When you buy a can of mixed nuts, you usually get a very significant amount of peanuts presumably because it’s a cheaper nut. Planters must have received significant feedback about their mixes being overly peanut-y (or they did other market research) and decided to add this to the front of their mixed nuts: “Less than 50% peanuts”.

The Weigh In

My sister was a little curious as to whether or not this was true. So I sat down one night and separated out the peanuts to weigh them to see if their claim was accurate. It was. The peanuts weighted in at exactly 48.54% peanuts.

Almonds are the New Filler

But as I was separating, I was noticing a LOT of almonds. Not exactly the most exciting of all the nuts listed on the label, which included peanuts, almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, and pecans. So I decided to separate the nuts out by type of nut. As you can see, there were significant numbers of peanuts AND almonds and only 22 pieces of cashews (some whole and some halved), 7 little brazil nuts, a whopping FOUR hazelnuts and a very sad 4 little bits (probably 3 whole) pecans.

Coca Cola & Pepsi recently announced that they will be changing their soda recipe to avoid having to use a cancer warning label in California, after the State of California added 4-methylimidazole, or 4-MEI) to their list of known cancer causing compounds. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, found significant levels of 4-MI in five brands of cola. The caramel coloring in sodas and in lots of other foods is not the same as caramel you make at home. They are made by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites under high pressure and temperatures resulting in a compound called 4-methylimidazole. The beverage industry claims you would need to drink 1000 sodas a day to reach “cancer-causing levels”. First of all, why are we adding any kind of cancer-causing agent AT ALL when all it does is make our food DARKER??? And who’s to say we aren’t getting a boatload of it in our systems with all the OTHER foods that contain it???

Other foods that contain caramel coloring

I’m like the guy in the Carl’s Jr. commercial that’s staring dumbfounded at the never-ending row of uncooked meat at the butcher counter except that I’m staring at the 100 bottles of olive oil trying to guess what might be good. And I’m thinking the olive oil is almost as expensive as buying meat so I really don’t want to guess wrong. One time I bought the Bertolli Extra Light Tasting Olive Oil and loved it; but then someone pointed out it’s not as good for you because it’s been “pressed” too many times. Huh? So I thought it might be interesting to do some research.

The most important thing to me is that olive oil is one of the last oils untouched by evil scientists who want to genetically alter everything and that the lighter the olive oil the better it tastes, but what else is important to know?

From left to right: Bertolli Extra Light Tasting Olive Oil Mazola Pure Olive Oil, Pompeian Classic Mediterranean Olive Oil, Pompeian Imported Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Star Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Filippo Berio Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, EVOO Rachel Ray Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Your Olive Oil may actually be coming from all kinds of places

Bertolli Extra Light Tasting Olive Oil from Italy – a blend of refined olive oils and virgin olive oils from Italy, Greece, Spain, Russia, Turkey and Morocco

Mazola Olive Oil imported from the Mediterranean with oil from Italy, Spain, Turkey and Tunisia

Pompeian Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Greece, and Argentina

Evoo Rachel Ray Extra Virgin Olive Oil – all Italian – olives harvested and pressed in Italy

Star Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Spain, Italy, Greece, Tunisia

Felippo Berio Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil – imported from Italy with oils from Italy, Spain and Tunisia

Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil – imported from Italy with oil from Italy, Spain, Greece, Tunisia, Morocco, Chile, Argentina and Australia

Pompeian Classic Mediterranean Olive Oil from Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Greece, Argentina

Kinds of Olive Oil

All Virgins Are Special
According to TLC’s How Olive Oil Works, “All types of extra-virgin and virgin oils are made from the first pressing of the olives, which removes about 90 percent of the olives’ juice. Chemicals and high heat are not allowed in the production of extra-virgin or virgin oils — no further processing or refining occurs after the pressing process. Neither extra-virgin nor virgin oils are allowed to contain any refined olive oil.”

Extra Virgin vs. Virgin
Apparently the only difference between an Extra-Virgin and Virgin olive oil is the acidity level with the Extra-Virgin being a little bit less acidic which tastes better. The non-virgin oils have gone through some kind of refining process that may involve heat, chemicals or filtration. Other olive oils without the “virgin” label are usually a combination of virgin oils and refined oils.

