Big Food is doing this to parents again...

The other day I was walking through the grocery store and saw this huge back-to-school display.

But it wasn’t backpacks and school supplies.

It was filled with junk food marketed for kids’ lunchboxes. Little packs of Cheez-Its, Goldfish, fruit snacks, pudding cups... all packaged up to make parents feel like this is what we’re supposed to buy when our kids go back to school.

And it makes me so mad because Big Food is preying on busy parents.

They know parents are looking for quick and easy things to throw into a lunchbox, so they package up ultra-processed junk in cute little individual bags and market it as “back-to-school” food.

Here’s the truth about some of these products lining the shelves right now...

LUNCHABLES

These are filled with ultra-processed ingredients like sodium nitrite, sodium phosphates, highly processed seed oils, corn syrup, natural flavors, and soy lecithin.

Sodium nitrite is strongly linked to cancer and heart disease, and highly processed seed oils are linked to chronic inflammation in the body.

CHEEZ-ITS

Cheez-Its contain TBHQ, a controversial preservative that may harm the immune system and increase the risk of food allergies.

And some varieties, like Cheddar Jack, are spiked with MSG and other flavor enhancers (like disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate)....which when mixed with MSG can amplify the flavor of food up to 8 times!

GOLDFISH

If you look at the ingredients in Goldfish, they might seem pretty simple at first.

But they’re made with refined white flour, highly processed seed oils, and autolyzed yeast extract, a form of hidden MSG designed to hijack your child's taste buds and get them addicted to the product.

Independent tests have also found glyphosate (Roundup) residues in Goldfish crackers. This weed killer is linked to cancer and numerous other health issues.

WELCH’S FRUIT SNACKS

Fruit snacks are the perfect example of how Big Food takes something healthy like fruit and turns it into a science experiment.

Welch’s says “Whole Fruit is our main ingredient" right on the front of the package, but they’re still chock full of juice concentrate, GMO corn syrup, artificial flavors, and synthetic vitamins.

JELL-O PUDDING CUPS

These are filled with refined sugar, artificial flavors, and highly processed hydrogenated oils. You'll still find artificial dyes Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 in their vanilla and swirl puddings. 

And that milk they contain is conventional milk, which was likely raised with herbicide-laden GMO feed, hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs.

Thankfully, you don’t have to buy this junk just because it comes in a convenient little package for your child's lunch.

Here are some packaged snacks I actually buy for my kids:

• Simple Mills crackers and Pop Mmms
• Solely fruit snacks and fruit leather
• Truvani bars
• Epic wild smoked salmon strips
• Peaceful Fruits
• Sun-Maid Organic Raisins
• Truvani electrolyte drink mix (instead of juice boxes)

But packaged snacks are only a small part of what goes into my kids’ lunches.

I always make sure they have a good source of organic protein, fresh fruit, vegetables, and real food. And leftovers from dinner are great for lunches too!

Big Food wants us to believe kids need special “lunchbox foods.”

They don’t.

Xo,
Vani

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22 lunches a month, minus the harmful additives

Every year when the kids head back to school, I'm saddened that so many school districts feed children hot dogs, greasy pizza, and nachos for lunch.

How this has even become acceptable is the subject of a future email... but in the meantime, I want to remind you to do whatever you can to take control of the situation by packing your own lunches.

Every homemade lunch is another chance to avoid thousands of unnecessary food additives.

But don't go down the path of buying all those conveniently packaged "Back-to-School" snacks and drinks lining the grocery store shelves. They're just as unhealthy, maybe worse, than what they serve in many school cafeterias.

They're filled with the same additives I tell you to avoid like: BHT, TBHQ, artificial colors and loads of added sugar.

Even organic packaged foods can be extremely processed and unhealthy without any real nutrition.

And it took me years to think about the lunchbox itself.

Then I looked into it. A while back, an independent lab tested 20 popular back-to-school items. 75% came back high in phthalates, hormone-disrupting chemicals used to make vinyl soft. One Dora backpack tested at 16 times the phthalate limit set for children's toys. A Disney lunchbox was loaded with the same thing.

