Keeping junk food out of the house
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- March
- 18
What junk food do you keep out of the house specifically to keep it out of the stomachs of your little ones (or, perhaps, your own)?
Me, I try to keep chips of any sort out of the house. My son would eat corn chips for breakfast, lunch and dinner, if we let him.
I took him to a friend’s birthday party last summer and there were big bowls of Doritos, Cheetos and other junk food that’s perfectly acceptable at party time (hey, I’m a big proponent of the “It’s my birthday and I want to!” mindset). Rafael sat down at one of the tables and pulled the bowl of Doritos in front of him and started eating out of the bowl. I got him a plate and put some chips on it, but he pushed the plate where the bowl had been and grabbed the bowl again.
Did I mention he loves chips?
Markus, the little one, is not nearly as picky an eater as his big brother, so he’s pretty likely to accept any substitute I stick into his hands. For the time being, anyway — he’s hurtling toward the terrible twos, so who knows.
Others keep soda out. Sorry, Mommy and Daddy are too addicted to caffeinated sodas to do that. But we never let the little ones have soda. We’ve explained that it’s a “mommy and daddy drink.” I’m guessing that sooner or later we’re going to have to start keeping it out of the house.
Then, there’s ice cream. My mother-in-law eats healthier than anyone in the house, but ice cream is her junk food Achilles’ heel. Besides, right now, Rafael thinks that you get ice cream just on birthdays (Carvel ice cream cakes!), so it never occurs to him to ask for it. Markus likes the taste of ice cream, but it’s still too cold for him to enjoy too much of it.
There’s also candy — Starburst, Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, Twizzlers —that’s always marketed as “Fat Free!!!” but is filled to the brim with sugar, corn syrup and every other kind of ”-tose” that exists. We actually rarely have this in the house, but that’s mainly because Mommy has trouble resisisting them and she’s really trying to lose the baby weight. Eating a bag (or two) of jelly beans or Swedish fish or candy corn really isn’t going to achieve that goal.
Chocolate? Perish the thought. We buy mostly dark chocolate anyhow, which isn’t quite as bad for you as the sweeter stuff. And Rafael has grown to really like dark chocolate and he gets it every once in a while as a treat or reward. And, really, you’re not going to get mommy or daddy to banish chocolate from the house. Get real.
How about Lima beans?
OK, that last one wasn’t really a junk food, but geez, I hate Lima beans. Always have. Never have them in the house. Tracey, too.
Junk food, after all, is in the eye of the beholder. To us, at least, Lima beans count.
Wow. So I guess I have two junk foods I ban from the house!
Check out the new poll we set up in the right-hand side (under our voluminous bios!) and let us know what you ban from your house. You can even add your own answer!
And check out this really useful article I found on MSNBC.com, which dissects the upsides and downsides of many popular foods and offers reasonable alternatives to them. (For example, did you know that most granola bars on the market are glued together with high-fructose corn syrup? That kinda defeats the purpose, dontcha think? And how about pretzels? Turns out they “have one of the highest glycemic indexes of any food. In fact, they rank above ice cream and jelly beans in their ability to raise blood sugar.” Yikes!)
2001 photos by Vincent DiSalvio/The Journal News/LoHud.com
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on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 8:00 am by Amy Vernon.
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This post caught my eye even though I don’t have children. Some years ago I decided I was eating junk food for meals so I decided to kick the habit. I stopped buying any junk then, one day, realized I didn’t mind it that bad. Nowadays I do some chips or candy on occasion but I buy the small size so I don’t overdo. However, I have found no way to kick my Dr Pepper addiction.
As being a very busy realtor in Toronto usually I can`t avoid to buy junk foods as I don`t have time to have a proper lunch. What concerns my family however I try to be very conscious about what they are consuming and usually I try to find healthy recipes. The thing that I`m not leading very healthy lifestyle because I think that you can`t escape totally from our modern age`s bad effects but still I try to provide for my family the best.
Here is the thing. we allowed our children to go “wild”, as we would go to Costco and Sams Club and purchase those mega moxes (packed individually) of snacks. Cookies, chips, candy etc. This went on for a number of years, untile we looked in the mirror and noticed our own size (parents). We know we didn’t want this for our children so we’ve gone ahead and cut back. Mind-you we didn’t cut back on everything, since there’s now those healthier snacks.
when our daughters friends would come over..oohh the look in their eyes when they went into our “snack room”. Truly Kids-in-a-candy-store.
We’ve also cut back (almost don’t ever buy) pop anymore and I think it’s the one thing both my wife and daughters miss the most. But they’re slowly starting to grab a bottle of water as they would that can of pop.
Our next step on to work on “meal times” our eldest can be found grazing all hours of the night
Like her dad?
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