Skip to main content

News Flash

This just in: in a study of one baby at one meal, babies prefer french fries to baby food. (This reminds me of the real study the mother of one of my brother's friends did. There is an older study (from the 1930s, I think) that shows that children will naturally choose to eat a balanced diet when given choices of what to eat. My brother's friend's mother (a nutritionist at U of MN) showed that when the choices include junk food, the junk food wins every time. Thus proving that parents are still necessary.)

In other fast breaking news, mothers prefer to waste time blogging rather than clean up the kitchen.

Comments

C. L. Hanson said…
LOL!!! Coincidentally, I've made the exact same discoveries at my house. ;^)
mathmom said…
Hey Chanson!

That's great! Now I can increase the sample to 2.

Did I write waste time blogging? I meant to write spend time blogging... =)
Danlj said…
If fading memory serves me correctly, the old nutrition research asked whether, given a variety of foods to freely choose, an uninstructed child would natively choose a balanced diet or an unbalanced one. To rephrase, given a selection of healthy foods, would the child eat only favorites, or choose a variety to its nutritional needs?

I am quite sure that the cafeteria did not include chocolate bars, cream puffs, peanut butter cookies, or taffy. And the hamburger + french fry combo was basically an invention of Ray Kroc.

And I enjoyed the use of 'waste' as an irony.
DJ
mathmom said…
Hi Dan! That jives with what I remember about the research as well. The other thing I remember is that they included many food choices that we do not consider these days (obscure parts of animals, for example).

What I have read in the more recent parenting books is that some people took the study to mean, "feed your kids whatever they will eat and they will end up ok!" The parenting books point out what you did, that (depending on what is in your house) this is not a good way to feed your child. On the other hand, they do say not to worry if you are offering healthy choices and all your child will eat for a few days is peas, or cheese, or some other healthy choice.
Anonymous said…
Ha Ha.
In other fast breaking news I prefer to read Moms blog than go to bed

Ella

Popular posts from this blog

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Cardan

Southern butter mints---vegan edition

After the last post, we started to be able to see what the fuss was about.  The ones made with twice the butter were the best candy I have ever tasted.  Ever.  So then we started experimenting.  How long do you pull it?  Longer than you think.  And then pull a minute or two after that.  Suddenly every single batch was creaming, pretty much right after we would cut them. I tried adding less than double butter and I think they taste much better (more delicate, according to one taste tester). The latest experiment we did involved using Earth Balance instead of butter.  It cooked pretty much the same as usual, although I was distracted right at the moment I had to pull it off the stove so it cooked maybe a bit longer than usual.  Amanda and I each pulled a quarter, while Luke pulled the bigger half.  Luke's really wasn't turning very fast---perhaps because it was too hot when he took it off the marble.  Mine was turning faster than Amanda's so we traded for a while.  Aman

Southern Butter Mints part 1

Some friends of ours have a granddaughter getting married (and she's a friend of ours as well) and so I agreed to help out with the shower.  Apparently this is to be a "southern" shower, full of tradition and elegance, but not too far over the top. Among things that are needed for a shower are punch with great grandma's punch bowl, sandwiches with cream cheese and green pepper jelly, and southern pulled butter mints.  "Ah, nobody can make those anymore.  We used to know someone, but the tradition needs to be passed down."  Like a fool, I said that I'd be happy to give it a try.  I suffer greatly from "I got a PhD in math, how hard could X be?" where X is something like gardening, or quilting, or cleaning, etc.  It's always harder than I think it will be. "We'll call Mrs. X who makes these, maybe she'll pass down the method.  I hope you don't hate me!"  I was actually planning on doing research online, watching a fe