Nov 17 2008
9 Foods You Shouldn’t Serve Your Kids and Why
I’ve seen articles like this one a hundred times. The first few times I saw it, I just ignored it. But then when the same foods were making the list each time from different sources with different information, I sat up and paid attention. These are nine foods you will never see in my home and a simple reason for why.
Kid Cuisine Meals - Too much sodium. Like 200mg more than an average meal should contain. And watch your kids try to pour salt on their fries or some other aspect, and the numbers continue to rise. Even without allowing them the use of salt at the table, the meal is far to high in sodium.
Pepperidge Farm Gold Fish Crackers - This one was harder to cut out of our diet, because the kids love these little fishies. Another sodium outcast with more than 250mg of sodium per serving which is really just a handful. There are much healthier snacks out there, including things like pretzels and baked chips. Look into other options or look into making your own crackers at home. You can control the sodium.
Kudo’s Chocolate Chip Granola Bars - Sounds healthy doesn’t it? But they are loaded with sugar. Give one to your kids and watch as they become more alert, sometimes hyper and then crash about a half hour to hour later. Seriously stick to regular granola bars.
Betty Crocker Fruit By The Foot - Another sugar maxed item. One serving (one little roll up) is pretty high in sugar and there is really no nutritional benefit from the item. Sliced up apples or real fruit juice would be better. Oh, and those gushers and fruit roll ups are not any better at all. Go to Trader Joes and get some of their fruit leather - it tastes amazing and it’s REAL fruit. Yummy!
Campbell’s Soup - The article actually called out the Cars Souper Shapes Condensed Soup - but I am here to tell you that most Campbell’s soup is LOADED with sodium. I’ve known that for years, long before the movie cars ever came out. 580mg of Sodium PER SERVING. Can you handle that? Do you really want your kids to ingest that much sodium in one sitting? Yikes!
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - This was nearly impossible to cut out of our diets. My other half is seriously addicted to the .99 boxes of powdered cardboard … er I mean cheese. The article specifically calls out the Scooby Doo kind but let me tell you, it’s ALL bad. The sodium content in the pasta is over 100% of that recommended for such a meal. Again, I know it’s an easy fix, but wouldn’t it just be better to choose something else for dinner? Also, have you ever tried Rice and Cheese? It’s the same concept as Mac and Cheese, but made from scratch and actually tastes really good!
Oscar Mayer Lunchables - Again the original article pointed out the Mini Tacos meal in particular, but I have read the labels on every one of those. A lunchable has not entered by home since 2004 and I plan to keep it that way. You can provide your kids with a home-made lunchable and control what goes into the food. Oh, and the reason for the mini taco’s pick? 790mgs of sodium. Yeah. They are all high in sodium - avoid! Oh, and don’t you love how in the photograph, they show grapes, like those are included or something - yeah most parents do not send grapes with their child’s lunchable. I will assure you of that after countless hours spent in an elementary school cafeteria with the children.
Sunny Delight - It pains me to add this onto the list, because my kids will actually drink this, even though they don’t like orange juice. The problem is, it’s like serving them orange flavored sugar. 27g <–GRAMS of sugar per glass. Can you imagine starting your day off with that much sugar? You’ll be tired before noon!
Earth’s Best Organic Mini Waffles -They sound good, right? Organic - earth’s best - all sounds so nice and wonderful and they are in the whole grain department - the problem is the calories from fat. Each serving is four of those little mini waffles, and they are packed with the bad fat and calories. Eat oatmeal. My kids do.
There are certainly many more I can add to this list, and will do some others in a few weeks, but for now - this is a great place to start. Check and be sure you are not purchasing any of these foods for your kids. Read labels and pay attention to sugar and sodium contents. Those are the first two things to look at - then start watching fat, calories and nutritional value. Why buy something if there is no value to it?
Here is the original article if you would like to see it.
oh MAN, you’ve got a whole lot of my kids’ favorites in that list!
Great article. Most of those things have been banned from our home as well, but we haven’t been able to get the frozen waffles out. And we haven’t even been using the “organic” ones. I use to be ambitious enough to make my own healthy waffles ahead of time and freeze them. They work just as well as the store bought ones and are much healthier.
