Boulder, CO to stop selling ice cream at pools and parks

[Just reading posts]

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- Boulder residents will no longer be able to cool off with an ice cream cone by the pool because the city has discontinued the sweet treat as a vending option at all Parks and Recreation facilities. The city dropped ice cream cones, bars and sandwiches in an effort to cut down on sugary, unhealthy snacks, The Daily Camera reported. City-run facilities can only sell treats that satisfy a series of nutritional standards, meaning chips and other junk food also left snack stands this year.

The change hasn't been welcomed by everyone. Andrew Gafford, 8, said he has always spent his summers enjoying a Neapolitan ice cream sandwich at the pool. "I'll get over it, but then it brings back a lot of memories of me getting ice cream sandwiches," Andrew said. "Like this one time, when I was eating one very slowly, so it melted all over me. It makes me feel sad to say."

In a letter to the editor, which he wrote with the editorial guidance of an adult and his 6-year-old brother Thomas, Andrew said new restrictions take away teachable moments. "Boulder can't tell the parents what to do," he said, "because the parents are doing a good job of helping us grow up and telling us the rules. I say leave it up to the moms, the grandparents, the great-grandparents."

Boulder District Services Manager Alison Rhodes said the aim is to give kids healthy choices, but that all facilities allow outside food to be brought in - including ice cream.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ICE_CREAM_BAN_COOL-?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-07-01-14-55-46

I scream.
You scream.
We all scream.
For ice cream!

Spoilsports.

[Straw Man]

1. I love this part ...

Boulder District Services Manager Alison Rhodes said the aim is to give kids healthy choices, but that all facilities allow outside food to be brought in - including ice cream.

Because ice cream travels so well, y'know ...

[Just reading posts]

3. Especially when it's in the upper 90's.

[JHB]

5. Depends on the setup...

...and whether there's a convenient place for an ice cream truck to plant itself.

[yeoman6987]

2. This is rotten

So glad I'm not a kid today. No fun whatsoever. Good grief not even a cupcake is allowed at schools.

[Just reading posts]

11. A cupcake? Horrors! Can't let them anywhere near one!

After all...it's for the children.

[yeoman6987]

19. I would not doubt that these stupid idiots end up making our country even fatter

They can't even teach kids about moderation. They are saying none. Idiots!!

[Odin2005]

54. The insane culture of food moralism in this country is ridiculous.

[yeoman6987]

58. 100 percent agree

[Drahthaardogs]

23. It is the People's Republic of Boulder

I would not read too much into it.

[marybourg]

33. I'm sorry to break this to y'all,

but cupcakes and other treats in school are a relatively recent development. When I went to school in the 1940's and '50's the only food in school was a reasonably healthy institutional-style lunch prepared in the school kitchen and served in the lunchroom to those children who didn't go home for lunch to a reasonably healthy meal prepared at home by their moms.

There were no birthday treats in school, no selling of food to raise money, no sweet treats to be bought in the cafeteria and certainly no vending machines. And - looking back at my 5th grade class picture, little to no obesity. Sweet treats, if there were any such in our lives, were provided at home after school and on special occasions, at our parents' option.

Yeah, life was really rough in the old days.

[yeoman6987]

34. I had no idea about that. I guess it makes my outrage silly.

That's what I love about DU....perspective and reality of things.

[JanMichael]

47. I finished HS in 1986 (so school from 1974-86) and you are correct.

The food (I was in a public school K-12) was prepared by the cafeteria staff not like today where it is usually prepackaged garbage. The food wasn't great by any means (but filling and not too much sugar) but there was always one vegetable (usually green beans or cabbage), some fruit (most likely canned but still fruit), some starch (bread, potato, etc), a meat (I wasn't a vegetarian back then), sometimes casseroles, and a milk, water(in a glass) or OJ. We occasionally had those apple crumble deserts and sometimes pudding. It was decent institutional grub.

But cupcakes? The Lunch Lady would have kicked our asses if we asked for a cupcake.

We did do a paper drive but no constant selling of crap or begging for donations. I think in HS we had a vending machine for sodas but it was usually broken (maybe on purpose?).

And yes it was sooooo tough...

[Kingofalldems]

49. Exactly. And no soda machines or leaving school

to head for McDonald's.

[Frustratedlady]

51. Same here. Delicious meals for lunch with homemade rolls/cornbread and absolutely no vending...

machines. I remember one girl who brought a grocery bag of popcorn with fudge topping to school and we all loved it...might have been 4th grade.

