strawberry
Last summer, I was pretty much addicted to Strawberry Mini-wheats. I had enjoyed them when I was younger but they disappeared for quite a while and reappeared at Big! Lots, having been officially discontinued. I was a fiend. I bought up every last box at both the nearest Big! Lots. They were like shredded wheat, but filled with strawberry. It was like super-healthy cookies. Yum, yum.
Well, it's been a while now, and I've gone without. I knew that Kellogg's had introduced a "Strawberry Delight" flavor of Frosted Mini-Wheats and thought I'd give it a try. The box encouragingly promised that Strawberry flavor was baked into every square. So I thought, hey, maybe it'll just be the same, but with pink frosting.
Uh, no.
These don't taste at all like strawberry. They taste like strawberry flavored sugar. And when you bite a square in half, it doesn't look like you've exposed intestines. It just looks like there's some pink stuff, which I believe they call "Strawberry flavored crunchlets". The only colors added are Red 40 and Blues 1 and 2, so I guess it COULD be worse and it at least doesn't TASTE like food coloring (something that can't be said for M&Ms!).
Anyway... uh... I don't know. I shouldn't snack so much anyway so maybe it's good that some of my old favorites are dead or taste crappy now. Seriously. Yellow M&Ms look radioactive these days. Anyone else notice that? Who chose that neon yellow color, saying, "Oh, this looks edible!"? That person should be fired. Makes it easier to lay off the candy though. And now the cereal too.
Along those lines, and I see this as a generally positive trend, I've been making more and more of an effort to know exactly what things are going into and onto my body. My guiding principle is sort of the 1 Corinthians 10:23 idea that "All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial", which is a good general principle for just about everything, I think. Ergo, I'm trying to get rid of things that are unnecessary and harmful, like food coloring, but I'm not gonna be all extremist about it. Yet.
But you know, I wish I would be more extreme about stuff. Like, I write my congresspeople and senators whenever there's an issue regarding animal welfare or industrial hemp or the endangered species act, etc, but I don't make phone calls. And I don't distribute literature on the issues that are near and dear to my heart. I know I'm naive that I figure other people will do their own research like I do and make informed decisions, but damn it, they really SHOULD. I guess what I'm getting at is that, for someone with convictions, I'm kinda crappy at having them. Even when I personally am REALLY NOT OKAY with something, I'll maybe avoid it entirely, but I just leave other people be. I feel like I'm side-stepping land mines but letting all the rest of humanity just walk right into them. Well maybe not land-mines. In a lot of cases it's more like, I avoid stepping on the bug on the pavement out of regard for its life but don't warn other people that it's there. And not helping is just as bad as hurting. Argh! How frustrating! So I don't know. I mean, is it better to just let everyone be, or should I be the one to say that when a product says "Finished product not tested on animals" it may well mean there was animal testing at every level prior to that?
Well, it's been a while now, and I've gone without. I knew that Kellogg's had introduced a "Strawberry Delight" flavor of Frosted Mini-Wheats and thought I'd give it a try. The box encouragingly promised that Strawberry flavor was baked into every square. So I thought, hey, maybe it'll just be the same, but with pink frosting.
Uh, no.
These don't taste at all like strawberry. They taste like strawberry flavored sugar. And when you bite a square in half, it doesn't look like you've exposed intestines. It just looks like there's some pink stuff, which I believe they call "Strawberry flavored crunchlets". The only colors added are Red 40 and Blues 1 and 2, so I guess it COULD be worse and it at least doesn't TASTE like food coloring (something that can't be said for M&Ms!).
Anyway... uh... I don't know. I shouldn't snack so much anyway so maybe it's good that some of my old favorites are dead or taste crappy now. Seriously. Yellow M&Ms look radioactive these days. Anyone else notice that? Who chose that neon yellow color, saying, "Oh, this looks edible!"? That person should be fired. Makes it easier to lay off the candy though. And now the cereal too.
Along those lines, and I see this as a generally positive trend, I've been making more and more of an effort to know exactly what things are going into and onto my body. My guiding principle is sort of the 1 Corinthians 10:23 idea that "All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial", which is a good general principle for just about everything, I think. Ergo, I'm trying to get rid of things that are unnecessary and harmful, like food coloring, but I'm not gonna be all extremist about it. Yet.
But you know, I wish I would be more extreme about stuff. Like, I write my congresspeople and senators whenever there's an issue regarding animal welfare or industrial hemp or the endangered species act, etc, but I don't make phone calls. And I don't distribute literature on the issues that are near and dear to my heart. I know I'm naive that I figure other people will do their own research like I do and make informed decisions, but damn it, they really SHOULD. I guess what I'm getting at is that, for someone with convictions, I'm kinda crappy at having them. Even when I personally am REALLY NOT OKAY with something, I'll maybe avoid it entirely, but I just leave other people be. I feel like I'm side-stepping land mines but letting all the rest of humanity just walk right into them. Well maybe not land-mines. In a lot of cases it's more like, I avoid stepping on the bug on the pavement out of regard for its life but don't warn other people that it's there. And not helping is just as bad as hurting. Argh! How frustrating! So I don't know. I mean, is it better to just let everyone be, or should I be the one to say that when a product says "Finished product not tested on animals" it may well mean there was animal testing at every level prior to that?