Food-related News for Children

I’ve seen a shocking number of happy people this week, and I think we can chalk it up to a terribly long election cycle that is about to end and the coming of Halloween. The New York Times has posted an article on electric food — yes, folks, it’s wired and it lights up – which I’ll have to pass on, but the malted milk ball noodle monster on the same page is actually something my 7-year-old could get into.

However, electric cakes wasn’t what drew me to the NYT website… it was information that runs tangential to a nasty culinary habit that my entire family has. We salt everything. And evidently, researchers suspect that it is the salt loaded in our diets today that is causing a huge rise in kidney stones among children.

I’m not sure what to say about more food-related bad news. We Americans are busy and stressed out to the max, and as our society’s virtual non-response to the trends in obesity shows, the majority of us are married to our food habits. Oi, vey. I just forced daily vitamins on my daughter to address the recent changes in calcium recommendations. Prying the salt shaker out of her hands will take some creativity. Thank goodness she likes grapes.

While we’re on the food subject, please do alert your patients and neighbors that some Chinese-produced candies have made it into the US. The FDA is warning consumers not to consume White Rabbit Creamy Candy or Koala's March Crème filled Cookies because they may contain melamine. Hat tip to Moms Rising for the news and supplying product images. I haven’t seen these in the grocery store chains, but I have spied both of them in Asian markets around Atlanta.

That’s all for me. Here’s wishing everyone a spooktacular end of the week. And whatever you do, take some time to go vote!