Carbonated fruit

I never failed to be gobsmacked when I hear about children refusing to eat fruit. Ben and Shira eat pounds of the stuff every week. Sometimes they eat a few pounds of fruit a day.

Yesterday I read an article in The Hartford Courant about how school districts in Connecticut are giving children Fizzy Fruit in the hopes that this will entice them to eat fruit. Apparently the children's taste buds have been so badly corrupted that they can only tolerate the taste of fruit if it has bubbles in it like soda.

"They go crazy over them," said Meg Kingston, Sodexho's general manager for the Danbury area. "You put regular grapes out in a bowl, and you say it's the fruit of the day, and they walk right by it. You tell them it's Fizzy Fruit, and they can't get enough."

I must admit that the marketing department of "Fizzy Fruit" contains some real genii. Get school districts to use the product as a pre-marketing tool then when the product is on the shelf (and it will be in 2 months), the kids are already hooked. I can just see the pressure those little kids are going to put on their mothers. The stuff isn't cheap either.

A 7-ounce cup of Fizzy mandarin oranges is expected to cost between $1.50 and $2 at stores, and a 4-ounce cup of Fizzy grapes, apples or pineapples will cost about $2,

I am really glad that we homeschool. My kids don't have to contend with bad cafetaria food and "jazzed up" fruit.