As if it wasn’t bad enough last week dealing with the peeps, this week is just… too much.
On the Small Bites blog, Andy Bellatti shares something unbelievably… bizarre:
He goes through the “nutritional information:”
Although the picture I originally received was for the red variety (oh, forgive me, “strawberry flavor”), Raquel mentioned that she had also spotted blue and green varieties. My curiosity piqued, I asked her if she would be so kind as to go on special assignment for me and find out more details, since Internet searches about this foolishness brought up not one iota of information.Given the nutrition information on the front of the package, I guessed that this snack (?) was probably nothing more than cornstarch and artificial sweeteners.
Too bad I didn’t make a million-dollar bet, because it turns out I was pretty spot-on. Behold the ingredient list, which Raquel graciously sent me (FYI: she had to go to two different markets to find this product; when she returned to the market where she first spotted these atrocities, they had all been sold):
Potato starch, corn starch, modified corn starch, artificial flavors, maltodextrin, acesulfame potassium, aspartame, Red 40
Of course, the particular dye changes with the respective “flavors”
Let’s back up for a second. The front of the package has the words “Springtime Celebration”, a “From Our Family to Yours” slogan, and a photograph of what appears to be an angelically-dressed mother and her equally halo-lit daughters running through a grassy meadow, caught in a moment of purity and innocence during an Easter Egg hunt. Really? All that production to peddle artificially dyed cornstarch under the guise of “after you make the basket, your kids can eat it!”?
How did this product even come to fruition, anyway? Did someone, during a meeting, pipe up and say: “You know, I think consumers really want Easter basket grass that the kids can munch on after they’ve eaten Easter eggs all day.” Faced with concerns about sugar, this individual had an even
more cracked-outbetter idea — sweeten it with not one, but two, artificial sweeteners.This product is further proof that there’s way too much extra corn sitting around. Now, please, go and enjoy your weekend (whether you celebrate something or not). Just promise me you won’t be munching on aspartame-laden, neon blue cornstarch.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Got a Weekend WTF?! to share with the class? Send it over to wtf@blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com!
4 comments
Actually I always wanted easter basket grass that you could eat when I was growing up…. sorry. I would curse the grass because it was nothing but useless fluff. I used to love love love spinning sugar just for the fact that to me it was like easter basket grass. However I would never eat this as a adult nor would I ever let my future kids eat it. I’d rather have the spun sugar or maybe some fruit leather strips cut in long thin julienne slices.
Actually I think I might get some of this stuff. Not for my kids… if I didn’t tell them it was edible it probably would never occur to them to try. But for my cat! She has been hacking up Easter Grass hairballs all week… at least this stuff will break down in her system!
Too bad it has aspartame though… I am not a fan of poisoning the little beings in my care!
I think it would kill your cat though. Aspartame makes us sick, but kills non human animals. I’d sooner give them the petco organic pet grass. Heck, i’d eat the petco grass over this stuff and I’m human. XD
The edible grass doesn’t shock me as much as the fact that when the woman went back to the store to find some, it was sold out. The more I read about clean eating and nutrition, the more I realize that most people don’t THINK when they buy food for themselves and their children. Next year they’ll have edible Easter baskets that come in edible packaging and people will LOVE IT.
Hmmm…is that a million dollar idea? Maybe I should try to work that out. =)
Just kidding!
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