What is it with kids and artificial colors?� I saw these in the grocery store last week and I nearly became ill all over the tater tots.� Cocoa french fries?� Would that even taste good?� And why blue?� Is there any benefit to them being blue?� What do you eat them with, green ketchup?

What is this teaching kids about food?� What are we teaching them about taste?�

We, as a society, put such an emphasis on molding children in the image of the super human.� They must play sports, practice a musical instrument, paint, draw, etc. in addition to their home work.� I'm sure that important lessons can be learned from these activities.� But no matter how important these things are, none is as important as learning how to eat.� Soccer skills are not life and death, but food is.� And eating well is at least as important as the other extra-curricular activities that children are forced into.

There has been a disturbing trend in food targeted for children over the last twenty years.� Color has replaced flavor.� Do you remember Fruit Roll Ups when they first came out, in the eighties? They had flavors like cherry and apple cinnamon.� Now they have colors and cartoon characters, but no stated flavor.� Sure, kids have always gotten the two confused (like purple popsicles and pink Starburst) but they always were manufactured with an intended flavor.�� Now that has gone away and it's disturbing.

That said, I should probably admit to having had a bowl of Fruity Pebbles for breakfast.� It wasn't just Fruity Pebbles though, I mixed it with Kashi "Go Lean" which is so yucky it needs to always be cut with a more palatable cereal.� I blame my parents for the Fruity Pebbles.