The New York Times reports on the latest battle being waged by moms. This time it's against the ice cream man. What used to be a happy childhood experience has turned into a nightmare for many parents. New ice cream trucks lurk around parks, luring kids in. It drives moms crazy. The minute that music starts up, the kids start whining for ice cream that's not even real ice cream. Instead, many brands are filled with chemicals and high fructose corn syrup. And the ice cream trucks don't leave after the line dissipates. They sit there in a running truck, belching exhaust for hours and hours. When truck drivers were arrested for selling drugs in the trucks, it didn't help their case.
It got so bad in Chicago's 18th Ward, where many working-class African-American families live, that parents got the ice cream trucks banned because of unsanitary practices and drug sales. So, is there any upside to the ice cream truck tradition? There is in some cities.
Parents in most places improvise solutions — running the other way when they hear the jingle or telling their children that they left their wallets at home.
Rachael Reiley of Cambridge, Mass., called the ice cream truck "the music truck," convincing her 3-year-old son that it was playing "The Entertainer" simply to entertain. But he soon got wise when he saw the other children walking away from the truck, their faces smeared with chocolate and vanilla, their hands filled with ice cream cones.
Ms. Reiley didn't mind buying him a treat, occasionally. But the truck -- called Here's Frosty -- parks outside her door on most sunny days around 4:30 p.m. and wakes her son from his nap. "Then he's up, plastered against the window, yelling: 'Music truck! Music truck!'" Ms. Reiley said. "Sometimes he grabs his little bank and says, 'I have money.'"
As a new mother, she said, people coach you on potty training and what to feed your child. "But the ice cream truck, nobody ever mentions that," she said.
We haven't seen an ice cream truck in years; we had no idea they had become such a nuisance to mothers. It used to seem like such an old-fashioned, harmless thing. But if parents went so far as to actually get them banned in parts of Chicago, it must have been a real nightmare.
It puts a whole new spin on that commercial for Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing where the music plays and the kids come running to get delicious salads instead of ice cream. It's like a fantasy for moms who hate the ice cream man.
Martha Stewart and Terri Trespicio Talk Healthy Foods
Terri Trespicio, senior editor at Body+Soul, joins Martha Stewart to talk about how foods can help you maintain your health and how other foods can really hurt your health. Take a look: with the latest foods you should be eating -- and avoiding -- for your health. Take a look:
1. Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
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2. Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
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3. Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes.
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4. Cinnamon: Helps control blood sugar and cholesterol.
How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.
We're all over the cinnamon thing, but beets? Alas, we are woefully deficient in our consumption of beets. Perhaps a nice Borscht is in our future. And if you're feeling somewhat less than knowledgeable about beets, here's a handy FAQ.
Now that the Atkins insanity is past us (until it bubbles up again under a new name in about ten years), we've been cooking healthy carbs again. So calming! So healthy! We've always been fond of homemade muffins, but let's face it -- some of those "healthy" muffins taste just ghastly. We've found that using applesauce to sweeten (along with a bit of real brown sugar) makes most recipes taste good, with less sugar.
A new product that we've been successfully experimenting with is Fiber-sure, which is a fiber supplement that you can add to food. The great thing about Fiber-sure is that it's not like psyllium, which swells up to like a gazillion times its original size when exposed to water. Fiber-sure is 100% natural inulin (a pure vegetable fiber), which is made from chicory root. It has no taste and you can add it to drinks, recipes or just regular foods. That way you get your fiber and you fill up much faster -- it makes a great addition to any weight-reduction diet.
A few notes for those who have never tried the high-fiber diet: 1) add fiber slowly to your diet if you're not used to it; 2) drink plenty of water and fluids with high fiber foods; and 3) lay off the fiber and eat lots of lean protein, veggies and water for 24-48 hours before a bikini-wearing event for the flattest tummy ever. Then after the party is over, go back on the fiber. This one really works.
Now that the Atkins insanity is past us (until it bubbles up again under a new name in about ten years), we've been cooking healthy carbs again. So calming! So healthy! We've always been fond of homemade muffins, but let's face it -- some of those "healthy" muffins taste just ghastly. We've found that using applesauce to sweeten (along with a bit of real brown sugar) makes most recipes taste good, with less sugar.
