Consumer reports on high levels of sodium and heavy metals in Lunchables

I’m not educated on this, but my gut says that you can do some wildly unhealthy things occasionally with no consequences. And as far as unhealthy things go, Lunchables are just normal amounts of unhealthy.

The only source I have is Food Science Babe (a food scientist/chemical engineer) on Tiktok. The California numbers are incredibly low and not near any sort of dangerous quantity. There is probably not enough federal regulation but this report didn't do great at providing perspective. Fruits and vegetables can have naturally occurring lead in these quantities. And lunchables are probably fine to eat with all the usual caveats.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLyeanto/

Same video on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5oK1v_AG0r/?igsh=MWkxaTI2ZTh6aW5lcw==

Same video on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/Suc9svE9GTpdQ31F/?mibextid=qi2Omg

Just in case folks want to use the platform of their choice.

I've followed her for a while, I'm not a food scientist but she's decent at debunking a lot of the fad diets and conspiracy theories about food.

My kids don't eat them, but that's because I find them expensive and not very tasty, but I consumed plenty in my childhood and my kids have had them in the past.

That said, I'm not going to stress about it. If I were suddenly in a position to buy them and give them to my kids, I would. Not only did I eat plenty of them as a kid and I'm perfectly ok, but there's plenty of other things I've given my kids that are similarly worrying.

I'm not trying to be dismissive here, but this just can't be at the top of my list, especially when we've got more pressing concerns like PFAS in our water and foods and I hate to say it, but my kids are far more likely to be killed by some driver looking at their phone or another kid with a gun than than they are from high sodium or small amounts of heavy metals.

Do I want my kids to die permanently? No certainly not, but I can't worry about every little thing, because what is the alternative? To seal them in a bubble and hope nothing bad ever happens in their lives? That they're never exposed to risk? Maybe I'm engaging in a false dichotomy here, but there's so many things to threaten my kids over the course of their lives, I cannot possibly worry about all of it. People can lead perfectly healthy lives, exercise every day, eat right, etc and still get cancer and die at age 35 (ask me how I know.)

Sodium is not the worst thing in the world for you, but it's kind of a sneaky thing; eating it makes you crave it, so it can be a bad thing cumulatively. It's not a horrible thing to feed your children once or twice.

That being said, if I had kids I wouldn't want them eating it. Salt is just one of the things it has that is cumulatively bad for them. It's very high in fat. It's very high in saturated fat as well. It contains added sugar. It's highly processed for maximum palatability, which will make them crave food like it, and it gives them an impression that it's OK to make that kind of thing for a meal. If it becomes a habit, it could lead to metabolic disorder. Consumer Reports is perfectly right to request they ban it from school lunch menus; kids are learning at lunch, too.

The plastic trays aren't great for the environment, either.

I understand the need for a release valve for when you can't cook, but I don't think Lunchables are actually that great of an option. They are perishable so if you buy them they will be eaten, especially because they are so relatively expensive. Maybe instead you should cook bigger dinners when you do have time so that you can have leftovers in the freezer? There are many different options you can explore.

I don't think many people (including me) are going to defend lunchables as a good food choice. However, they provide a useful safety valve for when I get overwhelmed and don't have time for lunch prep. For my daughter, there is a status element to them. (I remember this from my childhood as well.)

Some people feel they have this freedom to just condemn in harsh terms anything that a parent does for their child. Often this is based in nothing but feels or tradition. "We didn't do it like that 20 years ago".

For example, give your child a pain au chocolate and a glass of orange juice for breakfast and you're a nice cosy family. Give your kid a doughnut and a glass of orange squash and people will freak out, saying "But look at all that sugar", even though they're roughly the same.

The problem with early sugars is that they are bad for teeth (tooth decay is the leading cause of preventable paediatric hospital admission in UK), and they can set up expectation for sweetness that can be hard to tackle. There's also a bunch of stuff we're still learning about gut flora.

The problem with salts is that they're super common everywhere and too much salt is harmful for children, and so you either have to trust the manufacturers to be sensible or spend your time scrutinising the packets and keeping a running total and that's exhausting. It also sets up a similar problem of needing more salt. The interaction between salt and health is complex, and there are far too many people saying "salt will kill you" and also "salt is fine it's not a problem".

But these problems develop over time. Eating the same thing everyday isn't great, but eating some junk as an occasional treat or low-stress option is fine.

tl;dr people have strong opinions even though the science is still developing. We need to focus on good enough most of the time, rather than perfect at every meal.