We had no pop at home except during special summer days like July 4th. Mom did bake desserts each day, but we were a large family and cleaned them up pretty quickly. She also made 3 full meals/day with a hearty breakfast. She almost never had a meal with sandwiches unless we had homemade soup to go with it. We did have whole milk with thick cream, but we were also active, which I think is a big difference to today.

I agree, life was rough in those days.

[Jim Beard]

62. Same here, no candy or coke machines and could not leave the school

at noon to go to the store.

[mainer]

4. So what's left if you toss out chips, ice cream, and hot dogs ...

carrot sticks?

Ice cream isn't the worst of their junk food problems. At least it includes protein and calcium. I'd much rather serve my kids ice cream than a whole host of fried foods.

[TransitJohn]

7. Gluten-free carrot sticks, you bet!

[rurallib]

35. Apples, oranges, bananas maybe?

fruit smoothies perhaps?

[EllieBC]

36. Treats at the park or pool are not evil.

Kids can have plenty of fruit and still have a treat at the pool.

[mainer]

37. Ice cream and sherbets aren't that different from fruit smoothies

And consuming gelato never seemed to hurt the Italians.

[Yo_Mama]

48. Fruit smoothies are often unhealthier than ice cream - more sugar, less nutrition.

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/milkshakes-vs-smoothies.html

I can see why kids would want a cold treat on a hot summer day.

[Odin2005]

55. Fruit is not as healthy as people think, it's full of sugar.

Fat doesn't make you fat, sugar does.

[Ex Lurker]

6. I used to be a lifeguard

The highlight of my day was when I could go sit under the A/C for 15 minutes and eat a banana fudgesicle. I would daydream about it.

[DawgHouse]

60. I have searched high and low for a banana fudgesicle in Orlando.

Seems they are as elusive as Bigfoot.

[scscholar]

8. Glad to see at least one city finally start looking out for us (ntxt)

[Throd]

10. Is that their job?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

15. Forgot the sarcasm smiley? n/t

[Bucky]

9. Beyond Nanny-state. This is more like ninny-state

Anyway, it ain't the ice cream fattening the kids up. It's the overly salted corn chips. Also, the lack of exercise, but presumedly the kids going to the swimming pool has that angle covered.

[B2G]

12. I'm so glad I grew up in the 60s

And my kids did before all of this nonsense started.

WTF is childhood turning into?

[Warren DeMontague]

22. When I was a kid, we swam in a lake, and we didn't have "vending facilities" at all.

The article says, people can still bring in their own ice cream.

So, big efffin' deal.

It's probably cheaper that way, too.

[malthaussen]

13. They should just flouridate it.

-- Mal

[Buns_of_Fire]

14. I know when *I* go to a recreational facility, the first thing I look for

is the vending machine that sells Tofu Yummies™ and frozen carrot sticks! Now THEM'S good eatin'!

We must Slurp Shame these little rugrats so they'll grow up to be properly repressed adults, just like us.

[jmowreader]

16. How does an 8-year-old kid have "a lot of memories" to reminisce about?

[Aerows]

24. I'm glad I'm not the only one

that noticed that and thought, huh?

[PufPuf23]

39. I looked at the link expecting to see the onion because of

the topic and the interview was with an 8 year old.

[Silver_Witch]

31. He has a memory. Why do adults acts like child are not people?

My grandson frequently talks about things we did two, three or four years ago. Those are memories! Children have feelings, thoughts and yes memories.

[DawgHouse]

61. On my son's fourth birthday, we sadly found our family cat dead.

He said, very solemnly, "This is the worst birthday I've ever had."

[REP]

43. His mommy has lots of memories to tell him to reminisce about

Poor mommy won't have any more memories of her child covered in melted ice cream.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. Lame.

[Nevernose]

18. Because THAT is the cause of obesity

Nothing else to look at.

I bet this started with someone who doesn't like fat people seeing a fat kid eating ice cream at the park.

[DonRedwood]

20. A Good Humor ice cream sandwich 160 calories-a Drumstick is 290

That puts an ice cream sandwich at 10% of a 10 year old boy's minimum calories of 1600--girls need 1400 minimum... Not horrible. But a Drumstick gets awfully close to that 20% mark--and there are more that go much higher.

Since they already have frozen treat machines I'd bet they'll be getting filled up with frozen fruit juice treats, frozen yogurt and maybe even chocolate covered bananas.

