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Leave it to somebody from Brookline to complain about Boston cops giving out Hoodsie cups
By adamg on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 10:57pm
Cleary Squared points out a letter in the Herald from somebody who thinks the cops should be giving out yogurt instead.
Earlier:
Crime-fighting Hoodsie Cups to roll out on the streets of Boston.
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Comments
Would anyone from Brookline
Would anyone from Brookline read the Herald, much less think that the Herald would be a good venue for this letter?
Just as likely, someone fabricated this letter because they know it drives up ad impressions. ;)
fake letter
I was thinking the same thing.
banging on the chicken coop
I think my dad used to refer to this as "banging on a chicken coop". The intention is to get the inmates flapping and squawking to no good end.
The letter-writer is real
I know her, and she's even on my Facebook friends list, even though we disagree on a number of subjects including the Red Sox and ice cream.
omg, are you serious? if it's on Facebook, it must be a FACT
Do you realize that you just typed the phrase, 'she's even on my Facebook friends list'?? Sorry, but that cracked me up... sounds like something my 12 year old niece would say!
Regardless
I knew Susie long before Facebook existed, and she is a real Brookline resident. She used to be a regular writer for the Jewish Advocate and still turns up there occasionally.
Whiners
No matter what you do, how seemingly good it sounds, somebody will always whine - always.
There is a high concentration
There is a high concentration of those whiners on UHub.
Healthy hearts start young,icecream & yogurt spoil : Apple
How about handing out one of the many variety of apples grown right her in New England? I agree with going ix-nay on the icecream. Ever read what's in that stuff? Why anyone feeds their children or themselves a steady diet of chemicals has always been perplexing to me. Open wide, here's some dye and gumatose. More to the point, our community programs should promote and underscore health , even if that's a sidebar result of said program. Healthy hearts start young and get carried on into adulthood. Our youth is obese.
Hey Bamsmom...
Are you a real mother, a spambot or just a troll looking to steal the discussion?
There is a point that there's
There is a point that there's an obesity epidemic that's just as big an issue as stop snitchin'.
However, are you trolling? Kids will not be lured out for locally-grown apples. Except perhaps to throw at each other and city infrastructure. Ice cream and other unhealthy foods can do it. Probably so can foods healthier than ice cream. Or non-food things, like activities, which area police also do. But apples?
heirloom apples
They have a name for those heirloom apples: "spitters". Nothing succeeds like calories.
Roxbury Russet apples are quite tasty
and I think they fall into the 'heirloom' category. You find them towards the end of the fall farmers' market season.
(Not that I recommend handing them out instead of Hoodsies.)
Lured out
That's kind of the key, isn't it? Obesity is caused in large part by kids sitting around inside instead of being outside playing. If a free Hoodsie lures the kids outside to frolic for a bit, they'll quickly burn off the 100 calories in the cup. It's not just the grownups who are virtual prisoners in their houses; the kids have it worse. A free Hoodsie cup, and the cops are right there, makes a combination of treat and safety that gives these kids some relief.
Live from the chicken coop (the chickens are now asleep)....
First of all, thanks for the responses (I have to remember swirrly girl's "banging on the chicken coop" phrase!).
The Boston Police are at a quandary - they cannot get information from people who are shit-scared of retribution (aka "stop snitching") so they're coming up with creative ideas to get people in the area to start talking about things in the area that are good and problems in the area that are bad. The cheaper you can get your intelligence, the quicker you can solve those problems on the streets.
When you give a kid a Hoodsie Cup (I'll be fair and say if there were kids with dairy or sugar problems, the cops should have alternatives on hand) one minute and he turns around and becomes a treasure trove of information that solves a long-dead cold case, or shuts down a multi-million dollar drug operation, puts violent gangbangers and car jackers in jail AND brings peace to his area, then you've saved the entire neighborhood from being virtual prisoners in their homes. The police are no longer looked at as the enemy; no longer do they come on the command of a 911 dispatcher, but can patrol the neighborhood, be welcomed by residents, and be part of the solution, not the problem.
