Nutrition nuggets

Nutrition Nuggets is the name of the monthly "food and fitness for a healthy child" flier that comes home from junior's school with the monthly list of hot lunches. I let him buy a weekly hot lunch so he can be cool just like all the other kids with parents who don't care what their child eats. With only one hot lunch per week, I suppose we can address the dietary deficiencies of the typical hot lunch at home. It ought to be easy when the lunches typically consist of two starches, a sugar, and fat. All we have to do is eat five servings of fruits and vegetables at the evening meal. Oh, wait, make that four: Yes, ketchup is considered a vegetable when it comes to hot lunches.

Excerpts from this month's flier:

Drink Up!
What are the healthiest drinks for kids?

A. fat-free milk
B. water
C. fruit juice
D. diet soda
E. sports drinks

Answer: A and B

Get your child in the habit of reaching for milk or water when he's thirsty and he'll be a step ahead on the road to good health. Try these strategies.

Go for Flavor
Many youngsters don't like plain milk or water. To punch up the taste, stir chocolate or strawberry syrup into fat-free milk...


It then goes on to explain that anything other than 100% juice fills kids up (it's not also full of sugars?) and that soda has no nutritional value (why doesn't this also fill kids up?), contains lots of sugar and sodium, and often has caffeine. Note: diet soda is no better -- it still has caffeine and sodium, plus it contains artificial sweeteners.

Is there someone who thinks that chocolate or strawberry -flavored milk isn't also full of sugar and artificial flavors?

Who writes this crap?

Last month I think the flier was advocating the use of fat-free milk as an alternative addition to scrambled eggs. Does anyone use more than a tablespoon or two of milk in their eggs? Is this an effective way to reduce fat calories or add calcium or vitamin D? Wouldn't water be better? Why didn't they advocate that? Is it because water is essentially free and milk has a well financed lobby?

These fliers are offensive.

For the record, we drink a lot of water and far less milk than other families that I know. My son's friends often ask for juice or soda when thirsty. I usually offer cold water and a quart of 2% milk will often go bad on us before we've finished it.

Filed under amusing, but would be more appropriate under disgusting.