• 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.

Do You Bagel?

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 07:20 AM

Do you bagel?  Sadly, I do not.  <Sigh>  Oh, how I miss bagels.  So crusty on the outside and warm on the inside – slathered with gooey cream cheese.  But a Bagel-A-Day habit back in college got me in big trouble, so I stay far, far away from these delectable treats.  Seriously, I eat about three bagels a year – one on Christmas (it’s a tradition), one while on vacation, and one if I visit NYC or a really good bagel shop. 

My kids, on the other hand, do indulge in bagels for breakfast on a more regular basis.  Am I worried that they will end up on a childhood obesity track?  Not currently.  They both swim daily and they both have body weights that have been tracking in the lean to normal range.  But I do like to give them the most nutritious bagel I can find in the supermarket. 

So what national brand bagel gets the best NuVal score?  It’s Lender’s Whole Grain Multi Grain Bagel with a score of 37.  Compare that to Thomas’s Plain Whole Grain Bagels, which score a 16.  So what’s the difference?  According to the Nutrition Team at NuVal, Lender’s uses all whole wheat flour plus other grains and seeds that boost its fiber to 7 grams.  While Thomas’s name boasts “whole grain”, the bagels are primarily enriched wheat flour plus some whole wheat flour mixed in, providing only 3 grams of fiber per bagel.  Lender’s score is also driven by sodium and use of soybean oil which contains omega-3 fatty acids.

See, that’s why you have to be really careful about those claims that you see on packages.  “Whole Grain” can mean a lot of different things.

So, it’s Lender’s Whole Grain bagels to give my kids the energy they need for their swimming lessons and free swim time.  We also round it out with some fresh fruit to really boost the NuVal score.

Question of the Day

Do you indulge in bagels?  Come on – tell the truth!

Yesterday’s Giveaway

Congratulations to Commenter #205 Lisa!  You’ve won the Cereal Giveaway.  A box of Peanut Butter Puffins and a box of Kashi Autum Wheat are coming your way.  Just send me an email at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your mailing address so that I can send it out to you.  Thank you to everyone who entered.

Posted by: Melissa 22 comments

Posted in: Breakfast

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What About Waffles?

Friday, July 16, 2010 at 07:02 AM

Gosh, I have blogged about soooo many different foods here on A Better Bag of Groceries.  One category that I haven’t touched on?  Frozen Waffles.  This dawned on me as I was toasting one for my son’s breakfast recently.  I guess I haven’t blogged about them yet because they are not an everyday breakfast in our house.

So, what about waffles?  How do they score on the NuVal  scale.  Well, they vary.  Gosh, you must all get sick of hearing me say that!  They vary.  Sorry, but they do!  I mean, that is the reason for NuVal after all.  It helps you to compare one waffle against the other. 

As for Waffle Scores, here’s The Best, the Middle of the Road, and the Bottom of the Barrell:

The Best:

Earth’s Best Organic Homestyle Mini Waffles:  43

Kashi Go Lean Frozen Strawberry Flax All Natural:  40

The Middle of the Road:

HyVee Frozen Waffles Multi-Grain:  32

Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Waffles:  28

Kellogg’s Eggo Homestyle Waffles:  23

The Bottom of the Barrell:

Aunt Jemima Frozen Homestyle Waffles:  4

Waffle scores are pretty much on the same track as Children’s cereal scores (the best being Cheerios at a 37, the worst being Capn Crunch with a score of 10).  The important thing to consider, though, is what  you add to that waffle or that cereal.  Think about it.  When you toast a waffle for your child, you often top it with butter (NuVal score of 2for many brands) and maple syrup (NuVal score of 1 for many brands).  When you give your child cereal for breakfast, you often add skim milk (NuVal score of 91) and fruit (NuVal scores of 90 – 100 for most fruits). 

So most mornings, we opt for cereal with milk and fruit and we save the waffles for an occasional treat.  It’s good to know that I can choose the most nutritious of the waffles out there for my kids.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get about my role as Mommy Blogger for NuVal is the following:  Do you ever run out of things to blog about.  My answer?  No way!!!  There are so many foods, so many food categories, so many recipes, so many new developments.  It never gets old.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Posted by: Melissa 10 comments

Posted in: Breakfast

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