Why do restaurants give kids "plastic" cheese?

[Katy]

But why do so many of them not like real food?

My non picky kid who loves salads most of all, still often prefers some of the fake stuff over the better stuff.  I don't know what to make of that.  I don't even serve that stuff frequently at all. 

 

I suspect it's probably an evolutionary method to keep kids safe.  They'll eat what's familiar but stuff that tastes slightly different is dangerous - it could be poisonous or just contain a bacteria that could make them ill.

 

One of those books about Americans parenting in France (Bringing up Bebe, maybe?) talks about how the French raise kids to like different foods.  In (government) preschools kids are given 4 course meals, each served on separate plates.  They have a rule that the kids don't have to like it, but they DO have to try it, and trying it means taking three bites.  Peer pressure can play into it, but they theorize that for most people to begin to actually like something that would otherwise be an acquired taste you must eat it on at least three separate occasions, and if it's to become a favorite you have to have it something more like ten times.   In lieu of dessert, French preschools apparently serve a wine and (stinky) cheese course.  As a result, apparently most French six year olds have a more developed palate than I do.

[Berta]

We call it plastic cheese too.  I think it came from the La Leche League cookbook in the 80's.  It had a long discussion on how hydrogenated fats were essentially one molecule away from plastic, and how if you leave a plate out with real butter and a plate out with margarine, the butter will melt, attract insects, and disappear.  The margarine will melt a little at the corner and stay in place forever.

 

Since cheese "food" is essentially cheese flavored hydrogenated fat....  well, you get the gist.

 

We call it plastic cheese too, I won't buy it. My kids love cheese for a snack and prefer cheddar, provolone or pepper jack.

 

I definitely won't buy anything that isn't real butter. My daughter and I went out to a steak house for lunch yesterday and I asked for some butter for my steak. They brought me a "butter blend". I asked for real butter, they didn't have it, only the "butter blend".  You'd think in a steak house they would offer real food, not garbage fake butter.

 

We don't eat any grains, rice or flour. My kids love mock-a-roni and cheese which is cauliflower and cheese.

[Cinder]

Eh, those "foods" are chemically engineered to stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain, not unlike crack. 

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21999688

 

I haven't read the article but this comment reminded me of what one of dh's college profs said. He taught a course called Alcohol and Drug Abuse and IIRC his work involved the biochemical processes. During the course he mentioned that Nabisco had tried very hard to get him to work for them.

 

Adds new meaning to that Lays Potato Chip slogan: Betcha can't eat just one.