I don’t usually blog about food, but clearly this is a topic that falls into the “living differently” and “downsizing” categories.
Flashback to 6 years old. I remember eating cereal called Kaboom. Do you remember it? The cereal itself was more colorful than the box it came in. “100% minimum daily requirements of vitamins and iron in 1 oz. sugary oat cereal with marshmallow stars!” As a child, I always wondered where they were hiding the vitamins in this stuff. If I saw a funny shaped piece or a burnt piece of cereal, I would avoid it because surely that was the vitamin. I didn’t need it, I already took my Flintstones vitamins, so leave my cereal alone.
My mom didn’t leave my cereal alone. Apparently she didn’t think there was enough sugar in the sugary oat cereal, so she dumped 3 or 4 tablespoons of sugar into it. When I was done with the cereal, I ate spoons full of purplish milky sugar from the bottom of the bowl. I’m pretty sure I never got the hiccups.
So what’s the big deal? They don’t sell this anymore, right? As of about 10 years ago, I did find some at Big Lots. An what makes Froot Loops any better? I would love to get my hands on the nutrition info for this stuff and compare it to other cereal. Here’s an interesting article I read this morning on the use of food coloring in food: The dangers of artificial food colors There’s always been lots of controversy about this topic. Why chance it? If there are non-colored foods available, why not buy those? They taste the same. The color is only for presentation and marketing. Yes, I buy foods with coloring, mostly because I don’t pay attention to this very much. I do buy low fat and healthy foods when there’s an option for it. Honestly, I spend more time price shopping food rather than nutrition shopping our food. I should be doing both.
The thing that made me think of all this food stuff is bacon wrapped asparagus. I love grilled asparagus and I can even get my kids to eat that way. My friend that was coming over to cook dinner with us said he would bring bacon to wrap around the asparagus I was cooking. My kids would love this without a doubt, but I don’t want to even let them know this is an option. If they like it grilled, without butter, fat or covered in cheese, why would I mess with that? Trust me, I let them eat plenty of unhealthy stuff, but I do try to teach them to eat low-fat and low-sugar options when they are available.
This is an area where I really need to be rethinking good. And if anyone can find me a box of Kaboom cereal, I would be forever grateful!