What infuriated me is when well-meaning people turn a great idea like the Boston Police rolled out and hijack the discussion into a bitchfest about what's good food and what's bad food. Ignore the calorie counts and the fat content for a second and think about the alternatives: a parent preparing their child for a funeral because two rival gangs decide to battle over turf. A fiancee walking behind the casket of her beloved because he got carjacked. A young teenager beaten and on life support because he wouldn't give up his cellphone. A young girl assaulted by four boys. While it looks like fodder for the local news, it exists and you can't wish it away by wagging your finger or trying to change the subject.
(And one more thing: I'm hoping Bamsmom is a real mother and not a troll/spambot.)
Well put
They should probably have done something that doesn't involve dairy and white sugar and heavily processed sheeit, like some high-quality sorbets or something, but yeah, the general idea of the program is good. Yes, American eating habits need to be addressed, but we also shouldn't just scrap the program and let kids keep getting killed. I'd rather have an alive kid with acne and GI problems and asthma and obesity. At least ice-cream-related societal issues are reversible.
And really...apples?! Hey, I'm quite a health-food nut, and I love apples, but there's no way I'd be headed out to get a free apple somewhere.
Hate to break it to you all
But a 100 calorie snack (even 50% of which comes from fat calories) is NOT bad for you. In fact, it's pretty much exactly the right size.
Too much ice cream is bad for you. You don't want to eat a whole Ben & Jerry's after already having a 2000 calorie day...but each kid getting one Hoodsie cup is NOT bad for their health.
Everything in moderation
Exactly, as Kaz said.
Basically correct
Yeah, the calories and fat content of this serving size aren't a problem. But you know what is a problem?
MILKFAT AND NONFAT MILK, BUTTERMILK, SUGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, WHEY, MONO & DIGLYCERIDES, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, GUAR GUM, LOCUST BEAN GUM, POLYSORBATE 80, CARRAGEENAN AND YELLOW 5 &6.
Dairy, high fructose corn syrup, sugar that I assume is the white heavily processed type, artificial flavors, food coloring. There are much more nutrient-dense and less-full-of-crap fatty sugary snacks they could hand out.
Dairy is bad?
For lactose-intolerant adults like me, sure, but most kids can consume it just fine.
They can also
consume food coloring and high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils with no immediate bad effects.
but those are unnatural industrial food products
while dairy has been part of childrens' diets for thousands of years.
Natural products
Other natural, minimally processed products include cocaine, marijuana, lard, hemlock...
(But how's it natural for non-infant humans to drink the milk of another species?)
How it is natural
It is natural for humans to drink the milk of cows because cows were domesticated from wild aurochs 8-10,000 years ago specifically for the purposes of human cow milk consumption. This is about the same time as the cultivation of wheat began, which means that humans drinking cow milk is as natural as humans eating wheat. Humans have also evolved in response, gaining (most of us) the ability, unique among mammals, to digest lactose as adults. Cattle and humans evolved jointly. We exist as we are because of them, and they exist as they are because of us. It is as natural for humans to drink cow milk as it is for cows to exist.
Where are the goalposts?
If the question is "Is a Hoodsie cup 'bad' for kids?" then the answer is no.
If the question is "Are there better things for kids to eat than Hoodsie cups?" then the answer is yes.
But the latter question doesn't address the situation correctly at all. A cup of boiled spinach would be "better" for the kids to eat than a Hoodsie cup...but I don't see the letter writer suggesting that. Eating 100 calories of ice cream as a treat just isn't a bad habit. Eating your entire daily caloric intake of ice cream would be. There's nothing inherently wrong with HFCS, CS, sugar (bleached white or otherwise), dairy (ignoring the question of lactose intolerance), artificial flavors, or even food coloring...when the whole package is only coming up to 100 calories...so long as the rest of your diet that day consisted of 100% of the other keys to good health (vitamins, minerals, etc.) in the right proportions and the total calories was maintained at whatever your personal level should be (probably in the range of 2000 calories).
Now, since this isn't Mr. Goodbody's Ice Cream truck, I can't see the hand-wringing concern over having the cops hand out ice cream instead of "something better" when what they're handing out will be an absolute treat AND isn't bad for the kids on its own.
Is this the same person who
Is this the same person who posted a diatribe about Hoodsie Cups on their Facebook page? I commented over there when I saw it yesterday. What a crackpot post that was. BTW frozen yogurt is not much better than ice cream, and she's kidding herself if she thinks it's a health food.
Link please?
Hard to answer your question unless you provide one. Thanks.