Why Can't Foods (And I) Have It All!?: The New Trend in Creating Better Foods

My kids are particularly picky in what they will and won't eat! They have every food allergy possible and prescribe to the notion that foods shouldn't touch, shouldn't be the wrong color, and hopefully should be cooked by someone wearing a logo...

As a terribly overworked, overwrought mom, I constantly wish that foods had everything you need to keep your family healthy in it...And why can't they? Why can't foods have fiber, calcium, vitamin D, amino acids, everything in something they'll already eat like juice or chips? Even I could benefit from a heck of a lot more fiber than I get in the foods I eat!

An article in December 12th's Globe and Mail highlighted the dilemma of whether granola bars are health food or junk food. In fact, the article states that a peanut butter Nature Valley granola bar has as many calories, grams of fat, and 4 times as much sodium as a Kit Kat bar. Yet, watching a commercial for Nature Valley you'd think that you were eating an extremely healthy food. Unbelievable!

But there is a trend in packaged foods that to me seems like a step in the right direction for manufacturers. Instead of marketing products like soda and candy - high in fructose corn syrup and food coloring - some manufacturers are finding ways to create food products that are made from simple, if healthy ingredients that are similarly tasty for both grown-ups and kids.

A great example that we've found in Canada is a juice box - FruitPlus by Sun-Rype - that my 3 year old loves. It is not only fruit juice - apple, grape, pear, raspberry, orange juice - but also has carrot, celeriac, lettuce, beet, parsley, watercress, and spinach. Now that's a juice! And my 3 year old is known the wiser!

My kids also inhale noodles but I got sick of their eating plain white noodles lunch after lunch with very little nutritional value other than carbs. So I searched for a noodle that offered something more! I found Catelli Smart Pasta that has 8 grams of fiber added! How hard could that be!

My son, the ultra cool preteen, has become quite the soda guzzler over the last few years. And the damage those daily sodas have wrecked on his teeth became apparent at his last dentist's appointment! I vowed that day that fructose corn syrup was banned from our house! That also resulted in a very disappointed young guy! After several weeks of sulking, I thought there must be an alternative to traditional sodas and I found it! It is a combination selzer water and fruit juices sold under the President's Choice label here in Canada, sold in silvery energy drink style cans...perfect for an image conscious young person! No added sugar and fruit juice to boot! Super

I realize that these products are Canadian but I'm sure their counterparts must exist in the U.S. too. More food manufacturers have to think holistically about what ingredients they strip away and add into their products. If a food company could create a whole line of foods that had all of the crucial ingredients that could make kids as healthy as possible while still enticing them with good taste, pretty colors and all the logos they can stand! How hard can that be!!