A “Peep” into Artificial Colors and Corn Syrup
Kids Food / Sweet Treats

A “Peep” into Artificial Colors and Corn Syrup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring is here, and with it comes one of the most recognizable candy confections to grace the supermarket shelves…Marshmallow Peeps.  Those little pastel colored puffs of artificial flavor fill many Easter baskets and young tummies each year.  But perhaps it’s time to consider what those little bunnies and chicks are actually made of.  As we discussed last week, it’s also important to recognize artificial colors and their suspected effect on children.  The pink Marshmallow Peeps are colored with Red 3, which according to Ruth Winter, M.S. in her book A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, “in 1996…was found to be a cancer-causing additive and may contribute to breast cancer.”   Apparently, according to the same book, the FDA has considered removing Red 3 as an optional food colorant, but has yet to do so. What are they waiting for? (more…)

2 Comments
04/17/2011
Dinner and Dye – No More Red 3 or Red 40
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Dinner and Dye – No More Red 3 or Red 40

Food dye.  Well there’s the big red-blue-yellow and pink elephant in the room.  Artificial food dyes are currently headliners on our food related news. A couple weeks ago Frito Lay announced they plan to give a more natural makeover to some of their snack products like Lay’s flavored Potato Chips, Tostitos, Multigrain SunChips and Rold Gold Pretzels.  And a week later the FDA held hearings to evaluate a request to post warning labels on the labels of products containing these artificial colors.  You can read three pertinent news articles on these topics here: (more…)

10 Comments
04/10/2011
Let’s Talk Turkey: Does Deli Turkey Need Nitrites?
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Let’s Talk Turkey: Does Deli Turkey Need Nitrites?

The answer is NO.  Repeat after me, No nitrites, no nitrites, NO NITRITES!!!  Okay, I just had a flash back to my old cheerleading days.

Turkey deli meat is one of those things that I never really thought too much about.  It’s always been the lean deli protein that came sliced, smoked, honeyed or roasted and when piled on whole wheat bread with mustard and veggies became my healthy lunch.  Or was it?  During this Out of the Box Food journey I’ve been looking more carefully at everything, and that needed to include turkey.  I tended to choose turkey over ham because it was supposed to be healthier, right?  Well, I’m learning that it’s not just about the product itself, but how the product is cured and what might be added to it that makes the difference. (more…)

5 Comments
03/27/2011
Soup’s Still On…Skip the Bull(ion)
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Soup’s Still On…Skip the Bull(ion)

I received a comment to the Chicken Stock post a couple weeks ago, with a question about bullion cubes.  Chicken and vegetable broths are chock full of sodium, but what about those little cubes of flavor that dissolve into hot water to make soup?  Those must be better, right?  After all, they are so small.  Well, the short answer is no.  The censored, passionate answer is…well, let’s leave that one to the imagination. (more…)

4 Comments
03/20/2011
Clean-Out-The-Fridge Vegetable Broth
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Clean-Out-The-Fridge Vegetable Broth

How many times do you find yourself cleaning out the produce drawer of your fridge and kicking yourself for not actually using those veggies you were certain you’d use, “this time”?  It happens to me a lot.  I overbuy the beautiful produce I see at the farmer’s market, use only half a bunch of celery or undoubtedly leave half an onion sitting wistfully softening in the drawer.  Don’t beat yourself up.  You can use those leftover veggies to replace something you’d normally buy at the market, but without all the added sodium.  Something you can use to make soup, risotto, mashed potatoes, sauces…the possibilities are endless.  Vegetable broth. (more…)

1 Comment
03/13/2011
Chicken Broth: What’s in a Can?
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Chicken Broth: What’s in a Can?