The Processes

Cold-pressing
All extra-virgin and virgin olive oils are cold-pressed. Cold-pressed oil is the result of the first press where the olive past is gently warmed to room temperature to avoid losing olive flavor. Pressing is also done in winter or in general in colder environments.

Refining
Over 50% of the oil produced in the Mediterranean area is of such poor quality that it must be refined to produce an edible product. Most olive oils seem to be refined with chemical or physical filters rather than solvents (thank God). The trick is, if you like the taste of the oils with refined oils, you need to find out how the refined oils are processed.

The Scandal

In 2010 researchers at UC Davis randomly tested a wide variety of extra virgin olive oils to see if they met the “extra virgin” requirements. Tests indicate that imported “extra virgin”olive oil often fails international and USDA standards. In their study, 69 percent of imported olive oil samples and 10 percent of California olive oil samples labeled as extra virgin olive oil failed to meet the IOC/USDA sensory (organoleptic) standards for extra virgin olive oil.

By the way, It looks like Costco’s Kirkland Signature Organic Extra Virgin Olive did really well in this test.

For serious olive fanatics

Olive Varieties
an interesting pdf of olive varieties with great photos and facts
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/2161/17346.pdf

How Olive Oil is Made

Planter’s has decided to take their mixed nuts, which were perfectly healthy on their own (for the most part) and added in all kinds of little goodies mostly involving sugar, corn syrup, artificial colors and other fun chemicals and are calling it their “Nut-rition” line.

The Lineup

Planter’s Nut-rition: Wholesome Nut Mix
(cashews, almonds, macadamias)
This really just looks like their usual nut mix although the container says low sodium. It has 50 mg. of salt compared with 45 mg in their “lightly salted” regular mixed nuts and 90 mg. in the regular full salt version.

Planter’s Nut-rition: Energy Mix
(almonds, honey roasted peanuts, honey roasted sesame sticks, dark chocolate covered soy nuts, walnuts, pecans)
I knew right away this one would taste the best because I figured “energy” meant “sugar” and I was right – the one gram of sugar that you can find in a plain nut mix has jumped to 6 grams of sugar per serving with all that maltodextrin, honey, and sugar. The Energy Mix went a little crazy with the salt – 120 mg per serving – significantly higher than a regular peanut mix. And maybe all that extra energy comes from the artificial colors (Blue 2 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Red 40 Lake) – which are known to make kids with ADHD worse. Hmmm.

Planter’s Nut-rition: Digestive Health Mix
(cranberries, almonds, granola, pistachios, cherries)
This one had even more sugar with 9 grams of sugar per serving because as I’m sure we all know that sugar clumped granola bits are needed for great digestive health. The sugar, polydextrose, brown sugar, molasses, dried cranberries and dried cherries made for a gag-me sugar overdose that even I couldn’t tolerate. This mix claims to be an excellent source of fiber; 5 grams is not bad per serving but where is that fiber coming from? A natural source? You can get 3 grams of fiber per serving just form nuts – this mix states that it uses Polydextrose for additional fiber, which is an indigestible synthetic polymer of glucose. Really? That’s healthy?

Planter’s Nut-rition: Bone Health Mix
(almonds, granola clusters, yoghurt-coated raisins, peaches, raspberries, cashews)
The bone health mix topped the sugar charts with 11 grams of sugar per serving – probably from those yoghurt-covered raisins! What’s interesting to note is that the extra calcium this mix provides appears to come mainly from a “whey mineral concentrate” added into the yoghurt covering and is only giving you 10% of your RDA compared with 4% from the other nut mixes.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Bottoms Up

Well, the sneakiness has reached a new level. Start flipping your containers upside down. You’ll discover concave bottoms like the peanutbutter, BBQ sauce and Cranergy Drink, or false bottoms like the oatmeal, sobe drinks and yoghurt. The biggest offenders have actual squared out ginormous indentations eliminating a significant amount of space that you don’t even know about until you’ve used it up (or turned it over) – the Hadley Date Nuggets have a 3/4 of an inch indent (updent?) while the Orville Redenbacher popcorn has a 1 and 1/4 inch indent and the Arrowhead water container has a whopping 2 and 1/4 inch indent in addition to the “convenient” indents on the sides.

For more strange packaging issues see: The Sexification of Our Food

For Your Viewing Pleasure