In a move that indicates everything that is wrong with the American diet and our backwards mindset regarding nutrition, The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) has made Kraft Singles processed “cheese” slices the first product to wear its “Kids Eat Right” label.
If you’re thinking you may have read that wrong, you’re not alone. How can a processed food not even allowed to be called real cheese win an endorsement by the AND, which includes 75,000 nutritionists and registered dieticians? While there are several justifications, we’re going with pure profit-driven insanity.
According to a statement from the AND, the Kids Eat Right program is designed to, “raise awareness that the diets of America’s kids are lacking in three important components– dairy, calcium and vitamin D.” Kraft’s director of nutrition, science, and regulatory affairs, Kari Ryan, justifies the move by saying that kids need their calcium, and each Kraft Single contains 20 percent of the daily recommended calcium.
Okay, calcium and vitamin D are indeed important, so we could understand REAL cheese getting the seal of approval… but Kraft Singles are NOT real cheese. Also, the fact that a processed food is being guised as a health food, for kids, no less, is, as The New York Times’ Stephanie Strom aptly put it, “a major coup for the Kraft Foods Group.” A coup it is.
So, what’s so bad about Kraft Singles? These day-glo orange imposters are technically a “pasteurized prepared cheese product.” The ingredients list includes:
“Cheddar cheese (milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), whey, water, protein concentrate, milk, sodium citrate, calcium phosphate, milkfat, gelatin, salt, sodium phosphate, lactic acid as a preservative, annatto and paprika extract (color), enzymes, vitamin A palmitate, cheese culture, and vitamin D3.”
In other words, a veritable cocktail of milk from GMO-fed cows, processed sodium, preservatives and dyes. Eating this slurry is “eating right?” We don’t think so.
According to Casey Hinds of USHealthyKids.org, “it’s confusing and just one more way that feels like as parents, there are so many forces working against us as we’re trying to raise healthy kids.”
Allison Duffek Bradfield, a registered dietitian at Duke Raleigh Hospital, agrees. She stated, “I’m absolutely disgusted with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. They have put the health of our children in jeopardy for money. I am embarrassed to be a part of this organization which clearly has lost its priorities.”
We could not have said it better ourselves. And if you and your kids like cheese, simply enjoy the real, organic stuff in moderation, or make your own!
-The Alternative Daily
Sources:
http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/03/12/kraft-singles-dietitian-seal-kids-nutrition/?cmpid=tp-ptnr-foodbabe
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/16/kraft-singles-kids-eat-right_n_6879658.html?ir=Green&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000044
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/a-cheese-product-wins-kids-nutrition-seal/?_r=2
https://www.thealternativedaily.com/velveeta-vs-real-cheese-glaring-difference
