From the category archives:

WTF

Weird but True news from the world of Food

Halloween treats don’t have to be tricky

October 11, 2011

When you blog about kids and food, people ask you questions. Especially this time of year, when sweets flow like lava and the sugar high carries you from trick-or-treats to Easter baskets. What do you do about the candy? So here it is. The post about the candy. Our Halloween night strategy is pretty simple. [...]

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“Food Inc.”: Family viewing?

August 9, 2011

PBS is showing the movie “Food Inc.” tonight. So I’m pulling out a review I wrote when the movie debuted. Have you seen the film? Planning to watch tonight? Maybe recording it to watch later with your kids? (See more about kid viewing below.) You’ll never look at food the same way again. I promise. So watch [...]

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Picture this: Dressed to shill

March 29, 2011

Let’s set aside my love affair with real maple syrup* and concentrate instead on the fact that Pinnacle Foods, which makes Mrs. Butterworth’s, is trying to turn its bottles into toys by having kids download “up to 60 playful accessories” for its new “spring collection.” From the press release: “Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup debuts three newly outfitted [...]

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Reclaiming of the green (and tell the FDA “no dyes”)

March 21, 2011

In a different mood, I might appreciate the irony of such a blatant food-dye holiday falling two weeks before the FDA is set to examine the connection between artificial food colors and children’s behavior. A holiday where people don’t just buy synthetically altered food, but deliberately tint it bright green themselves (a nifty American spin that no doubt [...]

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Stop reading labels and start reading ingredients

January 29, 2011

All week I’ve been seeing stories about Walmart-style food reform and food manufacturers’ self-serving nutrition labels, about fake meat, fake blueberries and fake maple syrup. Stories about all the ways the food industry tricks us, and all the ways people get mad about the food industry tricking us. So here’s a thought: Let’s stop playing the game. Ignore the labels. Don’t look at numbers. Don’t believe [...]

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The color of trouble

January 22, 2011

Before I started Spoonfed, I began collecting “kid food” advertisements with the intention of skewering them on a regular basis. But as those torn pages piled up, I realized they were all the same. Different products, different gimmicks: Lunchables give kids brain power! Pop-Tarts are the cornerstone of a balanced breakfast! McDonald’s is healthy for hipster moms and [...]

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Candy insanity: Halloween here we come

October 20, 2010

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Food (and propaganda) at the state fair

September 17, 2010

I realize that state-fair food is a category unto itself, a passionately defended paean to Americana and summertime. And to criticize it could cause a distracting uproar. Some might even offer me their fried-fave-on-a-stick with instructions to make it disappear right up my behind. So I’ll just say that we did not partake of the many fried delicacies [...]

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Carrots are just Cheetos wannabes

August 31, 2010

Have you heard about the new ad campaign that’s branding baby carrots as junk food? Not an alternative to junk food. But junk food’s cheeky, farm-fresh cousin. There will be crinkly, snacky-type bags, some sold in vending machines, all labeled with the hipster directive to “Eat ‘em like junk food.” In a world of food gone crazy, [...]

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Send me your children’s menus!
(Because it’s one step forward, 25 steps back.)

July 23, 2010

Just when I was feeling good about children’s menus, this depressing round-up crossed my desk. In it, the Daily Beast names the 25 worst meals from kids’ menus at chain restaurants, analyzed for calorie count, saturated fat, carbohydrates and sodium. I’m not into counting calories for kids. And I think standard dietary guidelines like the USDA food [...]

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WTF