I would love your opinion on Barbara’s Bakery Fat Free Whole Wheat Fig Bars. I love these cookies (as does my 4 year old) and they seem to be a relatively healthy dessert option. I would love to see what you say. Thanks.

Well Mark, the answer is “it’s relative”.

Relative to fresh figs – no. Relative to many other cookies out there – yes. Relative to a close competitor – Nabisco’s famous brand of fig Newtons – also yes.

Let’s take a deeper look inside the label…

What you need to know:

Here’s the ingredient list:

FIG FILLING (ORGANIC FIG PASTE, PINEAPPLE JUICE CONCENTRATE, CITRIC ACID), PINEAPPLE JUICE SYRUP, ORGANIC WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, BARLEY FLOUR, DATE PASTE, ORGANIC FIG PASTE, RAISIN JUICE CONCENTRATE, EXPELLER PRESSED CANOLA OIL *. BAKING SODA, SOY LECITHIN, SALT. *PROVIDES A NEGLIGIBLE AMOUNT OF FAT.

Aside from the soy lecithin, everything else in the ingredient list is more or less understandable to humans. That means you know what your child is putting in her mouth. If you are into Organic, some of the ingredients are organic too. (Figs are usually not heavily sprayed in conventional agriculture either.)

Each “bar” is relatively small, weighing in less than an ounce and tallying up only 60 calories, so for portion control, this is good. Each bar has 8 grams / 2 tsp of sugar. The packaging boasts that the product is “fruit juice sweetened,” but to be honest, there is negligible nutritional difference between white sugar and the fruit juices. This is a marketing play.

Somewhat oxymoronic is the ingredient called “raisin juice concentrate”. Raisins, as any child knows, are dried grapes, all the water is gone. So how do you squeeze juice out of them. The answer of course is that there is still liquid in raisins, and it is very sweet.

The “fat free” claim is ridiculous. There is some fat in here despite it being labeled zero. And even if there was a gram or 2 of vegetable fat, it’s not the end of the world.

Comparing Barbara’s Bakery to Nabisco’s Fig Newtons, the former is a superior product. The latter contains more sugar as well as additives such as Sodium Benzoate, Sulfur Dioxide, and Artificial Flavor. If a product is made with good ingredients, it shouldn’t need a flavor boost.

What to do at the supermarket:

Overall, as fig cookies go, you chose well. When selecting fruit cookies and bars, make sure the flavor comes from real fruit, and that they appear first in the ingredient list, not after a list of unidentifiable additives. In any case, remember that these are treats, not food.

There’s nothing wrong with a cookie for dessert, if most of the times fruit is being served as a snack.

Here’s another suggestion if you like the fig flavor – Try to see if you can get fresh figs in season (summer and early fall). They’re a good source of fiber, calcium, potassium, and the B vitamins. Dried figs are OK too, but watch the amount as they are almost half sugar by weight!

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POM, the beverage company that turned an old pomegranate orchard into a money machine with POM Wonderful juices, is taking the Coca Cola Company, parent of Minute Maid, to court. The reason: false advertising.

According to POM, Minute Maid’s pomegranate juice name and label make it appear as if pomegranate is the main ingredient,

though the blend actually contains less than 0.3 percent of pomegranate juice and is over 99 percent apple and grape juice.

When customers see Minute Maid’s 59-ounce bottle selling for less than $4, compared to POM’s 16-ounce bottle at $4.99, they tend to opt for what appears to be a better deal.

But the issue goes beyond unfair competition, said POM spokesperson Rob Six. “Most people drink pomegranate juice for the health benefits. So, it fools with people’s health,” Six said. “We see it more as a consumer issue – a consumer alert issue.” read more…

What you need to know:

While POM has a point – Minute Maid is being very deceptive here – POM is not clean of deception either. Both companies tout the health benefits of the fruit they turned to juice, but fail to mention that most of the nutritional value is lost in the process. Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of sugar in these drinks, at the same level of Soda Pop. The standard single person bottle of POM contains 17 teaspoons of sugar! That’s not healthy.

