Hold the Milk Duds, Pass the Trail Mix

If movie theaters offered them, would you buy granola bars? Veggies and dip? Fruit cups? Do you sneak in your own healthy snacks and drinks already, even though it’s against the rules at most theaters? Or are you, like a lot of moviegoers in cyberspace, outraged that the head of Sony would dare suggest to theater owners that they add healthier options to their sugar- and fat-filled concession counters?

Michael Lynton, chairman and chief executive officer for Sony, didn’t say theaters should get rid of junk food. No, he’s in the business of profits too (and the food counter earns theaters a lot of dough). But in his speech to an industry convention, Lynton cited a survey Sony conducted that found 60 percent of parents would prefer to have healthier choices – including those listed above, as well as air-popped popcorn, baked chips and yogurt.

Call me a granola-crunching food nazi if you want to, but I’d be thrilled if theaters and museums and amusement parks and science centers and all the places kids and parents go to have fun made it easier for us to find and consume healthier foods.

Let me give you an example from yesterday: The boys and I visited a beloved St. Louis destination with another mom and her two daughters. At lunchtime we splurged on pizzas for the kids, but when I tried to get a couple of milks, the over-worked cashier discovered that they were all expired. So the already glacially slow line had to wait while she removed all the milk from the shelf – earning no points for me and my healthy choices!  There was no bottled water; we settled for flavored water.

The delay gave me time to notice a small basket of apples and oranges near the register, so I picked up two of those. This flummoxed the cashier again – she couldn’t find them on her keyboard – and finally her colleague suggested she just ring them up as sides.

My friend, seeing my dilemma over the milk, asked for cups so her kids could fill them with plain water. The three flimsy cups she received started to disintegrate during our 20-minute lunch, resulting in a wet 3-year-old girl.

But I’m not complaining. The healthy choices were there. And I can live with the stigma of making them. I’m in good company – even Bill Clinton, famous for indulging in junk food, is coming in for ridicule on this one. His Clinton Foundation co-founded the anti-obesity Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which has offered to help movie theaters come up with new options.

This puts healthy cinema concession stands on par with global climate change, world peace and HIV/AIDS. Which is great – but I can’t help thinking that maybe you and I could have given them some advice too, straight from our own backpacks …

What kinds of snacks do you sneak into the movies?

By Amy De La Hunt, Health Blogger for SmartParenting