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Saturday, February 20, 2010

Arthur episode: what food would you choose?







My kids watched this episode of Arthur recently. I'm including the video in case you want to watch it. For those of you who get enough kids television ( I know I do!), I'll give you the gist of it.

Mr. Ratburn gives his students an assignment. They are supposed to choose one food that they would bring to a desert island. They need to choose the food that would sustain life as long as possible if this was their only food.

Interesting question. The kids come up with a few different answers:

Buster decides to bring ice cream. Mr. Ratburn says that this choice gives you "calcium, but not enough vitamins, fiber or protein."

Francine chooses BBQ potato chips. Mr. Ratburn is worried about the salt content of those.

Arthur wants to bring breakfast cereal. His teacher says, "How long can anyone survive on sugar and yellow dye #5?" He says that this choice gives carbs, but with far too much refined sugar and too little protein.

In the end, the kids get together and each bring one food from one of the food groups. They explain that you need a lot of different foods to be healthy.

I think most of us would agree that we wouldn't want to live off of one food for the rest of our lives. But, back to the original assignment-- what one item would sustain life for the longest? And what one item would you bring?

I'll post my answer on Monday, based on some recent reading I've done. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject and see what food you would choose!

And don't forget to enter my giveaway for Michael Pollan's new book. It ends 2/22.

4 comments:

  1. This is fun! I'd bring a hen, so I could have lovely eggs. (And thank you for not making me watch the cartoon.)

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  2. Good question! I would take a supply of sprouts. Here is why, we recently had a discussion, amongst my sisters, about sprouts and how good they are for you. One sister said,

    "...The ultimate survival food is sprouts--babies, older people, special diets--everyone can eat them in some form. When activated by water, seeds increase in nutrition from 100 to several thousand percent because they are alive and manufacturing vitamins, etc. from their own storage, that our bodies cannot manufacture even if given the raw materials. One 45-lb bucket of the Life Sprout mixture (all organic: adzuki bean, peas, lentils, mung beans, triticale, wheat, fenugreek) when sprouted, provides pretty much every nutrient that you would need for one person for one year."
    I'm not saying they would fill you up, just nourish you.

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  3. Chanelle, I just love your blog! You are a woman of many talents. I really can't think what to take, but I'm sure a big bag of Sour Patch Kids would only keep me alive for a few days! Can't wait to hear what you would take!

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  4. I would bring raw milk. Is their a fridge on this island?

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