Like many families, we took our kids Trick or Treating last night for Halloween.
The rule in our house is that a few pieces can be saved at the end of the evening with the rest going to the dentist who will buy them for a dollar per pound.
This is not the same dentist, by the way, as the one I wrote about who gave me a gift certificate to Dunkin Donuts as a thank you for referral business, in case you were wondering.
To me, Halloween offers parents an opportunity to teach kids balance when it comes to handling the constant onslaught of junk food that surrounds them in our processed food addicted culture.
Allowing them to enjoy a favorite treat but encouraging them not to overindulge and embrace moderation can prove a helpful life lesson once they are away from a home that serves nourishing meals and they are in charge of making decisions about what they will eat each and every day.
Who would have thought that another lesson in the advertising tricks of Big Food would also come our way on Halloween night?
As it turns out, my kids also received bags of chips instead of candy from some of the homes they visited.
As my kids were going through the spoils at the end of the night, one of them inquired as to why one of the bags of chips was labeled “Wise” when the ingredients were most definitely not.
How indeed?
The ingredients on this Wise brand bag of plain potato chips contained the following:
Potatoes, vegetable oil (one or more of: corn, cottonseed, sunflower, soybean, or canola oil), salt.
First of all, Â the oils listed are all polyunsaturated. Â These delicate oils are severely damaged and rendered toxic when you cook them at the high temperatures required to fry potato chips.
In addition, frying of any starch creates acrylamide, a carcinogen that can be very dangerous to health when consumed in the high levels of the typical American diet loaded with refined carbohydrates.
Not a whole lot that is Wise about those chips at all, is there?
I nodded and told my kids that this observation was brilliant and right on. Â Just because a product is labeled natural or wise doesn’t make it so.
Warning to Big Food: Â The next generation is on to you. Â They won’t be as trusting and swallow your misleading marketing lingo hook, line, and sinker like the Baby Boomers. Â Your days of market dominance are numbered.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
great post! we don’t celebrate Halloween, but we do go to our church’s Fall Festival where candy and junk is prevalent. we all had a bite of a candy bar out of curiosity to see if we’d like it, since we haven’t had it in so long and we all were practically gagging on how sweet it was – there was practically no flavor, just extreme sugar is all we could taste. blah! our real food desserts are SO MUCH better – full of flavor with just the right amount of natural sweetness.
Yes, and many cereals are as well. (Carcinogenic)
Wow…I knew that potato chips are extreamly unhealthy…not to mention NASTY…but carcinogenic!? Yikes!
I remember Dr. Robert Atkins not too long ago before his tragic death, was laughed at and ridiculed because of the diet he promoted. He said back then to eliminate the refined simple carbohydrates and stay away from low fat or fat free foods. As a heart surgeon, he was bold enough to say that FAT is NOT bad for you, it’s the sugar and simple carbs that are.
Although potato chips are among my favorite foods and Wise was one of my favorite brands, I now stay away from them because of the health risks involved. We are raising my 7 year old grandson and he really doesn’t like candy and we usually wind up throwing out most and sometimes all of the candy he gets for Halloween or other holidays. He also would rather wait till we get home so that I could cook him a REAL cheeseburger, topped with my homemade lacto-fermented ketchup rather than stop at McDonald’s or Burger King for a burger topped with high fructose corn syrup laden ketchup, Slow, but sure, we are teaching our kids right and it’s websites like this that make it easier. Sarah, I read a lot of your articles and articles by Kelly the Kitchen Kop, the Weston A. Price Foundation, etc… not only to my husband, but to my grandson as well. He is learning about REAL food and is learning to make healthy choices. Thanks so much for your valuable information.
My mother was a sugar tyrant growing up so she would pay us 5 cents per piece of candy! One year I made 40 dollars which frightening enough means I had something like 800 pieces. We were allowed to have maybe a handful of the candy and it all got thrown out the next day. She must have been doing something right because neither I nor any of my sisters have ever had a cavity and I can’t speak for my siblings but I had awful oral hygiene habits growing up. Thinking about it now, most of my childhood friends would still be eating their Halloween candy a month or two later on TOP of whatever other desserts their parents let them have after dinner. 40 dollars seems like a lot of money for a kid, but she probably saved hundreds more since we only ever went to the dentist for cleanings and braces.
This was in the nineties so some of us first wave of “real food” progeny are already passing these principals down to our kids!
What a great mom!
Well I just learned some things that I didn’t know so thanks!
Health Lessons Come in Strange Places – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/mMvkHIcj
I grew up and went to school in Peru until I was 14 and moved to the states (to be with my dad who had been here since ’93) one of my old teachers in Peru once asked “why are you (the students) here? why learn?” and of course many of us joked around “our parents won’t let us stay home!”, etc, as we were all around 11 at the time. After a while the teacher simply said “you learn, so others can’t lie to you.” and it’s stayed with me ever since.
Just think about all the lies that many people swallow simply because they don’t know any better and haven’t looked into the matter. Food and medicine are two of the biggest, we trust and believe that whole-grains and low-fat foods are healthy because we’re told we are and we haven’t felt the inclination to research it. Almost every person that does, realizes the deceit and acts accordingly to stop consuming these foods (well, sometimes, but I’ve found most will decrease their exposure at least) and it can sometimes move them to wonder “what else am I being lied about?” I certainly know that was the case with me.
It seems your kids are already realizing that marketing is composed of half-truths and disguises, and also some flat-out lies. Learn them well so they can’t be lied to.
I love that “You learn, so others can’t lie to you”. That is fantastic. Thanks for sharing that quote!
I also started digging deeper the more truths I learned and even though preparing food for my family takes longer and more care is required, I wouldn’t be able to go back to the old quick, cheap and easy route. Not worth it.
post not poast. you can tell I was up LATE…lol.
In my neighborhood, many a family gave out tricks in lieu of treats. We gave out playing cards, another Halloween pencils, and some houses, glow sticks! Granted most of these “tricks” are Chinese made, so that’s another fish to fry.
My favorite as a kid was money. One neighbor let us take a handful of coins…
Great observations, your ending to this poast gave me chills. As usual…I know my boys will be all too knowledgable by the time they can comprehend food beyond pleasure {they are 4 and 2}…
Big Food is going down. I hope my lil corner of blogosphere helps with that in some way as well…