I have to agree with you on the Sunny D. Corn Syrup is like the second or third ingredient on the list. I would never serve that to my Godchildren no matter how cheap it is.
Uh Oh!! Now what the heck am I going to feed my son? LOL. Wow, that list sure blew his diet - being the picky eater that he is. Time to look for healthier alternatives. Thanks for sharing!
Great list of pseudo-foods. My kids have been eying the Lunchables lately for some reason, and I have no idea why because they have NEVER eaten them. I keep telling them, “It doesn’t even taste like real food.”
The only thing on the list that we do buy are Goldfish crackers. The really sad thing is that the generic brand called Whales (blue box) have probably three times as much salt as Goldfish. We bought a box one time, and they literally parched my boys’ mouths. I could have poured salt directly on their tongues and not gotten a worse reaction.
Wow thank you very much for the heads up! My grand babies eat quite a few of these, I am going to have my daughter look at this. Wow!
Yeah, all those are SO unhealthy!!
Sugar and additives are to blame!
Great article:)
Wow, i didn’t know that. Thanks for the post!
I don’t know what I would do if my boys didn’t like oatmeal! Here is something I have done with them from when they started eating whole foods - mix oatmeal with yogurt. I get generic yogurt and just mix a bit of quick oats into it and give it to them cold - they love the extra texture.
I think it is great that households are becoming more informed about their food but, why aren’t there any suggestions for alternatives to these products. I am an advocate of cooking from scratch and I do cook 99% of our meals from scratch. I do use canned cream of mushroom soup for an occasional casserole. I also use box mac and cheese for lunches (we homeschool) a couple times a month so I would love an alternative to these two products that I use. As far as goldfish crackers there are wonderful recipes on the web that taste way better. My kids love homemade goldfish crackers plus they get to choose the shapes always a plus. Other than that great article I am happy to see people getting control on what they are feeding their families.
I can’t drink Sunny D. For the most part, I drink diet soda (almost any flavor, I’m not picky) and milk, though on occasion I’ve been known to enjoy drinks that are loaded with sugar and calories, such as Vault, but Sunny D is simply too much.
I’m surprised you didn’t put any breakfast cereals on the list. Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Puffs are almost pure sugar.
The only problem with eating healthier food is that it’s often more expensive. Sure, Kid Cuisine and Lunchables are way overpriced, but for a few years my family pretty much lived on Campbell’s Soup, Macaroni and Cheese, and Ramen just because we couldn’t afford much else and we didn’t want to eat nothing but rice all the time.
Good list. It all points to a general principle that we should remember: real foods (where you use actual foods, and put them together yourself, or foods in their natural form) are almost always healthier than prepared foods.
One recent find really disturbed me. I bought some Beech Nut organic rice cereal with fruit for my baby a couple of months ago, and after I got it home I realized it was loaded with high fructose corn syrup. I try not to let him have even regular table sugar, but HFCS is the worst kind of sugar available. And fruit is already sweet… shouldn’t need sugar added. Adding it to a food labeled “organic” is at least a little misleading, because it implies that it is natural and healthy.
Mac and cheese is easy and quick to make from scratch, and you can control the levels of salt and fat.
A lot of these things are really dreadful - full of chemicals and preservatives.
My nieces used to like sunny delight as well - we’ve switched them onto half-orange juice/half-water. You could also look for sugar-free squash - easy and cheap - just dilute with water.
Ouch! Nine out of nine you just listed my diet in detail. I probaly need to look at what sodium intake I have in my own diet before I start beating my kids with a large salt shaker. Thanks!
Great article! I’ve banned all of those items too BUT I do feed my son the waffles…I’m rethinking that now! Thanks for the info!
Oh boy, there are 5 things on here my kids eat pretty regularly. I”m such a bad mom. Campbell’s soup, who’d of thought they were one of the worst of the culprits. My son (age 10) has read your post with me and has now banned these himself from his diet. Thank you!!
Wow! Thanks for the post. I need to start paying more attention to the labels. My kids eat just about everything on your list.
Thanks for the tips! We only have these type of items on very special occasions and those aren’t that often!