What to do at the supermarket:

How about buying real fruit and eating it to get the maximum benefit from the vitamins and antioxidants? If you’re thirsty, drink tap water instead. If you insist on juice as an occasional treat, go for what tastes better. From personal experience, POM is superior, but comes at a much higher price.

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Excellent question Jodie. Trail mix is a great mix of protein, heart healthy fats, and carbs that really helps keep people energized for hours on a trail.

A basic mix includes at least one type of nut or seed, with at least on kind of dried fruit. Example – peanuts and raisins – a starter kit!

There are endless combinations  you can create in your own kitchen, as well as prepackaged varieties out there. You have to watch out for added ingredients that you may not have counted on. Let’s take a look inside the label of Planter’s Trail Mix – Fruit & Nut flavor…

What you need to know:

Here is the ingredient list:

PEANUTS, RAISINS, BANANA CHIPS (BANANA, COCONUT OIL, SUGAR, NATURAL FLAVOR), SALTED CASHEWS (CASHEWS, PEANUT AND/OR COTTONSEED OIL, SALT), DRIED SWEETENED PINEAPPLE (PINEAPPLE, SUGAR, CITRIC ACID, PRESERVED WITH SULFUR DIOXIDE), DRIED SWEETENED CRANBERRIES (CRANBERRIES, SUGAR, SUNFLOWER OIL), DRIED SWEETENED PAPAYA (PAPAYA, SUGAR, CITRIC ACID, PRESERVED WITH SULFUR DIOXIDE). CONTAINS: PEANUT, CASHEW, SULFITES.

Let’s divide into 3 categories: seeds/nuts, fruit, all other:

1. seeds/nuts – peanuts, cashews

2. fruit – raisin, banana, pineapple, cranberries, papaya

3. other – coconut oil, sugar, natural flavor, oil, salt, more sugar, citric acid, sulfur dioxide, more sugar, more oil, more sugar, more citric acid, more sulfur dioxide.

If you were to make this product at home by buying the main ingredients in bulk, you would be perusing just 6 ingredients.

A 1 ounce serving is 140 calories, and contains 9 grams of fat, mostly unsaturated. The 10 grams of sugar (2 and a half teaspoons) come both from the fruit and the added sugars. The 15mg of sodium (less than 1% of the daily maximum) seems suspiciously low, especially since the cashews are salted. But if this is the true value, then great. In many instances, salted nuts can take your sodium intake ballistic. The protein count is OK at 3 grams.

Back to the ingredients.

Dried fruit is in most cases treated with sulfur dioxide to maintain its color. If you’ve ever bought organic dried apricots, you’ll remember the difference, as they look brown and unappealing compared to the bright and shiny orange apricots that contain the sulfites.

The added sugar is a shame. Dried fruit are sweet enough on their own, except maybe for cranberries.

The oil has 2 purposes – improve the flavor, and keep the various parts of the mix from clumping.

Bottom line: While a homemade version of this trail mix would reduce the number of unnecessary ingredients, overall this is a good snack.

What to do at the supermarket:

Look for the bulk bins and learn to craft your own trail mix. It’s much cheaper, real easy to do, and lets you fine tune the flavors to your specific taste.

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What would happen if one day you’d take away the chocolate, and leave them with just the milk? Would they continue drinking the plain milk, or would you need to switch to other sources of vitamins and minerals?

A few weeks ago, at the School Nutrition Association’s Annual National Conference, a study was published that examined this topic in 58 schools across the country. The research, funded by an affiliate of the National Dairy Council, reached a clear cut conclusion:

Milk Consumption In Schools Dropped Dramatically When Flavored Milk Options Not Offered

In the press release following the publication, experts are quoted saying “it was tragic to see all the nutrients go down the drain” and that milk is the cheapest most viable vehicle to provide children with so many nutrients…

While we won’t argue that milk is a great source of nutrients (there are other too, hard to believe!), we have a very hard time with the dichotomy that’s been set up here:

either FLAVORED milk or NO milk.

