2452 Starbucks Rant

Even a former moo-friend of mine, who I thought was a "good parent" until I opened my eyes as to HOW spoiled her daughter is, would buy her 7/year-old coffee when we would meet at the Starbucks or Barnies at the mall. The kid was hyper enough without adding a caffeine drink. Soda did it already for her. I do not understand WHY parents would buy their young children coffee drinks! When I was a sproggie back in the Day, coffee was considered an "adult beverage". Any parent who gave their child coffee was considered a bit dim. As an adult, I know coffee is not good for me due to a health condition so I have cut back to every other day rather than daily. I cannot begin to imagine how this stuff is going to affect a child's intestines that are a LOT more sensitive than my own...

I used to always bug my parents for coffee when I was a kid. Finally, my dad figured out that I wasn't trying to appear "adult". I just loved the stuff! So, his solution was to buy me my own jar of instant decaf. That way I could have my morning Joe, without the side affects.

I bet Moo complains how her daughter is too hyper, and doesn't see the correlation between coffee and hyperactivity. Wouldn't it be funny if the school tried to force her to have the girl tested for ADHD, and had to admit that she's juicing her?

Funny you liked the stuff, Sprogless! It was an acquired taste for me...despite my now being a coffee nut. Your dad was, at least, responsible for giving you decaf. I just don't understand parents of today who give their children "adult drinks" that are not really that great for them. Let them be kids for awhile...

this and the jam(ew..) story makes me convinced americans are a different species..

i drank coffee when i was young, and i didnt go hyper, i ate some containers of jam, (and the plastic tubes you get of ketchup used to bite the end off and suck it clean).. and i did eat some jam,(jelly, here jelly is jello)

a jam and cornflake sandwich. really nice.. it reminds me of a recent story, so many people now think they have an intolerance, but most of them arent checked out by a doctor. i think some of this coffe makes you go hyper, and jam, is all psychosomatic. you tell someone it will make them hyper and they beleive it and they are..

(cross posted on the ew rant as well)

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Merc, I know different cultures serve the children things we don't over here in the States. Europeans have wine with supper. The kids also partake but they do not seem to have the "keggers" as teens as our US sprogs do and act out. Yet...overseas children are not these little angels, either. American sprogs are too babyish to be drinking coffee. Hell, a parent cannot even take a kid to the store without the damned thing acting like a fucking ape on crack!

just seems odd, how kids in the uk can drink coffee no problem (and the wine is only in france and some italian households. not england) and yet we dont go hyper. whether its a cultural thing or what i dont know..

but i only know of one girl who died from caffiene, and she had 12 super high caffiene coffee drinks in itally where the coffee is so strong it melts the spoon, (ok thats an joke but the greek coffees are like syrup.) i know some additives in certain items, the colour blue in the smarties, that caused hyper activity. i wonder if theres additives in the coffee thats made for the US market, that actually does the damage.

http://www.chevroncars.com/learn/food-recipes/coffee-children

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

In the 1970s, the late pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Feingold publicized his discovery of links between artificial colors (dyes) and artificial flavors in food and the dramatic rise in rates of hyperactivity in children that was becoming obvious then. As an example of his findings, he cited a case where a young child quickly became hyper after chewing one stick of red-colored chewing gum. I myself have witnessed young children climbing the walls after being given Kool-Aid, which is nothing but a package of artificial coloring and flavoring that you add sugar water to. Ugh.

He also found links between hyperactivity and chemicals related to salicylic acid that occur naturally in many foods; examples were most citrus fruits except grapefruit. For these foods he generally suggested that parents cautiously put them back in the diet one at a time after cutting out all the artificial stuff referred to above.

His research led to the "Feingold diet", which he said seemed to help about half of the children who had been diagnosed as hyperactive (today more formally known as ADHD), and he avoided making extravagant claims. When he died in the early 1980s, he was working on the idea that undiagnosed food allergies might be a cause of some of the other behavioral problems in children.

Dr. Feingold's point was this: children's biosystems are developing, and loading them with artificial chemicals in foods was having effects on those systems that nobody understood. (Note the recent publicity over lung disease in adults linked to artificial butter flavoring in microwave popcorn. That's just a small example of what we didn't know. At the company in New Jersey where many of these flavorings are made, employees in the manufacturing area often have to wear full "moonsuits" around those chemicals—and we happily eat that same dreck added to what we consume.)

Historically, the doctor noted, people ate more natural foods—not the highly overprocessed crap they eat today, especially as given to children by pahrents who can't be bothered to prepare a healthy meal for their sprogs. A diagnosis of hyperactivity was rare before the 1960s.

Changes in lifestyle play an obvious role as well, of course, as people including kyds became more sedentary in the 1970s. Also, schools began cutting out recess and unstructured recreation time, adding to the problem.

Many parents tried the Feingold diet with generally good success, but psychologists and others with a vested interest in pushing drugs such as Ritalin and Adderal harshly criticized Feingold and the notion that a dietary change could "solve" hyperactivity. In the meantime, the problem has gotten far worse as feeding chyldren junk has become even more the norm. It isn't unusual in my area to see welfare pahrents using food stamps to buy snack and junk food for their sprogs.

Feingold said that modest sugar consumption was not a cause of behavior problems in children. I would submit that today he would be appalled at the sheer levels of sugar consumption in today's youth, not just in junk foods, but also in beverages including caffeine-laden sodas and energy drinks. When I was growing up, a soda was an occasional treat; now I often see pahrents give infants Pepsi or Coke in baby bottles. And not the decaf version, either. As one critic said, pahrents need to think of soft drinks as liquid candy.

According to figures published in one of the newspapers I get, a single 12-ounce can of regular soda has the entire maximum daily dose of caffeine for a 12-year-old chyld. What about these kyds whose parents let them drink several cans a day? Again, I suspect that Dr. Feingold would have had a few things to say about that. He probably also would have expressed alarm at pahrents taking the sprogs to Starbucks for a sugar-, fat-, and caffeine-filled jug of coffee.

And we cannot figure out why the little turds are obese, hyper, and can't pay attention? Duh...

I never had an interest in coffee because I thought it smelled awful. Then I got into pre-mixed vanilla cappucino, and eventually I discovered the joy of 7-11's vanilla cappucino. My discovery of what I consider to be 'good' coffee didn't happen until I got to college.

I don't understand how kids could even like coffee - most places serve it so it still retains some of its bitter taste, and bitter is usually a turn-off to kids. But that's just me, I guess - i need my coffee loaded up with sugar and cream to be palatable.

the greek coffees are like syrup.

That's because Greek coffee's made with very finely-ground coffee, and it's not made with a filter...the coffee's just in there. I used to work for a friend at his cafe; he's Greek and whenever he'd make Greek coffee and the cups would come back to the kitchen, half the bottom of the cup would be sludge!

K2144, my mom and I were in Greece a little over three years ago for vacation. We both love strong coffee. However, even my mom -- the original java junkie -- found the Greek stuff really strong and was shocked at the sludge at the bottom of the cup. I loved it...

K-man, I also remember when soda was an occasional treat rather than something that was automatically served with every meal except breakfast. I also come from an era where even the worst parent packed an actual LUNCH for a child if s/he was not eating in the cafeteria rather than just throw in those Lunchables the bag. I preferred bringing my lunch rather than eating the junk in "the calf" as we called it. Kids are very sedentary nowadays. I had a friend who bought her daughter a bike...but the dim sprog only wanted to ride it in the freaking apartment of all places.