Welcome! I am a mom of a busy 8 year old and an adventurous 6 year old. I also happen to work for a great company called NuVal. NuVal is a nutritional scoring system that rates foods on a scale of 1-100, based on how nutritious they are. We are implementing NuVal in grocery stores around the country.
NuVal may not be in your area yet. But I see the scores while they are "hot off the press" and because of that I am able to make better decisions about what to feed my family.
I am not a registered dietitian. I am just a mom who happens to work for NuVal. I am also an AFAA-certified Group Exercise Instructor. NuVal is a system designed to lead customers to the most nutritious food choices. It is not a diet or weight-loss plan. Before starting a diet, you should always consult your personal physician. The opinions expressed in this blog are the opinions of the writer and not the opinions of NuVal LLC.
With record high temperatures here in New England this week, it was time for me to whip up a batch of my secret weapon for beating the heat: Frozen Grapes! It is probably a bit of an overstatement for me to say that I “whipped them up”. All I did was take the grapes off the stem, rinse them, place them in a bowl and stick them in my freezer.
Frozen grapes have been a long-time favorite of mine – going way back to my Weight Watchers days. At the end of the day, when just about all of my Points had been consumed, frozen grapes filled that void that otherwise could have been filled with ice cream. Last summer, I resurrected this frozen treat and it even made my list of Top Ten Favorite Foods.
The heat came on fast and strong this week – before we could even get our air conditioners down from the attic and into our windows. That meant that at bedtime, the temperature on our second floor was 87 degrees. My solution? I took a cool shower and hit the sack with a lovely little dish of frozen grapes and the latest issue of People magazine. Somehow, the freezing cold deliciousness combined with mindless reading was enough to lull me to sleep, despite the humid air.
Grapes, by the way (both red and green), score a fantastic 91 on the NuVal scale. And don’t they look pretty in that crystal bowl? Add them in to your summer buffet and they are sure to be a huge hit!
Today I’m headed out to meet with one of our new retailers who will be implementing NuVal scores on their grocery store shelves very, very soon. Oh, I am dying to tell you who it is! As soon as I can, I will let you know. My sister-in-law Christine, who lives in Vermont, so kindly went shopping at her local Price Chopper, whipped up some of her famous salmon cakes and wrote this awesome blog post! It is pretty cool that although we don’t live close to each other we can help each other out in this virtual world that we now live in. So, without further ado, I bring you Christine!
Hello from the Green Mountains of Vermont. I’m very excited to be blogging today. I have become quite a fan of A Better Bag of Groceries since my sister-in-law (Melissa) started working for Nuval. I think it is a fantastic nutritonal guide. Which leads me to today’s topic: Canned Salmon!
Now, hold on. I know what you are thinking…canned salmon. I thought the same thing before I tried it. My husband and I love fresh salmon. Living in Vermont you can get your hands on many fresh foods (milk, cheese, maple syrup, etc) on a daily basis. Salmon is not so much an everyday thing. So I decided to try the canned version just on the days that I couldn’t get fresh fish. Both my husband and I work so the canned salmon can be very handy if we have a crazy week and I can’t get to the store. I always keep at least one can in the cupboard. I’m of the philosophy to try things at least once. Canned salmon here I come. It is fantastic.
But not all canned salmon is created equal. After looking at the Nuval scores for canned salmon, I was shocked at the difference.
Bumble Bee “Alaska Sockeye Salmon” scores a 43.
Bumble Bee “Wild Alaska Salmon” scores a 70!
Here is a great Salmon Cakes (although they call it Salmon Burger on the can, difference to bun or not to bun) recipe:
1 can (14.75 oz) Bumble Bee “Wild Alaska” Salmon drained and flaked (remove skin & bones as desired) **although the bones are so small that they can be blended, great form of calcium***
1 large egg, slightly beaten (NuVal score: 33)
½ c chopped onion (NuVal score: 93)
½ c diced green pepper (I used a red pepper for a NuVal score of 96)
½ whole wheat bread crumbs (you can make your own from whole wheat bread ends)
Oh, how I love salt! I do. There are some occasions that absolutely call for a shake or two: on my scrambled eggs in the morning, on a baked potato, and definitely on popcorn. Unfortunately, salt does not love me. As someone who suffers from headaches, I really have to watch the salt intake. A few shakes too many and I’m just asking for a migraine.
My daughter definitely takes after me in the Salt Craving Department. Here she is sprinkling some on her grilled chicken and parboiled rice:
I love how her tongue is sticking out in that picture, like she can’t wait to lick that salt. Yup, she definitely takes after her Mom!
Annette Maggi, MS, RD, LD, FADA, and Senior Dietitian for NuVal, reminded me this week about the National Dialogue on Sodium. It was a webinar put on recently by the American Society for Nutrition. Basically, most Americans get more sodium than we really need. What Annette points out in her blogpost today (she also blogs for NuVal at www.nutritionoutlook.com) is that with minor tweaks, many Americans can get to the recommended level.
