in awhile they ate blue M&Ms. Do we really need to encourage Mars to change their product? How about we take ownership over what we feed our kids, make smart choices for their main courses so once in awhile they can have candy guilt free.
Thanks a million,
Ticked in Texas.
Let me give you a brief overview of the story, then I will of course share my unsolicited opinion (just a warning in the event that you want to click off this blog). There is a mother in Jamestown, NY petitioning Mars to replace the artificial dyes in M&Ms with natural dyes. She is particularly concerned with the blue M&Ms. She claims that the artificial dye makes her child hyperactive. She also went on to say that many of the foods in her home contained artificial coloring, wait let me just quote it. ""I went through all our cupboards and I couldn't believe how much of the stuff had dyes in it," Shutters told us. The chicken tenders in her freezer had dyes, as did the yogurts — even "the macaroni and cheese I was giving [my kids] had it."
Ok so here is my commentary. It's the dye that is making your kid crazy? You are giving him M&M's! Those are candy, own up to the fact that candy is bad for you, delicious, but not as good for you as say an apple. Eat the candy sparingly and just enjoy it. And seriously, you can't blame bad behavior on the dye... it is an M&M what else is in that? Nothing good. And you just now realized there was dye in yogurt, chicken tenders, and mac and cheese? With the exception of the yogurt the other options arent really food. If you feed your family packaged foods you have to be prepared for them to contain dyes and yes... preservatives. That is what happens when something needs to be shelf stable or last more than a week! Did you think that mac and cheese only contained noodles and cheese? If so please listen to the Bill Engvall skit on "broke food", he describes what is in mac and cheese, you know orange powder... there is the slight possibility that if you are looking to actually eat cheese you might want to shop in the dairy section. I have little to no concern about Michael having artificial dye. I probably should be more concerned, but after listening to the story I looked carefully at what he ate the remainder of the week and I have come to the conclusion that I dont care. This is basically what he had: several strawberry greek yogurts, 2-3 v8s, an apple or two, several applesauce packets, about 1 cucumber, 2-4 scrambled eggs, 1/2 cup steel cut oatmeal, linguini with homemade bolognese sauce, a grilled chicken thigh, brown rice, grilled carrots, 2-3 slices frozen costco pizza, 1/2 a peanut butter and honey sandwich on whole wheat bread, a few bites of pear, a delicious in-n-out cheeseburger, fries, and a vanilla shake (we shared this), goldfish crackers, reduced fat wheat thins, and lots and lots of 2% lactose free milk. Ok I could have made some smarter nutrition choices for him, but all in all I feel fine about it. So this is what I want to say to the mom with the petition.
Dear Petition Mom,
Stop creating these ridiculous petitions. They are a waste of time, we all know that M&Ms are bad for us, they are delicious, meant to be eaten in small amounts, and not as a meal. If you dont like what is in them or the reaction your child has to them, then stop giving them M&Ms. People can live without M&Ms, you dont even need to come up with an alternative, there is absolutely no part of your diet that will be missing if you skip them all together. And while I have your attention, please stop complaining that packaged convenience foods have artificial dyes in them. NO kidding mac and cheese and chicken tenders have artificial dyes, and no kidding that fun yogurts have artificial dyes. You know what doesnt? Real food, just plain chicken and the boring grown up yogurt. Let me just say we go through an awful lot of yogurt in our house and shockingly none of it has artificial dyes, granted it is boring greek yogurt so it is missing a lot of fun, but my 2 year old loves it, and hey no dye. And as a bonus I bet the boring yogurt is the same price or cheaper than the cool kid yogurts that have ll sorts of fun in them. How about instead of complaining you spend the 20 extra minutes and make something real for dinner, think outside the box. Stop buying things in the middle of the grocery store, shop the outsides, the meat section, the produce section, and the dairy case. You will find far less artificial dyes in the perimeter. And maybe if you can reduce the dye in let's say the main dish cause you stopped feeding your kids mac and cheese (which isnt actually food), it would be ok if once in awhile they ate blue M&Ms. Do we really need to encourage Mars to change their product? How about we take ownership over what we feed our kids, make smart choices for their main courses so once in awhile they can have candy guilt free.
Thanks a million,
Ticked in Texas.
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