Every morning, my three children start their day with a warm cup of chocolate milk. We heat plain milk and then add a flat teaspoon of sweetened cocoa powder. Empirically, the additional flavor helps them drink up their milk compared to times when we don’t sweeten. But the amount of sugar we add is 2-3 grams (<1 teaspoon), not the 13 grams (over 3 teaspoons) that are added to “industrial” chocolate milk.

So why can’t the manufacturers do the same and offer a low-sugar flavored milk? They’re doing a great job at offering low-fat and non-fat milk. There’s no reason not to address the sugar issue as well.

And while they’re at it, how about removing Red #40, an artificial food dye found in the “strawberry” flavored milk? Europe requires products with this ingredient to place a warning label on the product stating “May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children”. (If any teacher is reading this blog, now you know why the kids are so wild after lunch break…)

We emailed these challenges to Greg Miller, PhD, Executive VP at the National Dairy Council. Here’s how they see things:

We understand your concerns and we both have the common goal of ensuring our nation’s children are as healthy as possible. NDC recognizes that many schools want to reduce sugar content in all their offerings and more than 90 industry-partner dairies across the U.S. have proactively reformulated flavored milk to be lower in both sugar and total calories, while maintaining the great taste that kids love. These new products aim for 150 calories or less and less than 25 grams of sugar, all while maintaining great taste, so that youth will drink it instead of throwing it away, which in essence is throwing away an effective way to get nine essential nutrients in one package.

When it comes to certified color additives such as Red No. 40, it is regulated by the FDA and has a history of safe use. The industry follows all FDA guidelines regarding the usage of certified color additives, and all products containing them are accurately labeled according to FDA guidelines. Here is some more information from the International Food and Information Council.

I understand that some parents get apprehensive about the prospect of any additional sugar in children’s diets, but let’s keep the tradeoff in perspective—it’s an efficient and effective way to ensure kids are getting nine essential nutrients. On average, the added sugars in flavored milk account for less than 2 percent of the total added sugars in American teens’ diets, while sodas and fruit drinks provide more than 50 percent.

The statistics make it seem like the added sugar is benign, but if kids are to drink 3 cups of milk a day, this adds up to 9 added teaspoons of sugar! If the best the industry can do is reformulate chocolate milk to include 3 teaspoons of sugar per an 8 fluid ounce serving, something else must be stopping it.

Could it be competitive pressure of the different milk beverage processors? Nobody wants to be the first to manufacture a low-sugar drink for fear that schools won’t buy it? If that’s the case, then a directive to all manufacturers to gradually and synchronously reduce sugar levels should work. We’re seeing a similar thing happening with salt reduction in a fiercely more competitive consumer market these days.

Or does the reason lie elsewhere? Perhaps the manufacturers realize that kids are simply addicted to sugar, and have figured out the optimal threshold is 3 added teaspoons. But even if that is the case, how about some leadership in helping this country battle the childhood obesity epidemic? Again, work together to substantially reduce the added sugar.

We did not get the answers we wanted from the Dairy Council, but will keep pushing this issue. There has to be a middle ground here.

By the way, Here’s an excellent take on the chocolate milk mistake by food sociologist Dina R. Rose, PhD, whose thought provoking blog It’s Not about Nutrition is easily one of the best resources for parents on the art & science of teaching kids to eat right.

What to do at the supermarket:

Flavor it yourself. Buy plain milk and a cocoa powder. Mix at home.

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This change “will contribute more than 9 billion servings of whole grain to American diets each year,” according to the company.

For example, Kraft will double the whole grain in Wheat Thins Original from 11 grams to 22 grams. That’s quite impressive. Let’s take the opportunity to examine what’s inside each Wheat Thin.