These chemicals are restricted in children's toys. Yet backpacks and lunchboxes have not been subject to the same phthalate limits.

Phthalates are linked to asthma, early puberty, and learning and behavior problems in kids. And they don't stay put. They off-gas into the air and leach onto hands and food.

So this year, don't just think about what goes inside the lunchbox. Think about the lunchbox itself.

The lunchbox

Soft vinyl lunch bags were the worst offenders in that study. Plastic containers bring their own problems, usually BPA or its cousins.

I use a stainless steel bento from ECOlunchbox. No plastic, no lining, nothing to leach into food. And it holds up, which is its own kind of proof.

The backpack

Skip anything shiny and plasticky, anything labeled vinyl, and anything with a recycling #3. That's usually PVC, which is where the phthalates live. Waterproof coatings are worth a second look too, since those often mean PFAS.

Choose natural fibers like cotton, canvas, or hemp, or plain nylon and polyester. 

Hand cleaning

A lot of school supply lists still ask for hand sanitizer. Most of it is either drying alcohol gel or an antimicrobial that kills off good bacteria and feeds resistance. The CDC's own guidance is that plain soap and water is the better call.

Pack a Branch Basics mini foaming wash in each bag instead. Real soap, no synthetic fragrance, no harsh surfactants, small enough to clip in a front pocket. They can use it before lunch and you’re not sending an endocrine disruptor to school in a squeeze bottle.

When you’re packing lunches, here’s what to look for:

Bread: Skip conventional loaves, which carry glyphosate and a long additive list. I order from Organic Bread of Heaven, or Grindstone Bakery if your kid eats gluten-free. Grindstone is organic and one of the only gluten-free loaves I've found that holds together instead of crumbling.

Sandwiches: Deli meats often contain nitrates and ultra-processed ingredients, so choose organic and pasture-raised, or roast and slice your own. For PB&J, a nut butter that's just nuts and salt plus a fruit-sweetened jam skips the seed oils and added sugar in the usual versions.

Sides: This is where the seed oils and added sugar pile up. Instead of dyed yogurt tubes, pack plain whole-milk yogurt and add your own fruit. Instead of neon crackers and chips, go with an organic whole-food cracker, or cut veggies and hummus.

Drinks: Water beats every juice box and dye-colored sports drink on the shelf. For more hydration, I add Truvani Electrolytes, which the kids love with no added colors, fake flavors, or artificial sweeteners.

If you want the fastest single upgrade, make it the lunchbox. It's the one item that touches food every single day, and going from soft vinyl to stainless steel takes one purchase.

You don't have to change everything overnight. Start with one swap, then another. Before you know it, you've transformed your child's lunch and they’ll feel so much better for it! 

Xo,
Vani

P.S. Code FOODBABE will get you an exclusive discount for ECOlunchbox, Branch Basics, Organic Bread of Heaven and Grindstone Bakery.

P.P.S. At Food Babe, we only promote products we love to use. If you buy a product we link to, we may earn a commission.

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I warned Big Food what’s coming...

I didn’t expect to find myself back in Washington, D.C. again so soon.

But when Secretary Kennedy’s team invited me to speak at a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services event on Monday, I was truly honored to be included. It was an opportunity to share my perspective and advocate for the health of American families on the national stage, one I’m incredibly grateful to have been given.

I told Big Food what is going to happen if they keep poisoning us.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

I will keep fighting for you no matter who is in office. 

For the last 15 years, I’ve been fighting alongside you to expose what is happening to our food and demand better from the biggest food corporations in the world.

And the pressure has been building. 

Food companies are removing artificial dyes. Americans are reading ingredient labels. And leaders in our government are working to close loopholes that allowed these chemicals into our food supply for decades.

But we have so much more work to do.

We have to keep pushing until every American knows what ultra-processed food really is and every family can walk into a grocery store and buy real food without worrying about the chemicals hidden inside it.

Please share my speech on Instagram, Facebook, X, or YouTube so we can keep the pressure on Big Food.

