• Choosing the Healthiest Foods for Your Family

    Welcome! I am a mom of a busy 7 year old and an adventurous 5 year old. I also happen to work for a great new 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.

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  • Disclaimer

    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.

Goldfish vs. Bunnies

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 02:05 PM

This weekend, my friend (a NuVal newbie) and I were discussing my next blog post while we supervised our kids swimming in the pool. It went like this:

Me: I think I’ll write about Pepperidge Farm Goldfish. They get a pretty good score, you know. They get a 24.

My Friend: A 24? That’s not a good score! That’s low!

Me: No, no! A 24 is really good when you’re talking about crackers.

Anyway, this exchange reminded me that I need to inform my readers that you can’t get 100 in every category. See, here’s the deal: many fruits and vegetables score in the 90 – 100 range. Skim milk does too. But you also need to eat protein and grains, etc. And then there are treats. You’re not going to find a cookie that scores a 100 (nor would you want to eat one if you did). So, when you’re talking about crackers, the scores range from 2 – 87. The median score (half score above it, half score below it) for crackers is a 14.

With all that said, let’s get back to Goldfish – a staple in ever toddler’s diet. Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Cheddar score a 24. Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies get a 6. That is not a typo – that is a 6! Not everything in the organic/healthy section of your grocery store is nutritious.

Now that my kids are getting bigger and they are eating A LOT of crackers with all the swimming they’ve been doing, I’ve been tempted to move on to something a little more mature than Goldfish. Like Cheez Its. My kids love Sponge Bob Cheez Its (so much for maturity). They get a 15, slightly better than Original Cheez-Its which get a 13. I could try to get them to eat Keebler Townhouse Bistro Multigrain Crackers. Don’t they just sound so up-scale and healthy? They score a 2!

So I guess we’ll be eating Goldfish for a while!

Here are some other cracker scores:
Nabisco Triscuit 29
Kashi TLC 7 Grain Crackers 27
Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies Whole Wheat 27
Sunshine Reduced Fat Cheez Its 23
Nabisco Wheat Thins 23
Nabisco Cheese Nips Reduced Fat Cheddar 9

You can see more cracker scores here.

Posted by: Melissa 4 comments

Posted in: Annie's Cheddar Bunnies, Crackers, Goldfish