Annette challenged me to hold a sodium taste test with my kids using canned vegetables. Great idea! But actually, I have already moved my kids from regular canned vegetables to no salt added varieties. I mean, how could I not? Check out this data:
Del Monte Green Beans: NuVal Score 57
Del Monte Green Beans with 50% Less Salt: NuVal Score 68
Del Monte Green Beans with No Salt Added: NuVal Score of 100!!
Yes, you read that right. The No Salt Added Green Beans score a 100. It’s the same score as fresh green beans. So, I made this switch well over a year ago. My kids have always eaten canned vegetables. I figured if it could help me get them to eat their 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, I would go with the canned variety. They are soft, easy to chew (which is an added bonus for toddlers and now an almost seven-year-old who has lost 6 teeth altogether), convenient, and cheap. You may remember when I blogged about this topic before in an old post titled, Don’t Be a Vegetable Snob.
Still, my kids are always up for a taste test. They love to help out with Mommy’s Blog!
For our taste test, my son (a Pea fan) taste-tested the following:
Food Club Sweet Peas: NuVal Score of 39
Food Club Sweet Peas with No Salt Added: NuVal Score of 96
My daughter (a Corn fan) taste-tested the following:
Del Monte Corn: NuVal score of 50
Del Monte Corn with 50% less Salt: NuVal score of 61
The results were mixed, as you can see in the video below:
Interestingly, my daughter, the Salt Aficionado, could tell no difference between the two cans of corn. But my son, so astute, favored the peas with salt over the No Salt Added. Perhaps he has more sophisticated taste buds since he is two years older? No matter, after this taste test, we are back to only the No Salt Added brands in our house. So many of my kids’ favorite foods are laden with sodium: hot dogs, lunch meat, pretzels, chips, ham, pancakes, cookies, soup. The least I can do is cut out this source.
Question of the Day?
Are you a Salt Fan? If so, what do you love to sprinkle it on?
Cereal Giveaway
Congratulations to Commenter #45, Brooke. You’ve won some Shredded Wheat and some Cheerios – two Rock Star cereals with great NuVal scores! Please email me at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your mailing address. Thanks to all who entered!
Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday! Every Tuesday, here on A Better Bag of Groceries, I talk about a Trade-Up I’ve made since learning about NuVal and I give away something for free. Today’s Topic: The Best of the Cereal Category.
I love it when magazines have their “Best of” lists. Every summer, you will find me on the beach with my nose deep into the Best of Boston from Boston magazine or the Best of Rhode Island from Rhode Island Monthly.
As the weather gets warmer, my household becomes All Cereal for breakfast. We put away the oatmeal and while there is an occasional toasted item first thing in the morning, it is more likely to see four bowls and a glass bottle of our favorite milk at the breakfast table.
People ask me about NuVal scores for cereal often and so today, I am giving away the most notable high-scoring items in the Children’s Cereal category and the Adult Cereal category (that sounds a little risque, doesn’t it?)
If you have kids, there is almost nothing better than a box of Cheerios. Cheerios score a 34 on the NuVal scale. There is a Cinnamon Toast Crunch with 75% reduced sugar that scores a 40, however, I’ve yet to find it here in New England. My kids are big Rice Chex fans. I think my husband feels good knowing that he is giving them cereal that does not have a cartoon character on the front of the box, but Rice Chex pale in comparison to Cheerios. They only score a 24. In fact a LOT of kids cereals score in the 20-24 range. My advice? Try to keep the favorite finger food of most toddlers on your table for as long as you can. The score is better than the rest.
Now, when it comes to adults, the Rock Star Cereal that we at NuVal often mention is Post Shredded Wheat. It was a standout early on when we began scoring the cereal category. It gets an amazing 91! There are other cereals that score a 91 as well, including Barbara’s Shredded Wheat, Arrowhead Mills Organic Amaranth Flakes, Price Chopper Puffed Wheat, Meijer Shredded Wheat, and Bear Naked Fit Triple Berry Crunch. The cool thing about NuVal, is that when grocery stores put the scores on their shelves, you can easily see when a store brand gets the same or better score than the National Brand – and it’s usually cheaper.
So, these days, we do have both Cheerios and Shredded Wheat on the morning menu, usually topped with banana (91) , blueberries (100), or strawberries (100). Sometimes, I even top with nectarine (93). Yum!
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky commenter will win a box of Shredded Wheat and a box of Cheerios. Sorry, I can’t send the skim milk through the mail! Just leave a comment below telling me your favorite cereal. (No worries if it’s not nutritious!) I’ll choose one commenter at 7 am EDT on Wednesday so check back to see if you are the lucky recipient! Good Luck!