Xo,

Vani

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The back-to-school item nobody thinks about

Your kids are about to sit down for the school year.

Class, then homework, then a screen. A lot of kids are sitting 7 or 8 hours a day, most of it hunched forward over a laptop or a phone.

The problem is our bodies are built to move, not to hold one position for hours.

Hold one slouched, head-forward position for hours and circulation drops while the muscles and connective tissue slowly adapt to that shape.

In a kid that's a bigger deal. Childhood and the teen years are when the spine and movement habits are still forming, so a posture repeated every day can set the pattern for life. 

Poor ergonomics in childhood raises the risk of chronic musculoskeletal problems in adulthood by 70%. Nearly 39% of American adults already report back pain, and a lot of it started at a desk decades earlier.

Humanscale's Managing Ergonomics Consultant wrote a genuinely useful piece on this, Growing Up with Screens. It walks through what to watch for by age and how to set up a space that protects a growing body.

Did you know Cornell and Virginia Tech researchers found that only a small fraction of people know how to operate their own desk chair?

Most can't recline without hunting for a lever, so they don't. They sit locked in one position all day.

Picture that with a kid. You're not going to teach an 11-year-old to work tension dials and tilt locks. They'll sit however the chair leaves them, usually still and slumped.

This is what Humanscale solved.

Humanscale got rid of the springs, levers, and dials entirely and built the chair around one idea: your own body weight moves it. Lean, and it reclines with you. Shift, and it follows. Nothing to learn, nothing to adjust. 

For a kid, that means the chair keeps them moving all day without anyone telling them to.

I've sat in a Freedom Ocean chair in my office for years. I lean, it moves, I never think about it, and I'm not stiff at the end of a long day the way I used to be.

For kids, the one that fits is the Diffrient World. Same movement principle, built for a growing body, and it's the chair Humanscale's ergonomist points parents to.

Then there's what the chair is made of.

You already read ingredient labels on a box before you feed your kids. Furniture typically has no such label. Humanscale puts a Declare label on every product, listing what's inside like  a nutrition label lists ingredients. They were first in the industry to do it. 

For the next 48 hours only, the Food Babe community can save 25% sitewide at Humanscale with code FOODBABE—an offer they almost never run. Ends Tuesday, August 11 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

The Diffrient World for your kids, the Freedom Ocean for your own desk, or anything else that needs replacing. 

Shop Humanscale here →

This is the week everyone's buying backpacks and notebooks. The chair they sit in may be the thing that matters most..

Xo,
Vani

P.S. I highly recommend you read  Growing Up with Screens. Even the free tips in there, screen at eye level, feet flat, move every 30 minutes, will help your kid whether or not you change a single piece of furniture.

P.P.S. At Food Babe, we only promote products we love and use ourselves. If you buy a product we link to, we may earn a commission.

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I warned you about this ingredient in Hidden Valley Ranch...

If you're buying Hidden Valley Ranch, gluten-free baking mixes, almond milk, Starbucks Frappuccinos, Quest bars, or bottled salad dressing...

I need to warn you about an ingredient hiding inside many of them.

It's called xanthan gum....

For years the food industry has told us it’s safe…

But a brand new study found that rats regularly fed xanthan gum developed colon inflammation, changes in gut bacteria, and damage to the gut lining.

Researchers said the xanthan gum opened the intestinal barrier, triggering an "inflammatory cascade".

This ingredient is made from GMO corn and added to thousands of packaged foods on the shelf.

The industry tells you it's "just a gum" to make products thicker and creamier.

It isn't there to benefit your health. It's there to make processed food cheaper and easier to manufacture.

If it's capable of triggering inflammation, why should it be in our food at all?

The best way to avoid xanthan gum is simple.

Flip over the package and read the ingredient list.

You may be shocked how often it shows up.

If someone you love might be buying products with xanthan gum, please share this with them on Instagram, Facebook, or X. 

Xo,

Vani

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5 things I pack for a day outside

We've all had the version of a summer day that goes wrong. Someone's out of water by noon. The food you packed is warm. Nobody has a hat. You reapplied sunscreen once, at 10am, and everyone's pink by 2.

