Did you catch Jessica Seinfeld on Oprah talking about her new book? What do you think?
-- Denise Wyler (location withheld)
I did not watch the episode where Jessica Seinfeld (yes, Jerry's wife) pitched her new book, Deceptively Delicious, in which she shares her recipes for many classic unhealthy foods (i.e.: especially kid favorites like mac and cheese, brownies) with a "healthy twist".
Said twist? Adding pureed vegetables to them.
I did, however, manage to see a few clips, particularly one where Oprah made it seem like Jessica was a culinary goddess for "coming up" with this concept.
I say "coming up" because there appears to be a plagiarism scandal surrounding this story, which you can read about here if you are interested.
In any case, I don't really see what the big deal is. For instance, Jessica's carrot-spinach brownie recipe includes a mere cup of pureed vegetables for a batch of 12 brownies.
In other words, a child would need to eat SIX of these brownies to get a mere half cup (just one serving!) of vegetables. In the process, they would be getting a boatload of sugar and no other nutrients to speak of.
The blueberry oatmeal bars are described as "full of spinach". Really? The recipe -- which yields 12 bars -- only calls for a half cup of pureed spinach. Your little one will need to eat all 12 bars to get just one of the five recommended servings of vegetables.
This book sends out the completely wrong message on nutritious eating for children. I was quite surprised to find out Joy Bauer approved all these recipes.
-- Denise Wyler
(location withheld)
I did not watch the episode where Jessica Seinfeld (yes, Jerry's wife) pitched her new book, Deceptively Delicious, in which she shares her recipes for many classic unhealthy foods (i.e.: especially kid favorites like mac and cheese, brownies) with a "healthy twist".
Said twist? Adding pureed vegetables to them.
I did, however, manage to see a few clips, particularly one where Oprah made it seem like Jessica was a culinary goddess for "coming up" with this concept.
I say "coming up" because there appears to be a plagiarism scandal surrounding this story, which you can read about here if you are interested.
In any case, I don't really see what the big deal is. For instance, Jessica's carrot-spinach brownie recipe includes a mere cup of pureed vegetables for a batch of 12 brownies.
In other words, a child would need to eat SIX of these brownies to get a mere half cup (just one serving!) of vegetables. In the process, they would be getting a boatload of sugar and no other nutrients to speak of.
The blueberry oatmeal bars are described as "full of spinach". Really? The recipe -- which yields 12 bars -- only calls for a half cup of pureed spinach. Your little one will need to eat all 12 bars to get just one of the five recommended servings of vegetables.
Marion Nestle recently commented about this same subject on her blog -- I completely agree with every word.
This book sends out the completely wrong message on nutritious eating for children. I was quite surprised to find out Joy Bauer approved all these recipes.