This is hidden brain, and I'm Shankar Vedantam reporting from your school cafeteria.
Okay.
Not really, but play along with me for a second and picture a typical scene at an elementary school lunchroom.
There are kids holding trays with tater tots and turkey sandwiches.
The milk is in those little cardboard cartons.
There are long tables that serve not just as a place to sit, but as a kind of marketplace.
Hey, I'll trade you two cookies for.
A bag of potato chips.
One young businessman tries to score a deal while trying not to get ripped off.
No, that's a bad trade.
Of course, if you want in on one of these deals, you have to trade stuff that others want.
I was so bummed that I couldn't have anything to trade.
Cause no one wants, you know, like a clementine.
This is Esther.
Hi, I'm Esther Blythe.
Esther has long since graduated from her elementary school cafeteria days.
Growing up, her mom kept the kitchen free from food coloring and high fructose corn syrup.
Esther's lunchbox was subject to the same rules about healthy food.
So I would have snap peas, I would have an orange.
Sometimes it would be leftovers and one maybe, like, gummy snack, but it would only be, like, health gummy.