The creator of the Lunchables brand of processed foods won’t feed them to his own children because “we eat healthy”.
If there is anything that makes me sad, it’s the large number of students who have lunchboxes filled with items that qualify as chemistry experiments…not food.
The hugely popular Lunchables are perhaps the best-known example of the modern lab lunch.
They are truly an example of the industrialized food system gone horribly awry and a populace completely out of touch with how to nourish its children.
Highly processed, enticingly packaged creations target young children specifically. The nutrient-poor Lunchable comes in numerous combinations to suit any young, impressionable palate.
Examples of the dozens of different meal combo varieties include crackers, pizzas, small hot dogs, small burgers, nachos, subs, and pseudo-healthy wraps.
Manufacturers choose cheap meats that are frequently cut, filled, and extended with hormone-disrupting soy protein.
Further, they disguise this GMO frankenfood under a variety of confusing aliases.
Lunchables also can include an assortment of drinks and desserts. The beverage is commonly a GMO high fructose corn syrup laden Capri Sun or Tropical Punch flavored Kool-Aid mix with bottled water.
Desserts would be jello or pudding or a candy alternative, like Reese’s cups or Butterfingers.
I’ve often wondered how corporate executives who come up with these products live with themselves.
Now, thanks to author Michael Moss, author of the eye-opening book Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, now we know.
These people are in complete denial.
They truly believe they are doing the public a favor by providing cheap, convenience foods “fortified” with synthetic vitamins.
“We Eat Healthy”
Bob Drane, Lunchables inventor, whose own upper-middle-class children don’t eat what Daddy created for “other” children, had this to say:
I wish that the nutritional profile of the thing could have been better, but I don’t view the entire project as anything but a positive contribution to people’s lives.
Drane’s own daughter confessed: “We eat healthy (sic).”
Industry executives disgusted with this elitist, hypocritical approach to business are, unfortunately, not as common as those with their heads in the sand.
The lone example provided by Moss in his book is Jeffrey Dunn, a rapidly rising executive for Coca-Cola who rose almost to the top of the ladder. While working for Coke, he said he achieved peace of mind by simply not allowing himself to think about what he actually sold.
He changed his mind abruptly on a business trip to Brazil in 2001. Dunn’s marching orders from Coca-Cola were simple. Find the best way to push Coke on poor Brazilian kids living in the ghettos.
After that eye-opening trip, Dunn tried for 4 years to change Coke from the inside. Unsuccessful, he left the company, unable to stand the relentless marketing to the poor and Coke addicted a moment longer.
As consumers, we really should not be surprised by the behavior of the majority of Big Food executives.
After all, the job of marketing is to sell “lots of stuff and make lots of money”. This is the bottom line according to Sergio Zyman, marketing head of Coca-Cola during the 1990s.
It is up to us as parents to choose not to pack lab lunches for our children. We say “no” most effectively by withholding our food dollars.
A growing number of consumers buying their food consciously will, over time, force companies to consider the moral consequences of their products.
For some easy ideas to wean off Lunchables, here are some ideas on how to pack a healthy school lunch.
References
(1) Our Broken Food System
(2) Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
Please look at this article from March 13, 2023. Every kid in America K-12 will be offered a nutritious lunchable every day.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/13/business/lunchables-in-schools/index.html
Oh my! This is shocking!
You do know that stores like while foods have been caught marketing products as organic when said products are pretty much no different that what you see at Walmart 7/10 times your so called organic veggies or fruits had been sprayed with pesticide even though it might’ve only been a small amount it was still sprayed on there
The same money spent on a lunchables, sodas, chips can be spent on organic apples, bananas, leafy greens. It’s really not expensive, you just have to prioritize. Stop with the excuses!!
Not all of us had RICH parents to buy us healthy food. Don’t you think we wanted to eat healthy if we could afford it?!!. Maybe if companies sold healthy food for less maybe our parents wouldn’t be buying us “chemical food”. It’s just sad when upper classman stick their noses at people who have less than them and assume that we like filling our guts with chemical food! I would love to eat healthy, but when salads and fruits are too expensive, what choice do you have? Starve to death!??. Poor families don’t have a choice when it comes to cheap, and I’m not just referring to luchables.
Even single parent families on FOOD STAMPS eat well. Here’s how one single mom does it. She never stoops to Lunchables which is on par with pet food. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/eating-local-and-organic-on-food-stamps/
Give me a break lady. There is nothing wrong with eating a lunchable once in awhile. My mom rarely bought them for me, knowing they were icky but she would let us have one every so often because they are fun. And nothing is wrong with me. I am a healthy 21 year woman who loves eating healthy but I do enjoy a lunchable, not as often from when I was a kid but i still don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. You all are mad because they’re making all the money. If you don’t like them and think they’re bad for you, then don’t don’t buy them. Im never the type to rant about things posted on a blog but The internet is so full a drama, sometimes I can’t help it. Get a life people lol
What’s so fun about eating crappy unhealthy food, you’re an idiot
Lunchables aren’t even cheap though. It’s way cheaper to buy a loaf of real bread and real food to fill it so their pathetic excuse is invalid. I used to eat these as a treat when I was younger and I think that’s okay (plus they still came with free toys back then!). But it’s disgusting that the inventor is so up his own arse that he admits it’s made of crap and still tries to portray himself as a hero.
16 y/o here. I eat healthy all the time. Never eat fast food, eat plenty of vegetables and fruits. I pay attention to the food pyramid an all of that. But that doesn’t mean that when I get the opportunity to eat a lunch-able, I’m going to turn it down. I love the things. I eat them less than bi-monthly, and they don’t taste any less like food that the salads I eat regularly.
If they are really that bad for kids, so why sell them in the first place? Take them out off the store shelves so people wont be tempted and not have option to buy it!
Im glad to hear that there are lots of parents that care for there kids health.and understand that there are sometimes that we make the mistake to buy this stuff.
But seriously sometimes i go to the grocery store and notice that there is lots of parents that fill there store car with this stuff so call food.
Yeah we can all feed our child what we want. But please stop a second and think the harm you are doing to your kids.
This stuff contain lots of chemicals and artificial stuff and the reason why lots of us young people have to deal with cancer.
Like Sarah said in her comment things are made the way they use to be done before.
To my opinion parents are just going lazy with all this fast food here and there.
Probably because you all are health nuts and think it’s a sin to eat a grain of sugar.
They’re KIDS! Let them enjoy it. Not every day but once in a while at least.
Here’s the thing .. kids who eat healthy most of the time DON’T WANT lunchables. They taste gross, fake, and “chemical-y” as my daughter puts it and only kids that eat gross unhealthy food much of the time like them because they are used to eating fake frankenfood all the time. Letting a kid who eats healthy “enjoy” a lunchable once in awhile doesn’t actually happen in the real world.