If you’ve ever been on a canoe trip, a rafting trip or a whitewater adventure, you know the outfitters will never let you drink untreated river water. They’re not doing that because river water tastes bad; they’re doing it because they know that rivers are nature’s toilet.

So you can imagine my surprise to read that some wealthy Silicon Valley types are happily paying $60 for 2 1/2 gallons of “raw water” -- that is, untreated water straight from ... somewhere. It hasn’t been fluoridated, it hasn’t been filtered, it hasn’t been treated with UV light to kill parasites and germs. It may be free of all those things, anyway, but how would you know?

Another fad going around is teenagers taking the “Tide Pod Challenge,” in which the brain matter-challenged youth take to eating laundry detergent pods on camera, then posting the video of it on Stupidchat or DumbBook to prove that they did it.

Their parents must be so proud.

The excuse kids give for doing this is always, “Someone dared me to.” Well, then you HAVE to do it. Let’s try this, then: I double-dare you NOT to eat detergent pods. Let’s see who’s got the courage to take on that challenge.

Of course, eating detergent pods can’t really be called a food fad, but it does give me an idea of how to get children to eat foods they don’t think they’ll like: Dare them to eat their vegetables.
Contact Jim Mullen at mullen.jim@gmail.com.