Reply #92: Indeed. I took care of my sister's children when my sister was in the hospital...

[Luminous Animal]

Here is the scenario when we went grocery shopping in Delaware... (FYI, I shop at an organic food co-op in San Francisco so this was quite an experience for all of us.)

Them: Put bubble gum yogurt in the shopping cart.
Me: I took it out and spent a long time looking at the sugar content of the other commercial yogurt and found that bubble gum yogurt was no worse than any other yogurt and let them keep it.

Them: Put Sunny D in the cart.
Me: Removed it and put in orange juice. They were pissed off.

Them: Put sugar cereal into the cart.
Me: I removed it and put in a big bag of puffed rice. They were pissed off.

Them: Put in boxes of sugar-laden instant oatmeal.
Me: Removed it and put in regular unsugared oatmeal. They were pissed off.

Them: Put in packaged lunchmeat.
Me: Took them out. They were pissed off.


This went on and on. I never spent so much time in a grocery store. I read every label from soup to bread to lunch meat to crackers to cookies.

In the end, my sister's kids hated me. Everything that they regularly ate was questioned and discarded.... Campbell's soup, frozen pizza, bread, "juice", cereal, yogurt, lunch meat... everything was larded with fat, salt, & sugar.

My sister is a good mom. But these are the choices that are presented to the average American. In those 3 hours in the grocery store, I told my niece and nephew "no", more than I did to my own child in 8 years. And it sucked.