I can’t tell you how many of the recipes I make call for chicken stock or broth.  It’s an ingredient I use more often than I can keep track of, yet I was unaware what I was actually adding to my dishes every time I cracked open a can or poured generously from a carton.  Sodium.  And lots of it. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that individuals consume less than 1500mg of sodium per day (that is just over 1/2 tsp of salt).  Yet some varieties of packaged chicken stock and broth contain more than 850mg sodium per serving! (more…)

5 Comments
03/06/2011
Healthy School Lunch: A Hard Sell to Kids?
Dinner Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box

Healthy School Lunch: A Hard Sell to Kids?

An article came out this week in the Chicago Tribune telling the story of drastic changes made to the Chicago Public Schools’ hot lunch program and the less than stellar response to the changes.  The article entitled, “You can lead kids to broccoli, but you can’t make them eat“, reaffirmed the importance of what we do at Out of the Box Food:  make fresh food palatable to kids.   Now, I am a believer of kids eating real food, not just kid food like macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets (even if they are made from scratch or without added chemicals).  But realistically, as this Chicago Tribune article states, we need a middle ground.  A transition.  We have to reach those kids who think they only like macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets.  Since the goal is to get them to actually learn to like fresh, I’d rather see a child tuck into a bowl of fresh macaroni and cheese made with fiber-full macaroni, fresh cheese and milk then have them stare blankly into a bowl of Quinoa and Kale.  At least to begin with.  Let them first learn to like fresh. (more…)

0 Comments
02/27/2011
A Healthy Homemade Lunchable Your Kids Will Love…Plus a Bento Lunch Box Give-Away For You!
Kids Food / Lunch Box

A Healthy Homemade Lunchable Your Kids Will Love…Plus a Bento Lunch Box Give-Away For You!

 

My kids have ALWAYS wanted Lunchables.  They have no idea what they taste like, but they think the little compartmentalized container with the little squares of processed food product are enticing…I’m sure that’s what the company was hoping for.  I’ll admit, I have tried to create homemade versions of the Lunchable by cutting deli meats and cheeses into little squares, buying individual containers and organizing the bite size morsels into their lunch boxes.  But I have yet to get approval from the under seven set.  They’re just “not cool, mom”.  So therein lay my dilemma.  I couldn’t possibly make a cool homemade Lunchable, and I sure wasn’t going to buy the prepackaged Lunchables.  So there we were, my kids and I in a Lunchable stare down.  Who’d blink first? (more…)

54 Comments
02/20/2011
Ahoy Mateys! The Healthy Cookie Conundrum.
Kids Food / On the Go / Sweet Treats

Ahoy Mateys! The Healthy Cookie Conundrum.

Cookies are such an easy treat.  They can be packed in a lunch box, stuffed in a mouth or held in even the tiniest of hands.  But why fill those little hands and mouths with hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup when you can bake an easy, fresh, and delicious treat which, by the way, tastes even better warm with a tall glass of milk!

Packaged cookies are a convenience that I’d guess most (if not all) of us have purchased at one time or another.  They must be a viable money maker based on the number of brands and varieties that fill nearly an entire supermarket aisle.  Yet, when I compared the ingredients on packaged cookies to those we can make fresh…well, there is no comparison. (more…)

2 Comments
02/13/2011
Can Yogurt Actually Be Unhealthy?
Breakfast Table / Kids Food / Lunch Box / Snacks

Can Yogurt Actually Be Unhealthy?

We know how important it is to read labels on snack foods, boxed dinners and cereals but do we actually need to read the labels on yogurt?  YES.  If I’m learning anything during this journey it’s that you have to read the labels on everything. Yogurt should contain only milk, live yogurt cultures and any natural fruit they might add.  Should.  But many of the fruit flavored yogurts on the market contain a lot more than that.  I’ve seen some that contain carrageenan, others that contain high fructose corn syrup and artificial colors, and some fruit yogurts that contain no fruit whatsoever.  So how do you find yogurt that contains simply fruit, milk and yogurt cultures?  Two ways:  read the labels or mix up your own. (more…)

10 Comments
01/30/2011