Microwave dinners for toddlers

Here I go picking on the Graduates line again again from Gerber (here is the last attack). I don't have anything against Gerber, per se. They are a normal company trying to turn a big profit. Unfortunately the way they're doing it is by selling pseudo food to trusting parents who will feed it to their small children (and babies), so I feel justified in attacking them.

These toddler meals, which offer only about 150 calories per tray, have very little nutritional value and include as much as 430 mg of sodium. This is more than 1/6th of what an over-salted American adult is permitted to have in a day (and by the way, our USDA-allowed limit of 2400 mg. is WAY higher than the UK limit of 1600 daily). Considering that each serving contains only about 140-150 calories, and toddlers are supposed to have around 1000 calories daily, the price tag of $2.99 is definitely not a good deal.

This is what is included in the Beef Ravioli in Tomato Sauce with Green Beans Lil' Entrees dish:

Ingredients
WATER, GREEN BEANS, BEEF TOMATO RAVIOLI (ENRICHED DURUM FLOUR [DURUM WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID], WATER, SEASONED BEEF [BEEF, WATER, SEASONING {DEXTROSE, SALT, ONION}], WHOLE EGG, BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, PART SKIM RICOTTA CHEESE [WHEY, CREAM, VINEGAR, CARRAGEENAN], SALT, SOYBEAN OIL, DRIED EGG WHITES, BEEF STOCK FLAVOR [SALT, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, POWDERED COOKED BEEF, BEEF FAT, GUAR GUM, CARAMEL COLOR, BEEF STOCK, XANTHAN GUM, LACTIC ACID, BEEF FLAVOR, BEEF EXTRACT, NATURAL FLAVOR], TOMATO POWDER, DEHYDRATED ONION, SUGAR, NATURAL TOMATO FLAVOR [MALTODEXTRIN, NATURAL FLAVOR, MODIFIED CORN STARCH], EXTRACTIVES OF ANNATTO [COLOR], GARLIC POWDER), TOMATO PUREE, TOMATO PASTE, COOKED SEASONED BEEF (BEEF, WATER, SALT), MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, SUGAR, ONIONS, OLIVE OIL, GARLIC, SALT, CHEDDAR CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), WHEY, NATURAL FLAVOR.

Salt and flavorings abound in these concoctions to disguise the fact that the overprocessed, ground, bleached, pureed, dehydrated, and "enriched" food remnants underneath have no real flavors of their own. If you're tempted to point out that at least this meal has no artificial flavors, you might be interested to know that so-called "natural" flavors are allowed by law to be up to 49% MSG, which we all know is bad, bad, bad.

For a fraction of the cost even the most culinarily-challenged parent can cook up some ground beef, add canned tomato sauce, serve it over pasta along with frozen or canned green beans on the side, and while this will not be the healthiest or most natural of meals, at least it will be far better than what we have here. Plus there will be leftovers.