Saturday Morning Junk Food Commercials

Do you remember watching Saturday morning cartoons when you were a kid? The best thing about it sometimes was watching all of the different commercials for candies and cereal. Times have not changed much. Many parents still use the boob tube as a built in babysitter on Saturday morning. However unlike back when we were kids it is not so permissible diet wise to consume so many sugary foods. Yet these commercials play endlessly on Saturday mornings so your kids will bother you to eat some.

According to the Cleveland Health News most of the programming your kid's watch on Saturday morning is for foods that have lousy nutritional content. Researchers at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, (known as the Food Police) and student researchers the University of Minnesota studied a sample of 27.5 hours of show directed at pre-school and elementary school-aged children. They found four straight hours of what your kids could watch on Saturday morning was nothing more that food commercials. The programming sample came from the major networks so it is likely that they were watching what every kid in America watches on a Saturday morning. Talk abuts brain washing!

In fact, they found that 49 percent of the 4 hours of advertising was for food, and that 91 percent of food ads were for foods or beverages high in fat, sodium, or added sugars, or low in nutrients. These included advertisements for everything from potato chips to dessert items to soups.
Of the 281 food ads included in the sample, 59 percent were for products with higher levels of added sugar. One in five of the foods advertised had higher total fat content, levels of saturated plus trans fat, and sodium. As you may have guessed a lot of these ads were for take out food places like MacDonald's, Taco Bell and the like.
The food police concluded that this advertising mainly promoted unhealthy nutrition and that there were next to no ads marketing fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy products or whole grains. This of course may solve the mystery as to why our children seem to be so out of it when it comes to eating healthy food and so wildly desirous of junk foods, potato chips, creamy foods and snack foods.

One of the things that are sad about all of this is that it is just as easy to make an apple look 'sexy' to a child, as it is a Big Mac. The problem is that there is no money or motivation to make health foods look good to your kids on television. Psychologically these junk food ads can do a lot of damage as they train your kids to desire the wrong types of foods. They create cravings where they need not exist and once your kid gets the food they then create physical cravings for sugar and fat as well. Seeing the imagery for the food is what initiates the whole toxic cycle in the first place. Perhaps in Canada they have the right idea by getting these commercials banned in the first place.

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Top Ten Foods To Choose

If you are concerned about nutrition, and of course you are because you are a mother then you will want feed your kids the foods that are most packed with vitamins yet at the same time won't cause your kids to gain weight. Best of all the foods on this list pack the most punch when it comes to vitamins and enriching your child's diet.

Maximize your nutrition and minimize your waistline by eating hose

1. Broccoli – Contains lots of vitamin C, carotenoids*, and folic acid (needed to metabolize iron). I make a soup with pureed broccoli and add lots of cheddar cheese so the kids like it.

2. Beans – Inexpensive, low in fat, and rich in protein, iron, folic acid, and fiber. Choose garbanzo, pinto, black, Navy, kidney or lentils. Eat them as a side dish or snack, in a tortilla with salsa, or in a soup. I mix them in Taco hamburger mix so my kids get the benefits. They think they are eating junk food but they are night.

3. Cantaloupe – A quarter of this delicious melon supplies almost as much vitamin A and C as most people need in an entire day. You can make a great shake with a touch of milk, ice and cubes of cantaloupe whipped up in a blender.

4. Fat-free (skim) or low-fat (1% but not 2%) milk – AN excellent source of calcium, vitamins and protein with little or no artery-clogging saturated fat and cholesterol. (Soymilk can have just as many nutrients.) I add chocolate powder with vitamins, such as Nesquik to boost the nutritional quotient higher.

5. Oranges – Rich in vitamin C, folic acid, and fiber. Freeze mandarin segments with grapes for a special treat.

6. Salmon – The omega-3 fats in fish, especially fatty fresh fish like salmon, swordfish, and rainbow trout, can help reduce the risk of sudden-death heart attacks.

7. Spinach, Kale, Collard Greens – load with vitamin C, carotenoids, fiber and calcium that your body can actually absorb. I admit this is harder to get the kids to eat. Try adding salt and vinegar to steamed versions.

8. Sweet Potatoes – They’re loaded with carotenoids, vitamin C, potassium, and fiber. Mix in unsweetened applesauce or crushed pineapple for extra moisture and sweetness.

9. 100% Whole-Grain Bread – It’s higher in fiber and about a dozen vitamins and minerals than enriched while bread or “wheat” bread. Look for whole-grain crackers that have the word “whole” in the first ingredient on the nutrition label.

10. Pineapple – Contains plenty of Vitamin A, fiber and an enzyme that breaks down foods efficiently for digestion. Mix it with yogurt if your child finds the taste of it too be too tart. I also bake it into cakes and muffins.

Stick to these foods and not only will you have a kid that looks less like a couch potato but you will be leaner and meaner yourself.

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