What you need to know:

Here’s what Wheat Thins’ ingredient list look like today:

WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT FLOUR, UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN OIL, SUGAR, CORNSTARCH, MALT SYRUP (FROM BARLEY AND CORN), SALT, INVERT SUGAR, MONOGLYCERIDES, LEAVENING (CALCIUM PHOSPHATE AND/OR BAKING SODA), VEGETABLE COLOR (ANNATTO EXTRACT, TURMERIC OLEORESIN). CONTAINS: WHEAT. BHT ADDED TO PACKAGING MATERIAL TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS.

As you can see, the crackers are made from a wheat blend – both whole wheat and refined wheat. A serving today consists of 9 crackers weighing in at 31 grams (a cracker over an ounce). Of those 31 grams, only 11 are from whole wheat, and at most, 11 additional grams are from the refined wheat. The rest of the product weight is from the oil, sugars (underlined), and other additives.

According to Kraft, by 2013, Wheat Thins will include only whole wheat, 22 grams worth. This should double the fiber count from just 2 grams per serving to 4 grams.

While Wheat Thins are not exactly a health food, this whole grain initiative is a positive move forward by Kraft. Additional recommendations would be to lower the sodium levels, which now are at 230mg (10% of the daily maximum). Earlier this year, Kraft announced plans to reduce sodium by 10%, but it would be far more beneficial to slash it by 50%.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you’re a cracker lover, it makes sense to choose brands and flavors that are made from 100% whole grains. Until Kraft goes ahead with its changes, try to find options that are exclusively whole grain, low in sodium, and low in added ingredients.

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Late last week a federal judge ruled in favor of consumers when he allowed a lawsuit against Vitamin Water to proceed. The lawsuit was filed in early 2009 by the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The group sued parent company Coca Cola on the grounds of fraudulent and misleading health claims, as if Vitamin Water had the ability to cure disease. Coke’s motion to dismiss was denied.

From the ruling:

Judge John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York found that the company’s use of the word “healthy” violates the Food and Drug Administration’s regulations on vitamin-fortified foods. The FDA’s so-called “Jelly Bean” rule prohibits companies from making health claims on junk foods that only meet various nutrient thresholds via fortification. The judge also found that vitaminwater’s claim on the “focus” flavor of vitaminwater that it “may reduce the risk of age-related eye disease” runs afoul of FDA regulations.

The judge also took note of the fact that the FDA frowns upon names of products that mention some ingredients to the exclusion of more prominent ingredients such as, in the case of vitaminwater, added sugar. The names of the drinks, along with other statements on the label, “have the potential to reinforce a consumer’s mistaken belief that the product is comprised of only vitamins and water,” Gleeson wrote. read more…

What you need to know:

Genius marketing propelled Vitamin Water to super-health-drink status in the past few years. How else can you explain hundreds of millions of bottles of water+sugar+colors+multivitamin sold?

Kudos to CSPI for watching our backs. A personal, 20 oz bottle of Vitamin Water, with 8 (EIGHT!) teaspoons of added sugar) cannot rightfully be considered a healthy beverage.

While CSPI and the judge are tackling the front of package claims and wording, the slick marketing has seeped into the ingredient list too, as we recently wrote:

Water is no longer water – it’s “reverse osmosis water”. The sugar is all dressed up and dandy too – it comes in two flavors: “cane sugar” and “crystalline fructose”. And so forth…

What to do at the supermarket:

The healthiest drink is plain water. Not vitamin water, not smart water, and not clever water. Just plain old H2O without any additions. Even the plastic bottles are superfluous when you think about it. Tap water is your best bet.

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As a mother of a toddler, I’m concerned about what goes into his system. I try to always read labels (thanks to Fooducate!), learn ingredients, and strive to make him the best possible foods I can. I also work full time, so it’s key for me to find ways to make good food, using good ingredients, with less time commitments. I’m also aware of growing external pressures, as you shall immediately see.

Mom made superhero snacks

Now that my toddler attends preschool, he has lunch with a number of other children. Lately he’s been asking for character lunch items. The other day he specifically asked for a “Buzz & Woody” yogurt to take to school. Since I’m opposed to buying into food marketing like that, I send homemade snacks in a small Glad container, and print out my own character stickers on basic labels to put on the container.

