Don't know if anyone's heard of "The Toilet Paper." I think I've mentioned it before -- it's a quirky daily e-mail my friend Jess turned me onto. Most of the time it makes me laugh.
The beauty of TTP is that while it consistently retains its humor, it is typically rather informative:
Our babies never stopped booming. 68% of adults are overweight, and America is well on its way to being buried alive under mounds of greasy fast food wrappers and empty soda cans. Luckily, there's hope for future generations. Forget good old common sense and self-control, we're gonna shrink our offspring's stomachs the easy way: mind tricks.
The USDA is giving $2 million to food behavior scientists, hoping psychology can influence kids to make healthy food choices at school. Renaming carrots "X-ray vision carrots," and hiding chocolate milk behind white milk are tricks that have already shown positive results. Talk about breakthroughs.
We simultaneously applaud the USDA for its efforts, and chuckle that we've reached a point where "tricking" our kids into eating healthy deserves applause.
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What do you think? Is eating healthy deserving of reward? In truth, we should WANT to be healthy but ALSO, IN TRUTH, let's face it - rewarding kids for healthy living and eating these days is practically necessary. I mean, as an adult, even now, if I make it through a day without hitting the vending machine, I want an effing medal.