I've had all of those days. I've packed the same bag enough times now that I've stopped thinking about it. Here are 5 things in it.

1. Water. More than you think you need.

A liter per person for a half day, more if it's over 85 degrees. I bring stainless steel bottles so I never have to worry about a plastic bottle purchase.

The mistake I made for years was bringing one bottle and refilling it at whatever fountain was around. Now I just bring enough.

2. Easy, portable food.

Anything that needs refrigeration is a gamble. What actually holds up: whole fruit, nuts, cut vegetables, homemade trail mix, Truvani bars and protein single serves, crackers, hard cheese if it's in a cooler, a sandwich made an hour before you leave.

What doesn't: anything with mayo, that melts, or anything you packed the night before and forgot in the sun.

3. A hat with a real brim.

Almost always I have my wide-brimmed summer hat on. Baseball caps leave your ears and the back of your neck completely exposed. They're the two spots nobody ever remembers to protect.

A wide brim covers what sunscreen usually misses.

4. Sunscreen your kids will actually let you apply.

This is the one that changed my whole summer.

For years, sunscreen was a fight. Cold lotion, sandy hands, kids twisting away from me on a towel while I tried to get their face. Half the time I gave up and did a bad job.

Then I found the Water-Resistant Performance Mineral Sunscreen Stick from Active Skin Repair, and the fight ended.

It's a stick. You swipe it on. No squeezing, no rubbing in, no getting it on your hands and then on everything you touch. My kids apply their own, which is the only version of sunscreen that actually gets reapplied.

Non-nano zinc oxide as the active ingredient, so it sits on top of your skin instead of soaking in. Jojoba oil is in the formula so it goes on smooth instead of dragging. No oxybenzone, octinoxate, parabens, phthalates, or synthetic fragrances.

Water-resistant, reef safe, and HSA/FSA eligible.

It also fits in a pocket. Mine lives in the side pouch of the bag, which means I actually have it at hour three when everyone needs a second coat.

Use code FOODBABE to save 20%.

Shop the Sunscreen Stick →

5. Something to sit on.

A towel, a blanket, a cheap folding chair. Hot benches, wet grass, and gravel have ruined more afternoons than weather ever has.

It's the item people skip and then regret at hour two, when the only shade is over a concrete ledge nobody wants to sit on.

That's the whole list. Water, food that holds up, a hat, sunscreen you'll actually reapply, something to sit on.

The bag takes 5 minutes to pack and it's the difference between a good day outside and going home early.

Xo,
Vani

P.S. The reapplication is the part everyone skips. Sunscreen wears off in about 2 hours, faster if you're swimming or sweating. A stick in your pocket is the only reason I ever remember to do it.

P.P.S. At Food Babe, we only promote products we love to use. If you buy a product we link to, we may earn a commission.

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Final Day: Truvani Electrolyte Launch Offer

Heads up...

The launch offer on our Truvani Electrolytes ends tonight at midnight.

After that, it's gone.

>> Click here to get yours while stock lasts.

I'm not going to lie…

This has been one of the biggest launches we've ever done.

Electrolytes were the most requested product our community has been asking us for, and now that they're here, it's been kind of crazy watching the orders roll in.

I don't know how much of the first batch we have left, but it's going a lot faster than we expected.

And once it's gone, we can't restock for several weeks because of how long it takes to produce with organic ingredients.

If you haven't had a chance to try them yet, here's what you're getting in every serving:

• Sodium – helps your body hold onto the water you're drinking instead of flushing it right through
• Potassium – keeps your brain sharp and your muscles from cramping up
• Magnesium – gives your cells the energy they need and keeps muscle tension at bay
• Calcium – supports your bones and helps your body recover faster

No synthetic citric acid, no maltodextrin, no stevia, and no "natural flavors" hiding anything on the label.

The deals get better the more boxes you add to your order.

After midnight tonight, this offer goes away.

Get Our New Electrolyte Mix Now >>

Xo,

Vani 

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