Flamin' Hot Cheetos so 'addictive' among children that schools are banning them (and they've even inspired their own music video)



Flamin' Hot Cheetos, a spicy, salty snack, have become so popular with children that schools have begun banning them and scientists are speculating whether they're chemically addictive.



Cheetos, along with a Mexican chili-lime corn chip snack called Takis, have even inspired their own music video -- a irrepressibly catchy hip-hop tune produced by school kids in Minnesota.



At convenience stores and school lunch rooms in cities across the country, they're the top sellers. Student ignore potato chips, Fritos and other snacks and head straight for Flamin' Hot Cheetos.



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Famous: This rap video by Y.N. RichKids in Minneapolis, Minnesota, underlined the addictive popularity of Flamin' Hot Cheetos among school children

Banned: Schools across the country are beginning to crack down on Flamin' Hot Cheetos because they are so unhealthy

A pediatrician in St Louis, Missouri, reports that several parents have taken their children to the doctor because their stool is red -- only to learn that it's been dyed by eating so much of the artificially-colored snack.

The hip-hop group Y.N. RichKids rapped about the snack for the Minneapolis, Minnesota, North Community YMCA’s Beats & Rhymes Program in a wildly popular video called 'Hot Cheetos and Takis.'

'Hot Cheetos and Takis/ Hot Cheetos and Takis/ I can't get enough of these Hot Cheetos and Takis/ Got my fingers stained red and I cannot get them off me/ You can catch me and my crew eating Hot Cheetos and Takis,' the catchy tune goes.

Since it was uploaded in August, it has been viewed on YouTube nearly 3.4million times.



Educators, doctors and nutritionists, however, aren't thrilled with the snack.



School districts in Chicago, New Mexico and California have banned them from school lunch rooms by name. Many schools have stopped selling them in cafeterias.



These young rappers claim they can't get enough of the salty, spicy snack. Some doctors say they could actually be addictive

Competitor: The pint-sized rappers also sang the praises of Takis, a Mexican chili-lime flavored corn chip snack

'We don't allow candy, and we don't allow Hot Cheetos,' Rita Exposito, the principal at Jackson Elementary School in Pasadena, California, told the Chicago Tribune.



'We don't encourage other chips, but if we see Hot Cheetos, we confiscate them -- sometimes after the child has already eaten most of them. It's mostly about the lack of nutrition.'

Each bag of Flamin' Hot Cheeots has 22 grams of fat, 500mg of sodium and 320 calories. Many children say they eat four bags a day -- including for breakfast.



Internet hit: Nearly 3.4million people have viewed the video since it was uploaded to You Tube in August

Nutritionists say the snack's mix of fat, salt and spiciness makes it 'hyperpalatable,' even addictive.



'You can almost equate the craving (for processed food) to that of cocaine,' Gene-Jack Wang, a researcher in Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, told the Tribune.

The pint-sized rappers of the Y.N. RichKids perhaps express it best: 'Ridin' with my allowance, so nobody can stop me/ All the kids wanna be him, go crazy when they see him/ My mom hit the ATM, cuz she know i need them.'