I know, I know. More soon, I promise.
On another note...
Is this for real? Hilarious! Only in America.... In all fairness, the page no longer exists on that site. Maybe it didn't sell well.
Unexcused Absences
March 30, 2007
New Blog from Meal Makeover Moms
March 26, 2007
Janice Newell Bissex and Liz Weiss, the women behind Meal Makeover Moms (pictured right), have launched a new blog.
Give it a visit! The duo are full of good ideas.
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"Healthy Dining" Site Debuts Today
March 14, 2007
Today the National Restaurant Association launches the new Healthy Dining web site, which is aimed at helping Americans make healthier restaurant choices. If you watch daytime TV or read a newspaper, you're sure to hear about it because there's a big PR campaign kicking off.
All in all, this is good news. In fact, it's sorta what Quick Serve Kids is doing, in a very niche way. But I want to state something that the body behind Healthy Dining isn't making too clear: Healthy Dining is a paid directory. Restaurants pay a fee to be listed and receive a list of benefits in return, including online links and printable coupons, window decals, and a certificate to hang on the wall. It's sort of like having the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for your restaurant's healthy efforts. (What? You didn't know the GH seal is a paid thing?)
So while the idea is good, be aware that this is a self-selected group.
Now that we've got that out in the open, let's look at what the Healthy Dining finder does.
Americans eat out on average four or five times a week. Through this site, the National Restaurant Association says it's trying to help make those meals healthier. Partially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the site includes nearly 30,000 popular restaurant locations nationwide, and can be a resource for people looking to make more informed food choices when dining at their favorite restaurants.
It's also a place to demonstrate the proactive efforts of the restaurant industry, says the National Restaurant Association. Some current participating restaurants include P.F. Chang's, Buca di Beppo, Au Bon Pain, and Burger King.
Want more info? You can also sign up for free enewsletters from Healthy Dining here.
Does this new site sound helpful for your family? Comment and let me know.
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Stealth Health
March 12, 2007
Wanted to direct your attention to this good article at the QSR Magazine site. (That's my old stomping grounds.) The article centers around something parents of young kids do all the time: sneaking one healthier item into a meal, not making huge changes, but small improvements.
Raise your hand if you've added pureed veggies to your kid's pasta sauce. Uh-huh. I thought so. Me, too. I also do this to my own foods, throwing in peppers, spinach, or tomatoes when I scramble eggs or make a sandwich.
What if, the article asks, some quick-serve chains quietly started blending healthier ingredients into their foods? To quote the article:
But as one dietician I know likes to point out, we’ve been sneaking “bad stuff” into the American diet for years. What would be so wrong with reversing the trend and quietly adding healthful ingredients—primarily fruits and vegetables in various forms—to foods that otherwise are lacking in vitamins and minerals, fiber, or other dietary essentials?It’s a concept known as stealth health, and it’s what would happen if a quick-serve began introducing, say, some dried mushrooms into its beef patties, some whole-grain flour to the batters with which it coats fried menu items, or even some finely ground vegetables to its chicken tenders.
What do you think? And which chain do you dare to go first? (smile)
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At the Risk of Thinking Too Hard: Subway's Fresh Fit Menu
Look for new signs at your local Subway restaurants today. The chain that brought you the highly successful Jared campaign (which I always thought was a little strange...who could eat only plain sandwiches for two out of three meals each day?) is taking menu fitness a step farther.
Today Subway introduces its new "Subway Fresh Fit" menu nationwide, a full line of better-for-you adult and kid menu items. The company says it's the first in the quick-serve industry to introduce a healthier menu on such a large scale—and specifically to kids.
But while I applaud Subway's stated intentions, I'm not sure this approach sits right with me. What's wrong with healthier choices just being part of the regular menu? Why a whole separate menu? "Because then you can't build a PR campaign around it," the cynic in me answers.
Here's the thing: I'm not looking for low-fat options for my daughter, who turns three this summer. Maybe that changes with older kids.
Older version of Baby A: "Mom, I'd like the six-inch turkey and swiss."
Me: "How about the Fresh Fit version instead?"
Preadolescent Baby A: "What, do you think I'm not fit?" [ensuing negative body thoughts...]
Sure, many kids wouldn't think twice about the reference—it would slide right off of their backs. But I was one of those kids who did think into it. This is one of those cases where I really wish the company would consult more with parents.
Saying the company "has long been committed to promoting 'better for you' eating among children and adults," Subway says the meals "have been developed to satisfy the communities' [sic] desire to lead a better and more active lifestyle. The new menu also reflects SUBWAY® Restaurants' commitment to help in the fight against childhood obesity." The new menu options are aimed at providing adults and kids with better, on-the-go meals that complement living a busy and active lifestyle, the company says. And those are all good intentions.
But by creating a new, separate menu, is the company sending the wrong message, or an unintended one?
Here are more details. The Subway Fresh Fit For Kids(TM) meal consists of a low-fat, 4-inch sandwich and "fit" sides and beverages. New "fit" products being introduced include sliced apples, raisins, and 1-percent white milk. Subway says the meals are based on sensible serving sizes, are low in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol, and are a good source of essential nutrients such as vitamin C, calcium, and iron.
See, I don't give Baby A 1-percent milk. She still gets whole milk, or 2 percent if we're out of whole or I just grab the wrong jug. I feel her brain and nervous system are still developing rapidly and need that nutrition. Granted, that might change when she's eight or nine or ten. Again, parents, please fill me in on what you do for older kids. And apples, raisins, things like that are just normal, everday noshes. They aren't part of some special, other group of foods—with "diet" written on it.
