Frito-Lay Flaming Hot Cheese Flavored Snacks.
I was shocked and mortified when, while teaching high school, I saw one of my students eating these for breakfast. The tiger on the front is supposed to appeal to young people, but the ingredient list would scare most adults: MSG, artificial colors, hydrogenated oils, just to name a few of the culprits. If you’re going to eat chips, you might as well go for the ones without anything fake: Kettle Organic Potato Chips, made from potatoes, oil, and salt. Pretty simple, and they have the potassium, fiber, and Vitamin C to call themselves, in comparison, health food.
Capri-Sun Fruit Punch.
Although these drinkable pouches now boast Vitamin C and do contain some fruit juice, it’s second in line to high fructose corn syrup. A better bet is Juicy Juice, made from 100 percent juice.
Oscar Mayer Lunchables.
One way to tell if something contains a lot of artificial stuff is to look at the length of the ingredient list. The ingredient list on the “Cracker Stackers—Turkey and Cheese” flavor lunchable is about a paragraph long. In it, you have the usual nasty suspects: high fructose corn syrup, a host of artificial colorings, and hydrogenated oils. But you also have EDTA, smoke flavor, and nitrates. With seven grams of saturated fat and thirty percent of a kid’s daily sodium intake, it’s better to pack a whole wheat pita full of veggies and cheese for lunch, or try some of these useful lunch ideas.
Pretzels.
Preztels—when made right—are usually pretty benign. Flour, water, yeast, salt; not packed with nutrients, but at least nothing fake, right? Well, it depends. These Rold Gold Cheddar Cheese Mini Twists have MSG, hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, colors … I can attest that they taste good, but maybe shouldn’t be eaten on a regular basis. A better choice is Newman’s Organics pretzels, which contain fiber, protein, and complex carbohydrates.
Lastly, since most major food companies market their junk food to kids via the TV, a healthful alternative to the chemically manufactured sweeteners, oils, and colors is to ad-proof your kid.
Updated August 14, 2008
