My four year old son came home from school today with a small bottle of bright red water. The bottle came from a popular, prepackaged lunch item designed for kids, and the bottle was labeled as spring water. This was not any part of the lunch that I had sent my son to school with. I looked up the information online and found that it is spring water and the red color is from a flavor packet. The flavor packet has artificial sweeteners as well as red 40 and blue 1.
I don't understand how a lunch that is made for children and is marketed as "healthy" can contain red-dyed water with artificial sweeteners. What's wrong with kids just drinking water? Water is healthy, but red-dyed, artificially sweetened water is not good for anyone.
Concerned, I asked my son, "Did you drink the red water?",
and he replied, "yes".
I told my son, "Next time someone gives you red water, you say, 'no thank you.'"
To which he said, "No thank you."
The only way anyone can think this water is healthy would be on the premise that it's low-calorie for a flavored beverage. I think it's sad that there are so many overweight children that this is seen as a "healthy" alternative. I urge everyone to drink water of the clear, tasteless variety.
I would really love to use this story on my blog (that is still in creation), its one of the ones that just rang true to me (and I can talk about food as well as coping. "you say "no thank you""
ReplyDeleteNo, thank you.
for us and all our allergies, it just really simply gave an example of something we look out for every day. if you feel comfortable with that, let me know! thanks :
)
Nikki, yes, you can share it on your blog as long as you attribute it to Organic Grain-free Vegan by Jennifer Stewart and hyperlink it.
ReplyDelete