Sugared-Up VITAMINS for Kids? Nice!

I couldn't believe it. I stopped into Pharmaca, the 'integrative' pharmacy where I sometimes purchase my fish oil, or perhaps the occasional box of green tea.   

A vendor had her table set up and she was offering samples of a liquid vitamin drink.  She asked if I'd like to try some and I replied perhaps I would, if I could please see the ingredient panel first.

A quick scan of the product didn't show anything too unusual, until I saw at the bottom, under additional ingredients, that the first was liquid cane sugar.  

I asked why there would be sugar added to a vitamin. The rep said, "so that it tastes better".  Then I asked why a vitamin drink, of which you're supposed to swallow a tablespoon of, would need to have any flavor at all.  Her answer, "so that kids will want it".

Nice!

This thinking needs to change.  Since when do kids need to be the target of awful marketing ploys like this, not unlike what we see in the junk sugar cereal and pretend food snack, sold with cartoon characters on the box, and an ingredient panel longer than a novel, filled with dyes, chemicals and toxins up to the eyeballs?

This was just the proverbial icing on the cake…sugared up vitamins..Dare I ask what's next?