That's a word I don't want her to ever feel any affinity to.
What do you think? Am I reading too much into this? (Granted, I'm bringing a lot of baggage.) Comment and let me know.
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Britney's Got Nothin' On Her
March 10, 2007
Let's focus just on kids and parenting this morning. I want everyone who visits here to know about St. Baldrick's Foundation and the lengths parents are going to help fund research to fight cancer in children.
This afternoon, my friend Dixie is shaving her head to raise money for St. Baldrick's.
Dixie's little boy Owen had fetal neuroblastoma. If you want to know more—and you're up for some scary reading—just try plugging that diagnosis into Google. But he is doing wonderfully, and is living a largely normal life, much to everyone's happiness. Dixie writes:
This is not so much for our son Owen, who has seemingly won his battle with Neuroblastoma. I'm doing this for all the kids we see still fighting when we go to clinic at UNC—and for the kids in pediatric oncology clinics everywhere.Words cannot describe the feelings experienced in one of these clinics. "Heartbreak" is just not strong enough. There are so many kids that the clinic is filled beyond capacity. Strollers crowd every corner because too many babies have to undergo treatment. You hear the screams of children who must endure endless poking and prodding. You see the look of quiet resignation in children who push around IV poles as if it is normal to do so. And then a scary realization sets in—these are the kids are who are doing well enough not to require hospitalization.
Please consider finding a participant near you to support. I can think of very little that's more important.
By the way, Dixie would much rather be compared to Demi Moore or Sigourney Weaver than Britney, and you can't blame her. Hey, Dixie, what about Sinead O'Connor?
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Rachael Ray Helps Dunkin' Donuts Craft Healthier Options
March 08, 2007
Do you like Rachael Ray? It seems like she's everywhere these days. This morning there's news she's got yet another gig—this time having to do with donuts, coffees, and other snacky things.
Dunkin' Donuts today announced it will be working with Ray, a best-selling author and host of TV's highest-rated new syndicated daytime show, "Rachael Ray." As the company's new brand representative, Ray will appear in a multi-platform marketing campaign for Dunkin' Donuts.
She'll also lend her perspective to the Dunkin' Donuts culinary team in the development of new, "better for you" food and beverage options. In recent years, the company says it has introduced several new products that provide customers with additional on-the- go options, including Smoothies (like the mango passionfruit smoothie pictured here, Latte Lite, and the reduced-carb bagel. The company has also been working since 2004 to remove trans-fats from all of its menu offerings.
Does anyone know whether Rachel Ray is a mom? I wonder if parenting is part of the perspective she'll be lending. I guess Dunkin' Donuts is going more for her "in-30-minutes" thing, and that makes sense, given that commuters and lunch buyers make up so much of the chain's market.
If you know more about Rachel Ray, or if you're just a fan, comment and share what you know.
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Subway Opens Kosher Restaurant in Brooklyn
March 05, 2007
Here's one thing I didn't realize until I started reading parenting blogs by the hundreds: Brooklyn is chock-full of young families. Take, for example, a site like Babble'sStrollerderby, where four staffers and at least one prolific parenting blogger are Brooklynites.
Bear with me as I tie my Southerner's growing familiarity with Brooklyn in with this news from Subway, which recently opened a fully kosher location in Brooklyn, allowing many customers their first taste of traditional American-style fast food. Whew. It tired me even to type that sentence. But it's the best I've got in the two minutes before I have to go pick up Baby A from preschool.
Okay. So.
Subway recently opened this fully kosher restaurant in Brooklyn, marking the sandwich franchise's second North American kosher restaurant and the first of its kind on the East Coast.
The restaurant, which opened on January 2, is located in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Owned and operated by three Sephardic Jewish business partners from the community, the restaurant is primarily a family affair with wives, mothers, and other relatives taking turns baking bread, prepping ingredients, and making sandwiches. The restaurant is under the rabbinical supervision of Rabbi Gornish.
In keeping with Jewish tradition the restaurant closes on Friday at sundown and reopens for business one hour after nightfall on Saturday. With slight modifications, such as no cheese or pork products, the majority of the menu is almost identical to that of any other SUBWAY® restaurant.
The first kosher Subway location opened at a Jewish Community Center in a Cleveland suburb last year. The company says it's received many inquiries from prospective franchisees around the country who wanted to know how they can open their own kosher SUBWAY® restaurant, too.
Subway, which already has some 27,000 units, clearly sees big growth opportunities in this niche.
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Prince Charles Disses on McD's
March 01, 2007
McDonald's UK had a swift retort for Britain's Prince Charles after the prince made remarks about banning the company's food.
During a visit earlier this week to the Imperial College London Diabetes Center in Abu Dhabi, Prince Charles suggested that McDonald's, often criticized over its high-fat menu choices, should be banned.
Reuters quotes Prince Charles as saying, "Have you got anywhere with McDonald's? Have you tried getting it banned? That's the key," to a nutritionist at the center.
To which a spokesman for McDonald's UK business said, in an e-mailed statement, "The comment made by the Prince of Wales appears to be an off-the-cuff remark that, in our opinion, does not reflect either our menu or where we are at as a business." McDonald's emphasized its addition of choices like fruit, carrot sticks, salads, and organic milk, and said it has made strides in supporting sustainable agriculture.
To which a spokesman for Prince Charles said he "was keen to emphasize the need for children to enjoy the widest variety of food and not to eat any particular sort of food to excess."
What do you make of the exchange?
