“Pop Tarts for breakfast? Think again. After reviewing the ingredient list and the overall nutritional content of these things (I will not even call them a food) I realized they are pure junk!”

In this post:
1. A mother says no to Pop Tarts;
2. Another mother fights junk food AND her child’s school;
3. A parents’ organization dedicated to fighting junk food;
4. Sadly (sigh…), Doctors that pass out candy

1. Lisa, whom we quoted above, is a former personal trainer who is discovering the connection between what goes into your body and how your body subsequently looks and functions (or fails to). As a parent, she has slipped away from the regular rigors of working out and writes a beautifully presented blog called Workout Mommy as a means of personal motivation and to motivate others. Cool, that!

She recently read the ingredients from a Pop Tarts box, and here is where it gets fun. She titles her post “Pop Tarts for Breakfast? Think Again!” Though both she and her son “like” Pop Tarts (confession, so do I, but have not touched them in 25 years) she has taken them off the menu of her home. She says: “These are not for breakfast nor are they for a snack! They are essentially a giant candy bar, filled with sugar and sodium. The only place these should go is in the trash! So repeat after me: No more Pop-Tarts!”

Next she lists the chemicals, er um, ingredients, and asks “Is this even in English?” She then questions the “vitamins” proclaimed on the label. Go read her post for yourself. It is well worth a visit.

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2. Meanwhile in New York City it’s “stop everything — we have a cupcake situation!” An activist mom by the name of MeMe Roth has been getting into it with the schools her children attend. Seems those schools feel free to serve the kids sugary snacks and don’t much care for it when Mrs. Roth calls them on it. She says ““I thought I was sending my kid to P.S. 9, not Chuck E. Cheese.” “Is there or is there not an obesity and diabetes epidemic in this country?” Complaints to which the school officials reply, suggesting that if she feels the junk food they serve to be dangerous to her children, then she should request a “health and safety transfer.”

Here’s where the story gets good: Such a transfer usually results from threats of violence AND requires the filing of a complaint with the police. Mrs. Roth scoffs at the idea: “What would that conversation even sound like: ‘We know you guys are dealing with stabbings and shootings, but stop everything: we have a cupcake situation’ ?” Read the entire story here. She’s had run-ins with other schools, too, it seems. It is suggested she is not diplomatic enough. But sometimes diplomacy isn’t enough when you are up against a stubborn, ignorant bureaucracy. Mrs. Roth has a lot of fight in her. She runs an organization called National Action Against Obesity. Go check it out.

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3. Want to join in the fight against junk food in schools? Consider becoming a part of Parents Against Junk Food, an activist/educational organization dedicated to improving nutrition in schools. From their mission statement: “We are devoted to eliminating junk food from our public school system. No sodas. No candy bars. No chips. No processed lunch or foods of minimal nutritional value. Let’s ask our public schools to feed both body and mind properly, to take seriously their role as guardians of our children’s health and welfare.”

Their website provides opportunities for you to join them, to take political action, and to learn more through suggested reading and relevant links. Perhaps the most poignant thing on their site is a small sidebar image of a glass of water with the arresting question: “Whatever happened to water fountains?

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4.  The final chapter of this post contains a couple of personal vignettes wherein medical doctors, sugar and kids all come together, to the detriment of the latter. In the first, I was speaking the other night to a friend who related to me a scene from his childhood. He was an asthmatic, and on one occasion he, and some other child patients, had been invited by a local hospital where they had been treated to a cake and ice cream party in their honor. Is this is not both infuriating and typical? Do you ever wonder if doctors get it at all?

How about this one. I frequently attend a church that has a children’s story as part of its weekly service  where all the little kids sit on the steps of the platform in the front of the church as an adult from the congregation tells them a story. I can recall on two mind blowing occasions when the story teller was a physician, on one occasion an obese male anesthesiologist and on the other an obese female general practitioner. Well, these are good, loving Christian people, both of them. I know them personally. They both told excellent stories to the children. But what happened at the end of their stories is what I will never forget. They handed out candy to the children. Folks, there is much work to be done. Weston Price said, “you teach, you teach, you teach.” That is what we are doing here. Help us spread the word. Re-tweet this post. I will re-tweet your posts in turn.

Let’s end with a relevant video from YouTube. We have just been talking about obese physicians handing out sugar to children. What kind of an example is that? Earlier we told you of MeMe Roth. Here she is discussing the issue of our new (and obese) Surgeon General. Can she set the proper example?

LEARN MORE!

The following books will facilitate your further study of this important subject. The more information you have, the more you can do for your own health and that of your loved ones!

How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor

Parents’ Nutrition Bible: A Guide to Raising Healthy Children/137

Raising Healthy Children in A Toxic World (Rodale Organic Style Book)

This is cross posted at FoodRenegade.com as part of Fight Back Friday!

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