Dear American Consumers: Please Don’t Start Eating Healthfully. Sincerely, the Food Industry

[PDJane]

1. My offspring headed to Denver for a debate thing at one point;

They were welcomed and treated well. They took the kids on a tour of the countryside. Upon hitting a roadside produce stand, the kids convinced the driver to stop. They cleaned the guy out! There wasn't even a parsnip left! The owners of the three stalls they hit that day were more than pleased. They also bought free-range eggs at one stall; cooked them on a hot plate. In fact, the stall owners convinced the driver to bring them back a couple of times while they were there, since these kids obviously were happy to eat the stuff that the stalls had for sale; melons, veggies, squash, tomatoes, any fruit, peas and beans....one was amazed to see the kids splitting peas and eating them out of the shell, raw. When he asked where the kids came from and was told Canada, he stated "Man, these kids must eat less junk food than we do down here; I've never seen the like."

The kids informed me, when they returned, that if it hadn't been for the stalls and the hotel salad bar, they'd not have seen anything green for the entire trip.

The pop consumption is growing, but it's still a little less than down there, and a lot of the kids who know how much sugar is in the stuff have stopped drinking it on a regular basis.

Chips are a bit different here, too. We don't soak them in tallow first. *shrug* We're getting a bit worse at screening this stuff out, though. Current administration likes big ag a bit too much.

The problem here is, as there, the amount of money that these people bring to bear on the whole effort of selling stuff that isn't too great for you.