What's All the Fizz About?
There’s been a lot of media buzz lately about fruit. Not just plain old fruit, of course, far from it. Now, with help from Oregon State University food scientists — you know, the folks that years ago brought us the maraschino cherry — we’re blessed with another innovation in American food lore: fizzy fruit.
What’s up? Basically, a Texas food scientist found a way to insert carbonation into fruit. He then worked with OSU’s Food Innovation Center to commercialize the process. The result is that eating a fizzified grape is more like drinking a grape soda. And all without compromising the nutrient value of that grape.
At first glance, it sounds like a winner. Or at least like fun. The developers’ thought is that fizzy fruit will encourage kids to make healthier choices from school-lunch offerings. And maybe it will.
My hope is that the fizzy fruit discussion will help raise awareness about the crap that we have been offering our children. Too often, when it comes to feeding our kids, we take the line of least resistance; we opt for the easy, cheap, heavily advertised path. And worse, in recent years, we’ve sometimes been driven by our desperation to supplement school budgets, in this case through sales of really unhealthy foods to our own kids.
We need to educate children and parents about good nutrition and the dangers of white flour and sugar, in all their guises. When 10-year-old children are developing adult-onset diabetes and heart disease, we are in serious trouble as a nation.
Is fizzy fruit the answer? Well, the likeliest candidates for fizzification are grapes, apples, cherries, and strawberries. Sounds great. Of course, these guys happen to be among the crops ranked highest in pesticide use (or is that abuse)?
So, we have to ask ourselves: Will encouraging consumption of more sugar — albeit fruit sugar — accompanied by carbonated pesticides yield a great health benefit? Maybe, if the fizzy fruit replaces a big gulp or white bread or a Snickers.
But we can certainly do much, much more. And there are plenty of examples to draw from. I once read about Corvallis’s sister city in Uzhgorod, where the kids all have homemade dark bread and bean soup for lunch — a far cry from what we serve in our schools in the name of food.
Of course, we can’t lay it all off on the schools. We have to begin at home, by feeding our children and ourselves better. My first rule is: If you don’t want your kids to eat it, don’t bring it home. The same should go for school lunches. Is it good for children and other living things? How good? As my wise old father always says, in another context: “When in doubt, throw it out!” Sound advice. We’ll all be healthier — and, believe it or not, happier — if we throw the junk out of our diets. Starting now.
Bon appétit!
What’s up? Basically, a Texas food scientist found a way to insert carbonation into fruit. He then worked with OSU’s Food Innovation Center to commercialize the process. The result is that eating a fizzified grape is more like drinking a grape soda. And all without compromising the nutrient value of that grape.
At first glance, it sounds like a winner. Or at least like fun. The developers’ thought is that fizzy fruit will encourage kids to make healthier choices from school-lunch offerings. And maybe it will.
My hope is that the fizzy fruit discussion will help raise awareness about the crap that we have been offering our children. Too often, when it comes to feeding our kids, we take the line of least resistance; we opt for the easy, cheap, heavily advertised path. And worse, in recent years, we’ve sometimes been driven by our desperation to supplement school budgets, in this case through sales of really unhealthy foods to our own kids.
We need to educate children and parents about good nutrition and the dangers of white flour and sugar, in all their guises. When 10-year-old children are developing adult-onset diabetes and heart disease, we are in serious trouble as a nation.
Is fizzy fruit the answer? Well, the likeliest candidates for fizzification are grapes, apples, cherries, and strawberries. Sounds great. Of course, these guys happen to be among the crops ranked highest in pesticide use (or is that abuse)?
So, we have to ask ourselves: Will encouraging consumption of more sugar — albeit fruit sugar — accompanied by carbonated pesticides yield a great health benefit? Maybe, if the fizzy fruit replaces a big gulp or white bread or a Snickers.
But we can certainly do much, much more. And there are plenty of examples to draw from. I once read about Corvallis’s sister city in Uzhgorod, where the kids all have homemade dark bread and bean soup for lunch — a far cry from what we serve in our schools in the name of food.
Of course, we can’t lay it all off on the schools. We have to begin at home, by feeding our children and ourselves better. My first rule is: If you don’t want your kids to eat it, don’t bring it home. The same should go for school lunches. Is it good for children and other living things? How good? As my wise old father always says, in another context: “When in doubt, throw it out!” Sound advice. We’ll all be healthier — and, believe it or not, happier — if we throw the junk out of our diets. Starting now.
Bon appétit!
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