Do you remember a few weeks ago when I gave away some high-scoring cookies and chocolate on Trade-Up Tuesday? Well, the winner was this fabulous Mom, Stephanie. I always choose my winners at random (usually, I ask the kids to pick a number between 1 and total number of comments) so I never know who the winner is. Turns out, Stephanie shops at Hy-Vee where NuVal scores are on store shelves. I asked her if she wouldn’t mind bringing her camera along on her next shopping trip and she did! She also wrote this great guest post. Stephanie, you have a future in blogging!!
So, without further ado, I bring you Stephanie…
Stephanie and Her Kids on Mother's Day
Voting for Groceries
I’m that annoying lady at the produce section picking through the fresh items until I’ve found just the right candidate…whether its shaking, plucking, tapping, sniffing, hand-weighing, or rejecting items with brown spots…you better believe I end up voting for the best “candidates”. I have been known to block aisles while intensely reading labels scouring for pesky ingredients, calorie content, fat content, protein levels, sodium levels, and whatever else I can find that might sway my “vote.”
For me, grocery shopping IS somewhat like voting. Each item on my list usually has several options, and as the mother of three kids whom I believe deserve the best, I owe it to them to ensure I’m making the most nutritionally informed decisions when I vote (purchase). Needless to say, “vote-shopping” with three kids in tow can definitely take its time!!
Fortunately for my children who would rather be eating the items I’ve voted for, my local grocery store Hy-Vee has teamed up with Nu-Val in order to provide me with a nutritional grade (1-100) for various products that gets me in and out of my store quicker!
During my latest shopping excursion I took a few snap shots that highlight how easy Nu-Val scores have made some various “trade-ups” to a better candidate!
Lettuce
We love salads! I grew up on iceberg lettuce and have never had a problem with eating any other types of lettuce, but haven’t been able to ignore that the iceberg variety is generally cheaper. On my shopping trip I noticed a pretty big difference between the Nu-Val score for a regular head of iceberg lettuce (82) compared with the organic green and red leaf lettuces (100). I also noticed a pretty big difference in the price tags too so that made voting complicated for this mom on a budget. Fortunately, as I made my way through the lettuce section, I found a compromise!
Iceberg Lettuce: 82
Organic Red Leaf Lettuce: 100
Green Leaf Lettuce: 100
Pineapple
Sweet and Sour Chicken with Pineapple was on the menu for the week which meant I needed some juicy pineapple! I would normally have purchased the canned variety because it makes preparation so much easier, but not after comparing Nu-Val scores! With 74 additional points, I think I’ll sacrifice some time and cut up a fresh one myself!
Canned Pineapple: 25
Fresh Pineapple: 96
Bread
As you can imagine, bread is consumed in mass quantities in my household, and while Wonder Bread can be found cheap, it also makes you wonder what they put in that stuff! One quick glance at various Nu-Val scores and I knew I had three really decent candidates. I can’t always afford to choose the product with the highest score (what can I say…some candidates sway me with a good sales price!) but at least with the Nu-Val scores I know which breads to stay away from!
Nature's Pride: 33
Arnold's Soft Family 100% Wheat: 37
Sara Lee Multigrain: 42
Applesauce
Who knew comparing apples to apples really might be a worthy debate? The Nu-Val scores on these two candidates of applesauce that were right by one another on the shelves goes to show that there are healthier versions of even the healthiest foods! The obvious vote here is the applesauce on the right. (30 vs. 8!!!!) I love getting naturally unsweetened applesauce and then adding our own toppings like berries, cinnamon, almonds or walnuts for additional flavor!
2 Different Musselman's, 2 Different Scores
Macaroni & Cheese
Like most children, mine really enjoy mac n cheese. My son particularly wanted to “vote” for the product featuring one of his favorite superheroes, Spiderman, but I’ve long abandoned the days where I’d vote for a product based on the gimmick on the box. I switched over to making my own healthier version of macaroni and cheese and with the implementation of what my kids call funky noodles I don’t feel bad for abandoning Spidey and his whopping score of 5! After researching several pasta candidates that were fun-shaped, Nu-Val scores once again helped me make a better purchase vote.
Spidey Mac & Cheese: 5
Barilla Plus Rotini: 91
Hy-Vee Rigatoni: 57
I’m so glad that Hy-Vee has implemented Nu-Val scores! It certainly makes my shopping voting experience so much easier!
The NuVal Nutritional Scoring System gives nutritional guidance to consumers frustrated with complicated nutrition labels and misleading packaging promises. Under NuVal, all foods and beverages are rated on a scale between 1 to 100. The higher the score, the higher the overall nutrition.
Awards
A Better Bag of Groceries was recently named by Medical Assistant Colleges as a Top 50 Blog for Understanding and Preventing Childhood Obesity. Hooray!
