Dear Tyson,
I was innocently watching a show with my uber-impressionable 3 year old the other night when the new commercial, advertising your chicken nuggets, came on. As I watched each child tell me what they didn't like to eat, I waited for the positive message that I was sure HAD to be coming at the end. You know something along the lines of how we should eat our veggies or try new things. That would have been a good message to send to the kids. Instead the "Ah-ha" moment of your nice little commercial was, since your child doesn't like real, nutritious food, you should just feed them Tyson frozen chicken nuggets instead. I understand that some children are picky eaters. That doesn't mean that parents should give up and feed their kids meals from the freezer every night. Children's palates should be cultivated, not catered to. How are they supposed to learn to appreciate good food if we stop offering it to them?
Now, I know you claim your nuggets are "all natural" and everything, but I seriously have issue with the fact that in 1 serving of your nuggets (6 nuggets) there are 21 grams of fat. That is 32% of the RDA of fat based on a 2,000 calorie diet!! Since my child is 3 and should consume roughly 1,200 calories a day that would be ~53% of his recommended daily intake of fat. Just in case you didn't know, that is actually MORE fat (4 more grams) than there is in a 6 piece Chicken McNuggets from McDonalds, and yours are baked!!!
I'm actually very happy that my son is a wonderful eater and doesn't especially like your frozen nuggets. We eat dinner as a family almost every night and he eats what we eat. He is not allowed to simply look at a food and say he doesn't like it. We live by the 2 bite rule. He has to eat two bites of something before he can decide he doesn't want to eat it. This doesn't mean he won't have to try it again! The next time I serve it, the same 2 bite rule applies. I can count the number of food items on one hand that he doesn't like. If I had just thrown in the towel and offered him nuggets the first time he didn't like something, he may have turned into a picky eater. I'm glad I didn't. You shouldn't tell parents that they should either.
Sincerely,
The mom who will not be buying ANY more Tyson nuggets
If you have something you want to get off that chest, head on over to Julie's and share it with the group. It's like therapy, only cheaper.
Wow, I need to watch the commercials a little closer! I have an extremely picky eater but it is because of a textural issue related to his autism. I so wish I could force the 2 bite rule on him, but he will vomit on his plate and ruin everyone's meal. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up, I think you ought to send this off to Tyson and see what they say.
Nice. Well, I guess they are following in every other food giants footsteps, huh?
ReplyDeleteSo true! I'm like you in that we all eat the same dinner. Children eat what they're taught to eat. Of course, we all have a food or two that we just don't like. My son is a great eater and really doesn't even like Nuggets that much!
ReplyDeleteWell said! I agree 100%, and we used to enforce a 1-bite rule...not so much these days, but I refuse to be a short-order cook. You should definitely send this one to Tyson.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sucks that they'd put a commercial out there like that. But I bet there's lots of parents who chicken-nugget their kids most nights and if Tyson wants to pretend they're healthy, UGH!
ReplyDeleteChildren should never have food that comes with commercial. it's better children have good fruits.
ReplyDeleteHardship letter
I stopped buying those nuggets long ago. Crazy commercial too. Not a fan of that.
ReplyDeleteAlways said take one bite and if you don't like it don't eat it!
ReplyDeletehardship letter