Letters To George's Letter To Children

Dear George, we have been divorced for six years, but there is an issue that has been weighing on me and I want to address it with you in this letter. Through the years we have shared custody of our two children and done our best with setting our personal differences aside while handling issues concerning Dimitri and Victoria. As you know by now, I have shifted my personal beliefs towards a natural approach with all things concerning life and wellbeing: health, clothing, food, mentality etc. At the same time I have been introducing our children to the concepts that are new to them, even though some of those concepts appear to be intuitive. For example, I make every effort to ensure that their diet is completely made up of whole organically grown food that can be found in nature. They often desire foods that in my opinion should not be approved for human consumption, like drinks containing flame retardants (citrus flavored sodas and sports drinks with a

synthetic compound known as brominated vegetable oil), potato chips that were cooked with unhealthy replacements of oil and so on. I try to have daily discussions with them connecting the cause - what we put in our bodies and effect - what consequences that may have on our health and quality of life. I am not trying to persuade you to switch to all organic produce, which would be great for kids and you alike. However, I am asking you to stop feeding hot dogs to our kids, to help them avoid health risks associated with consumption of processed meat . We have touched on this subject in the past, and I would like to discuss this in more depth and explain my opinion in contrast with yours.
Sausage, Frankfurt, wiener, Frankfurter – whatever is the name is on the package – you can purchase it at every grocery store across our nation. Eight very attractive, uniformly sized, shiny and smooth, caramel colored sausages stuffed in a see through plastic package can be purchased at our local Wal-Mart for two and a half dollars plus tax. I get it. The price seems great, and you feel good about yourself. Some cole slaw, a package of buns and sausage can land you a family dinner for slightly over ten bucks. I recognize your desire to be frugal. It is great that you are looking to have the extra money to do fun things with the kids, or even just for yourself. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as you don’t jeopardize the health of your own children. You might ask: how saving money and the health of our children are correlated? Well I am so glad you asked.
It turns out that there is a meaning to the saying: “You get what you pay for”. A package of sausage, which can be purchased for less than a cup of coffee, contains a little more than the beef that you notice in the big bold letters on the front of the package. Let us take a look at the list of the ingredients that you and the kids are consuming with the bun, mustard, ketchup and a little relish on the side. A package of Gwaltney Angus beef hot dogs contains the following: beef, water, corn syrup, flavorings, modified food starch, salt, sodium phosphates, sodium erythorbate, sodium citrate, extractives of paprika, sodium nitrite. Wow! That was a mouthful! According to cancer.org nitrates, added to processed meats to help preserve color and “freshness”, are known to cause colon cancer of the oral cavity, urinary bladder, esophagus, stomach and brain. So this should help answer your question about how saving money and our children’s health are connected. There is an option for nitrate free hot dogs. However those wieners have a brown tint to them, so they are not popular with the consumers and therefore not every store offers them.
I remember you also mentioning that cooking hot dogs doesn’t require much time: in summer they could be grilled over the flame for a couple of minutes or just “nuke ‘em “ in the microwave for a minute and dinner is ready in no time. No pots and pans to clean, no time spent by the stove and you can get on with your busy life. I can most definitely see the advantage there. With our lives filled with demanding bosses, growing children, and piled up bills it surely sounds good to be able to save time in the kitchen and spend it elsewhere. But I urge you to take a look at that time in the kitchen differently. If you asked kids to help you pick out recipes for the week ahead, invited them to go grocery shopping together and also involved them in the time spent in the kitchen preparing the meal you could reap more benefits than just saving time. Children could learn that real food does take time to prepare. They would also learn the skills of planning ahead, shopping for the items on the grocery list and could also pick up on your cooking skills as well as help you with the dishes. As a matter of fact, that is exactly what we do at my house and this would help them feel like things are more stable and similar in both of their homes.
In addition you said that hot dogs store very well in the fridge.

You can buy several packs and keep in one of the drawers for months without spoilage. Although this may be true, I want to point out once again that the only reason why this so called “meat” product is not turning rancid is because it is filled with nitrates that we discussed earlier and if I were you I would stay away from anything that doesn’t spoil in over a week in the refrigerator.
In the same fashion I’d like to point out that your last argument that hotdogs are versatile and can be dressed up with different condiments and sauces also holds value. I first-handedly know how important it is to offer different flavors and kinds of meals to kids to keep them motivated to finish their dinner each time. I assure you that kids would truly be motivated to eat the meal that they helped select, shopped for the ingredients and then helped cook. They would feel more involved and more confident in themselves as their skills in the kitchen would

evolve.
Imagine spending an hour in the kitchen, with all three of you wearing aprons, everyone has a task. Dimitri is slicing tomatoes while telling about his day at school, Victoria is peeling garlic and you are putting steak on the cast iron pan. This is what quality time together looks like. And watching a movie together will also count as time spent with the kids, but possibly not as quality as cooking a meal. In addition I wanted to share my recipe books and favorite cooking blogs that offer easy recipes that take under an hour to prepare. I personally like to use my slow cooker. I found that I can purchase tougher cuts of meat at a cheaper price, compared to more desirable pieces and cook them in my slow cooker till they become tender. This requires no time by the stove and clean up is a piece of cake as well. I also like to have meatless meals, where the main protein ingredients are mushrooms or lentils. They keep kids’ tummies full and they are much cheaper than the meats. You are a great father to our children and I truly hope that you can take my points to heart and find suitable replacements to hot dogs in the menu at your home.