forget the frozen lemonade

We tried that frozen lemonade from Tim Hortons I mentioned a few days ago and you may as well forget it! It tastes very artificial, like it's made from a powdered mix...NOT NATURAL AT ALL. So I called to see if I could find out the ingredients. They did not acknowledge any artificial flavors or colors, but it's loaded with high fructose corn syrup, sodium benzoate, etc. Maybe now we're getting into a whole new category of foods that sound healthier, but really aren't. I'm trying to decide what to call them: imposters, pseudo-natural, sorta better, or "fake good" foods. I'm feeling very manipulated! The advertising is deceptive in a very subtle way. Technically, they didn't say anything false. They just lure you into thinking it's healthy and better, but really, it's not much better than everthing else out there. I think big companies are learning that people want natural ingredients so they advertise "no artificial flavors or colors", yet they still put lots of other junk in behind the scenes, hoping we won't notice. Well I noticed! When you stay on a a real food diet, you can taste the chemicals in the first bite. I hope you'll be on the lookout for this kind of sneaky tricks too. Feel free to comment if you too have had a "natural-NOT" experience. And if I sound grumpier than normal, I AM and I'm sure it has something to do with the bright pink and blue amoxicillin I'm taking for a sinus infection. I was too miserable to be my usual demading self and settled for the dyed prescription. Pray for my children that my patience holds out.

dye free treats

Our discovery of dye free foods continues all the time. Today my son spotted an add from Tim Hortons promoting their new frozen lemonade free of artificial colors and flavors. We haven't tried it yet, but it's so exciting for my kids to move from everything seeming to be off limits, to having more and more choices. In case you have not read my other posts, most lemonade in restaurants has yellow dye. If it comes from the soda fountain, it usually has yellow #5 or 6. We stopped asking months ago. Only a few, like Chick-Fil-A, have natural lemonade. Even then you still need to be aware. Many of the Chick-Fil-A salad dressings have dyes in them so check first. We did have another good lemon discovery. Minute Maid has individual frozen lemonade cups that are dye free. We noticed their cherry lime ones are also dye free. In the past, I've taken these in a cooler to the ball park for team snack after baseball games. We also attended a birthday party today. I meant to make my own sweet something (cup cake, brownie, etc. to take but I ran out of time). I grabbed a Capri Sun and a few donut holes on my way out the door. We lucked out as it turned out the birthday girl requested chocolate chip cookies so there were no issues with frosting. They served red punch so my daughter had the drink I brought. Easy party with no "left out feeling." Yay!