(In my best Mr. Roger's Neighborhood voice):

Hello, Boys & Girls!

The Word Of The Day today is : OUTRAGED

Can you say outraged? Good, I knew you could.

Ahem.

Let me explain why I am outraged. Yesterday, Ben and I stopped in a SuperWal-Mart. I was needing some items for the dinner that I was going to make.

As I'm going down the aisle that contains the dairy case on one side with all the various types of milk and soymilk in it, on the opposite side of the aisle are the eggs and butters and margarines and orange juices.

I happened to need a container of Second Nature eggs. (For those of you who do not know, it is a small carton that has a mixture of 98% egg whites and 2% egg yolks---great for cooking when you're trying to be healthy.) Anyhow, as I take this carton of "eggs" off the shelf, to my right something catches my eye.

Something disturbing.

I notice that Parkay (I believe that was the brand) has an "Easy Squeeze" margarine. That's not the disturbing part. (Although margarine is soooooo bad for you; you're better off eating real butter than the fake plastic stuff they call margarine. But that's another entry)

What I notice is that the Easy Squeeze comes in 2 "new" varieties------- PINK and BLUE!

I was livid to see that. Obviously this new colored margarine is definitely

targeted to appeal to children. It's being marketed so they will ask Mom to buy it for them. I think the margarine company got it's idea from Heinz. I wasn't too thrilled when Heinz ketchup marketed green and now purple colored ketchup.

With the margarine, it's bad enough that margarine is terrible for your body as it is (did you know that chemically speaking that margarine is like only one molecule away from being plastic? I kid you not!) Anyhow, so here "They" are putting artificial coloring in this already toxic product to give it more appeal to children.

The children of today already eat a diet that is CRAP CRAP CRAP. It angers me to see babies with either soda or Kool-Aid in their bottles. I just wanna go over to their mom or dad and smack them upside the head. I mean, c'mon have some common sense people. It's disturbing the number of artifical ingredients and the number of processed, chemical-laden foods that children consume daily. It sickens me. I believe those contribute to a lot of the health problems in our country.

If people would just get back to the basics,(when it comes to food especially) life would be so much better. Kids would preform better at school and they'd feel better and be less sick.

I'm not even talking being radical. I'm saying trying to eat a diet that's rich in fresh fruits, fresh/frozen veggies and definitely LESS processed JUNK. What ever happened to a good ole peanut butter sandwich? (of course the peanut butter I'm talking about should only have two ingredients it's list: peanuts and salt. None of this hydrogenated oil crap!) And if parents want to give their child a snack in their lunch, hey, a snack sized bag of Dorito's isn't going to kill them, but including an apple and some carrot sticks too would balance it all out.

I suppose I've ranted and raved long enough. I wish I had the power to remove all the crap that lines grocery store shelves....I think our world would thank me!!!

Thought Of The Day:"In America we eat, collectively, with a glum urge for food to fill us. We are ignorant of flavour. We are as a nation taste-blind."--M. F. K. Fisher (1908 - 1992) US culinary expert, author

Thought Of The Day #2:"The food that enters the mind must be watched as closely as the food that enters the body."--Patrick Buchanan (1938 - ____) US politician

Bonus Thought:"In America, a parent puts food in front of a child and says, 'Eat it, it's good for you.' In Europe, the parent says, 'Eat it. It's good!'"--John Levee (1908 - 1992) US culinary expert, author

And to show that I still have a sense of humor:"Old people shouldn't eat health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get."--Robert Orben (1927 - ____) US editor, writer

Until next time... peace, love & HEALTH!!!