When your job is to provide a safe place for kids where the goal is teaching activity and exercise, maybe it's ok to not have nestle advertising treats so calorie-filled they are over ten percent of an ADULT's calorie intake.

[smirkymonkey]

21. Sad what this world is becoming.

This is so ridiculous it's almost laughable.

[gollygee]

25. I get tired of vending machines with snacks everywhere

Why is every outing an opportunity to market junk to my kids? I don't see a problem with taking away a marketing opportunity for food corporations. People can bring their own snacks.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

45. If you don't want your kids to eat the stuff

then don't let them eat it.

[rug]

26. Mr. Softee to the rescue!

[JanMichael]

27. if they said they did because they were sick of sticky shit everwhere i'd support it.

messy liitle monsters getting their grubby sugar sticky paws over everything is not cool.

but for health reasons? since they drop or smear onto their faces and hands and clothes 80% of most cones that sounds dubious. thry do not consume all that much.

[Warpy]

28. The world would be so much nicer without these nasty Puritan killjoys

issuing fatwas against things like an ice cream at a park on a hot day because they don't like sugar. It's always for our own good, too, haven't you noticed? as they completely wreck enjoyment and suck all the oxygen out of the air.

An ice cream in the park won't hurt anyone, not even a kid.

[meow2u3]

32. I'm with you on this sentiment

I'm also sick of those puritan spoilsports set out to ruin people's fun because of their hangups. Just because they don't like tasty treats doesn't mean they can shove their so-called healthy lifestyle down the throats of an entire city.

[Warren DeMontague]

46. See, but for some people being a puritan killjoy is the only joy they get.

witness the people in perpetual temper tantrum mode over adults smoking legal marijuana or looking at naked people on cable tv or the intertubes.

why do you want to kill the joy of the puritan killjoys, puritan killjoy?

[philosslayer]

50. Yes, conservatives somehow know how to ruin everything.

[Odin2005]

53. This kind of puritanical mindset is why a lot of diet attempts fail, too.

Eating junk food is seen as some kind of sin and people think they have to completely eliminate all sugary and fattening food out of their diet. Then they can't keep the highly restrictive diet full of tasteless food up, quit, and hate themselves and think they are bad people. This is why a lot of us who struggle with out weight end up in cycles of self-hating depression.

[Warpy]

57. Well, diets are doomed to failure, period, even for people who stay on them long term

because we're programmed to keep our fat stores up. Diets have to get more and more Spartan in order to maintain ideal weight once one has starved down to it.

If it were a simple matter of calories in/calories out, no one would be fat.

However, deficiency diets have even more failure built in since there are so many foods people are surrounded by that they're forbidden to eat. Eventually they do crack and binge like crazy, hate themselves for it, and go on an even more ridiculous deficiency diet.

[Silver_Witch]

29. Silly silly, silly...

I like the way an 8 year old with the help of his sicx year old brother is smarter than Boulder officials. There is hope for the world!

[rainy]

30. To all the bs about nanny state etc. we are suppose to be teaching good healthy eating habits

to our children. The US Kids eat horribly. School lunches and breakfasts are pure CRAP. Parents throw their hands up and give up in this crap consuming country. It's shameful how and what we feed our kids and adults shouldn't be complacent. Other civilized educated smart countries don't feed their kids this junk.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

44. School lunches are crap?

They're pretty much regulated by the federal government under Michelle Obama's healthy eating initiative, so I doubt they're crap.

Of course, many kids throw them in the trash rather than eating them.

[Odin2005]

56. Kids throw them in the trash because they are disgusting tasteless garbage.

[mainer]

38. Everywhere I go in Italy, Italians are eating gelato

Oh those poor, unhealthy Italians. Eating ice cream for pleasure. Along with the wine, olive oil, and pasta, it's clearly hurting them.

[Just reading posts]

40. Great. Now I want to go to Italy again.

There is a cool trip offered by the adventure travel company I use that goes from Venice to Budapest.

Hmmmm.......

[mainer]

41. We're going again in September, for a wedding.

On the island of Elba!

Hope you get to go on your trip from Venice to Budapest. Sounds spectacular.

[Just reading posts]

42. Nice!

Hope you get to go on your trip from Venice to Budapest. Sounds spectacular.

I'm seriously considering it. I've done a couple of trips with G Adventures, and they both went really well.

[Odin2005]

52. When did Michael Bloomberg become mayor of Boulder?

Fuck this authoritarian crap.

[Rex]

59. I know some guys that can help out.