Melon Coupons - Make Me Happy

I like to scan the Sunday newspaper coupon sections to see what the food companies are trying to get people to eat. I have been encouraged lately by seeing improvements in processed products such as whole grain rice mixes produced by Rice-A-Roni and Di Giorno pizza with whole wheat crust. I am a bit amazed as this morning as I saw a coupon for melons - a real food being advertised with a 1 dollar off coupon. Of course it is branded, not organic and most likely hybridized but still, it's real food. Look for Dulcinea seedless watermelons or Tuscan style cantaloupes. Or even better, shop your farmer's market to buy what's fresh and local.

Another interesting observation -- Pom, the company that introduced pomegranate juice to the US in a big way, now has a pomegranate and tea combo for sale. I saw this at Safeway the other day and it seemed expensive to me. I drink tea all day long whenever I can. It's not likely that I would be paying more than 2 dollars for a glass jar of tea but it's definitely better than drinking some fancy coffee drink with lots of fat and caffeine. It's all a matter of choice (and hopefully it's not choosing your poison).

That leads me to the last thing that I noticed while scanning the coupons (which I consider some kind of reflection of society) was that Smart Beat now has a complete line of foods with Omega-3 fatty acids. They have put them in margarine, mayonnaise and peanut butter. I find it strange that they would add Omega-3s to peanut butter but it might be an easy way to get kids to eat more of them. And children definitely need them for healthy brains. Kids are not likely to eat fatty fish, walnuts, greens, flax or hemp seed or other good sources of Omega-3 fatty acids. I'd still rather suggest that they eat a bowl of Bob's Red Mill "Right Stuff" cereal (which contains flax) each morning with cinnamon and raisins than manipulated peanut butter. But perhaps it's because my son doesn't like peanut butter. For me, real food still rules.

But I'll keep looking at the coupons to stay in touch with what's out there, even if a lot of it is scary.