Thursday, April 11, 2013

Adults Need Nutrition Education

I stopped at Subway today between a meeting and my shift at the hospital. The lady in front of me blew my mind.

I noticed her when I walked in the door because the 2 year old she was with was very proud to show me his "chips." They were cheetos. She was clearly the grandma, but still. You're going to give your 2 year old grandson a whole bag of cheetos for lunch? Shut your mouth, Kelly, it's not your kid.

She sat him down in a booth behind the long line with his orange fingers and told him to sit quietly. Has she ever been around a 2 year old before? She turned her back to him to order and never looked back. He, of course, was pacing the booth seat and jumping up and down.

She ordered him the kids meal which is a tiny little 3 inch sub, a snack and a drink. When asked what kind of dressing she said mayo "on both sides of the bread." They globbed the mayo on one side of the sub and the other side with meat, because it was already on the sandwich. "Well, I wanted it on the bread but thats ok." The worker scraped it off and put another glob on the other side of the bread.

When asked if she wanted apple slices or a cookie she couldn't decide so she asked the little boy, who was now at her side jumping up and down. Of course he said cookie. What did you think he was going to say? And chocolate milk to drink.

This is why our kids are fat, America. It's because people like her let 2 year olds have cheetos, chocolate milk, mayo with some bread, and a cookie for lunch.

Now I'm not saying my son's grandparents don't give him cookies every now and then. They're grandparents. And I am not a perfect mother. Maybe that child never gets chocolate milk and this was a special treat. Ok. But then at least get him the apple slices.

She seemed completely oblivious to the choices that she was making and I think that's what frustrated me the most. Maybe it's just her generation, though. My step mom thinks fruit snacks count as a serving a fruit because they are made with real fruit juice, that fried mozzarella sticks are healthy because it's cheese and that's protein, and that baked potato chips are good for you because they don't have any trans-fats.

sigh

1 comment:

  1. My mother-in-law actually told me that Newton's Fruit Thins cookies were "nutritious." I forget what advertising ploy she used to validate her statement, but I just had to respond, "It's still a cookie." Better than Chips Ahoy? Sure. But hardly "nutritious."

    Oh, and I was also told that deep fried, salted green beans were a "good snack." They are a vegetable, duh. Silly me.

    ReplyDelete