They peel off at the end of the day, and this way I can change his lunch item characters to suit his fancy. One week it’s cars, the next it’s monsters or dinosaurs. You can, of course, carry this idea to all sorts of snacks. Homemade granola bars wrapped in wax paper with stickers on them. Homemade chips (baked tortillas or even sweet potatoes) in a brown paper bag pouch with messages, drawings, or stickers on them. The possibilities are only limited by your own creativity.

I’m not sure how this will work when he’s older, but hopefully by then, he’ll know how good food should taste.

Homemade Yogurt

Yogurt is a staple in our home. It’s versatile – a topping on a baked potato, a substitute for mayo in Waldorf salad, a base for smoothie popsicles, a substitute ingredient for baking, or as a simple breakfast or dessert drizzled with honey.

I make mine weekly with 4 cups of whole farm fresh milk from our local dairy. Here’s how to multitask while preparing it:

1. Simply pour milk into a double boiler (less likely to burn), clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pot, and heat slowly to 180 degrees. In the meantime – start some laundry, feed the dog, and pick up the toys on the floor while it’s heating, just check the temp periodically.

2. Turn off the heat, and let the milk cool to 105 degrees. Anything over 110 will harm the yogurt cultures. While it’s cooling – go pick up the toys again, water the plants, and switch the laundry over to the dryer.

3. When your milk has cooled, mix 2 cups of it with 1/2 of an organic plain yogurt containing live and active cultures (I use a plain organic yogurt to start, then I simply save some of my own yogurt for the next batch). Slowly mix in the remaining milk.

4. Fill yogurt maker glass cups, and leave on overnight. I start this around 8pm, milk is cooled & mixed by 10pm, I get up at 6am, and transfer the cups into the refrigerator to set.

5. You can then strain the yogurt with cheesecloth for a thicker product (greek yogurt), strain longer for a yogurt-cheese on a bagel, mix with fresh fruit for smoothies, and even fill popsicle molds with a yogurt/fruit mix for homemade sugar free pops. Of course, you can add in honey or jam for sweetness. I usually go a step further when I strain mine and use the collected whey in my homemade breads.

I use a Salton Yogurt Maker, however it’s not necessary. I made yogurt, successfully, for many months in my slow cooker. There are various recipes and methods available, using all sorts of insulated containers (slow cooker, cooler, etc).

Making yogurt at home really saves me from having to buy multiple yogurts, sour creams, cream cheese, etc… leaving more in my budget for organic produce and helping the environment by not purchasing multiple plastic cups.

In conclusion, there’s no reason not to provide our families good, honest, homemade foods, even when we have such busy lives. With a little planning, prepping, and patience, homemade foods are easy.

Jessica Harju

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click for fullsize image at visualeconomics.com

You’ve got to check this out. The numbers will frighten you. On average, over the course of a year, each of us  consumes:

53 gallons of soda (per person, factoring in babies  and health freaks who read fooducate)

141 lbs of sugar and other sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, PLUS 24 lbs of artificial sweeteners

23 lbs of pizza and 24 lbs of ice cream

29 lbs of french fries (now it seems a bit low compared to the pizza and ice cream)

Think about this when you do your grocery shopping this weekend…

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You’ve probably heard that celery has a negative calorie count. How could that be? The energy your body burns in breaking down the fibrous strands in the celery is more energy than the vegetable actually provides. We’re talking single digits here, so it’s not like a celery diet is going to have you shedding 30 lbs off in a weekend.

And now, Celcius drinks are boasting “Burn up to 100 calories and more in each can!”

Really?

What you need to know:

From the company website:

All Celsius products are powered by MetaPlus®, a proprietary blend of scientifically validated ingredients. With MetaPlus inside Celsius, it may help you get fit and stay fit. †*

Whenever we see ****s and ††††’s – henceforth, disclaimers – we know there’s something fishy going on. We’ll get to these in a moment.

The drink’s ingredient list is short:

Premium Brewed Green Tea Using Filtered Water , Citric Acid , Natural Flavors , Fruit Juice , Sucralose

The calorie count is close to zero because it’s sweetened with sucralose. There’s barely any fruit juice here, as it appears after 2 ingredients that are used very sparingly – citric acid and natural flavors. In fact, it seems kind of fishy that Celcius is even listing fruit juice as an ingredient, as the tiny amount contributes nothing nutritionally. Conspiracy fans may say it’s just a marketing trick to make the drink seem more natural.

The product is actually sold as a “beverage supplement”, not as a soft drink (see lower left hand corner of the package). That’s why you’ll have better chances of finding it at a CVS or Walgreen’s than at a Shoprite or Safeway.

So how does this “supplement” burn 100 calories per serving?

Here’s a hint from disclaimer #1:

In a study of 60 healthy college-aged men and women, 100 calories represents the average calories burned over three hours for those participants consuming a single serving of Celsius®. Celsius® alone does not produce weight loss in the absence of a healthy diet and moderate exercise. Loss of fat mass, gain of muscle mass and improved endurance were benefits found for participants consuming a single serving of Celsius everyday and 15 minutes prior to exercise in a study using a 10-week moderate exercise program.

Aha! – it won’t burn the calories for you. You need to work your ass off for it. But if you do work out, a very limited test (60 college kids), shows that you’ll burn extra calories due to some of the chemicals in the drink.

What chemicals? mostly caffeine. That’s why drinking coffee before your morning workout is a good idea. Each can of Celcius has 200 milligrams, about 2-3 times the amount in a cup of coffee. The stimulants rev up your metabolism, increasing the heat your body generates. Heat is a form of energy, just as calories are, hence the negative calorie count…

A word about supplements, which brings us to disclaimer #2:

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

This is not a food / beverage, it’s a supplement, somewhere between food and drug, and thus exempt from rigorous testing and labeling requirements. Supplement companies are thus very liberal in their interpretation of clinical research and trials, and have a flair for bombastic claims.

So should you invest in this drink? Coffee could probably do just a good a job for you. And if you’re not planning to work out immediately after drinking this, save your money and have a glass of water instead.

In general, beware of promises that will help you lose weight, stay young, or become insanely rich.

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How could we have missed this one from CNN Health?

Q: What’s the difference between McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets in the US vs. the UK?

A: Silly Putty!

It appears that for some reason, McDonald’s USA is employing certain ingredients that are not used in the UK version of the chicken masterpiece.  Yankee nuggets  contain the chemical preservative TBHQ, tertiary butylhydroquinone, a petroleum-based product. They also contain dimethylpolysiloxane, “an anti-foaming agent”. Dimethylpolysiloxane is also used in Silly Putty.

McDonald’s attributes the difference to regional taste preferences and the way the product is prepared in each country. Skeptics will say that this is a good excuse for choosing the lowest cost ingredients you can get away with without poisoning your customer. The food regulation bodies in the UK, and Europe in general, tend to be more strict in this respect compared to their American counterparts.

What you need to know:

TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone) is an antioxidant used to keep oils from going rancid. It is a petroleum derivative. Yummy. The food industry pushed the FDA for years to get it approved as a preservative despite the fact that ingestion of large doses (a thirtieth of an ounce) can cause nausea, delirium, and ringing of the ears. (Anyone remember what Jack Nicholson had for lunch in “The Shining”?) TBHQ cannot exceed 0.02% of the oil and fat content in a food.

Dimethylpolysiloxane, also called dimethicone or Antifoam A, is an antifoaming additive used in a variety of processed food products and drinks. Its’ a type of silicone and not considered toxic, according to the World Health Organization.

But despite it’s safety, it appears the Brits do not want silly putty in their nuggets, nor do they want potentially harmful additives.

Not that the McNugget is such a health food to begin with. Here’s the full ingredient list:

White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning (autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono- and diglycerides, extractives of rosemary). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, whey, corn starch. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.

Are you Lovin’ it? We’re NOT.

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