Monday, July 26, 2010 at 07:06 AM
Stop. The. Presses. Do I have a Cart Confession for you! It’s almost embarrassing.
At NuVal, we are scoring just about every product that you can find in a grocery store. To date, we’ve scored over 70,000 products. It’s a huge job and it takes time. So, that means that there are still products out there that we have in our queue, but we haven’t scored yet. Honest Kids Goodness Grapeness was one of those products. Until now.
A litle history here. I have been giving my kids these watery juice drinks for about a year now. My mom introduced me to them. She found them at a Very Well-Known “Healthy” and High Priced Supermarket Where You Just Might Spend Your Whole Paycheck. And, gosh, they looked so healthy. Consider this:
- She found them at that Über-Healthy Grocery Store, where everything is healthy, right?
- It says “Low Sugar” right on the front of the package.
- It says “100% Daily Vitamin C” right there on front the package.
- It says “Organic” right there on the front of the package.
- It says “No high fructose corn syrup” right there on the front of the package.
So even though we had not scored them yet at NuVal, I thought they they would get a pretty good score once we did score them. I mean, I was really confident about it. I have been putting these in my shopping cart every week for the past year (they do carry them at the not-so-hoity-toity supermarkets too). My kids love them so much and they call them, “Thank Goodness Grapeness.” Awwww. How cute.
So imagine my shock when, while reviewing some NuVal scores for shelf-stable juices last week, I discovered that we recently scored this product. And that Honest Kids Goodness Grapeness scores a 3. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggghhhhh! I think that the scoring team could hear me screaming all the way down on the first floor of the NuVal offices.
I checked in with Rachel Rodek, MS, RD, LDN, CSSD and Manager of Nutrition Communications at NuVal, to find out Why, Oh WHY, my beloved Thank Goodness Grapeness only scored a 3. The reason is that these juice boxes (bags, really) have more sugar than grape juice. The ingredient list reads water, sugar, grape juice concentrate. Sugar is before grape juice in the ingredient list. Sigh!! Who knew? So, we’re back to Minute Maid Fruit Falls, which score a much better 41 on the NuVal scale.
And this is why God (well, Dr. Katz and his team of scientific experts, really) created NuVal!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cart Confessions
Tags: Cart Confessions, Goodness Grapeness, Honest Kids
Friday, June 25, 2010 at 06:54 AM
Welcome to Cart Confessions, a regular feature here on A Better Bag of Groceries where I like to show you that I am only human and that yes, at times some items with low NuVal scores land in my cart.
Today’s Cart Confession really takes the cake – literally. The scores don’t get much lower than this!
Here’s the story…
My son has an amazing birthday. He is born on the 4th of July. It is such a great day to celebrate. I remember that after he was born at the hospital in Boston, my husband pulled my hospital bed over to the window so that we could watch the fireworks together – the three of us. Fast forward to seven years later and my son loves that his birthday falls on such a fun holiday. We head to the nation’s oldest 4th of July parade in Bristol, RI, come back and swim at our community pool and watch the Boston Pops at night on TV. My son even gets to stay up late. What my son doesn’t love is that because he has a summer birthday, he misses out on celebrating his actual birthday in his classroom. However, the awesome teachers at our school have all sorts of ways to handle the summer birthdays: some summer birthday kids celebrate their half-birthdays, others just pick a day (my son’s best friend chose St. Patrick’s Day), or wait ’til the end. That’s what we do – we wait until the bitter end. That meant that this week, in addition to packing up our entire house in preparation for our move, I had to make birthday cupcakes.
Now, the Healthy Mommy Blogger in me could have found a healthy recipe somewhere. But you know, The Move. I also could have just bought ready-made cupcakes. However, for two reasons, I decided to go with a store-bought mix.
- My son really wanted me to make the exact same cupcakes that I made last year – with the blue and red sprinkles and the little American flags
- The Pillsbury Mix was so cheap at Target. The cupcake mix was about $1, the frosting another $1 and the red and blue sprinkles were in the Dollar Aisle for $1 each.
So, how does the cake mix score on the NuVal scale? Do you really want to know?
- Pillsbury Moist Supreme Classic Yellow Cake Mix: 3
- Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Frosting: 1
I guess it’s a good thing we don’t eat this every day!
Before I show you my less-than-stellar photo of how these cupcakes turned out, let me explain the logistics of getting these cheap, yet special cupcakes to my son’s classroom:
The cupcakes were all set to go, I frosted and decorated them the night before and they were resting on the kitchen table. Come morning, I was teaching my 5:30 am Boot Camp at the gym and when I returned, I found that my husband had placed all of the cupcakes in the cupcake carriers (you know, the ones that I had not yet packed for The Move). That was very nice, but he had removed all of the American flags because the tops of the carriers would not fit. I had not yet taken the photo for the blog, so I thought to myself, “That’s OK. I’ll bring them into the classroom, re-insert the flags, and take a picture then.” No problem. I drove my son to school, we headed inside his classroom with the cupcakes and he helped me to put all the flags back in, just as all the children were filing into the room. I whipped out my camera to get the shot I needed for The Blog, when I saw the dreaded message, “Change the battery pack.” Oh no! So, I whipped out my Blackberry instead and got this shot. Whew!
Happy Early Birthday to my Yankee Doodle Dandy!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cart Confessions
Tags: cupcakes
Monday, June 14, 2010 at 07:09 AM
Monday is just the perfect day for a Confession, isn’t it? Let’s face it – none of us are perfect on the weekend. There’s always something that we put into our body or into our shopping cart that we’re a little ashamed of. For me, it was Apple Jacks this weekend. However, with all of the Toy Story Hype that is going on right now, I’m actually pretty proud of myself for coming home with only one Toy Story product in my shopping bag.
Let me explain…
In our house, Toy Story is big. Not just big, it is HUGE. My son has been a Toy Story fanatic for several years. Hands down, it is his favorite movie of all time. When he was four, he was Woody for Halloween.
And then, the next year he was Buzz…
My daughter joined in on the Toy Story craze, too. She was Little Bo Peep (one of the Toys from the movie) for Halloween that year.
In case you don’t know, Toy Story 3 comes out in movie theaters this Friday. My kids have been talking about June 18, 2010 for about a year now.
According to the Boston Globe, Walt Disney Co. expects to sell $2.4 billion in merchandise related to the movie. Well, of course, Walt Disney is off to a running start, even before the movie is released. We saw a lot of Woody and Buzz in the stores this weekend.
My daughter first spied the Toy Story gang on this Fruit Crisps display at Stop & Shop.
Then, we found them on “fruit flavored snacks,” one of the foods expressly prohibited by our pediatric dentist.
And what children’s character doesn’t make it to the front of the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese box? Kraft Mac and Cheese is to kids’ characters just as Wheaties is to Olympic athletes.
Woody even made it onto Edy’s ice cream.
In fact, our Target Flyer advertised a whole array of Toy Story Food products.
Of course, it’s not just food that Walt Disney is hoping to sell by pasting these favorite characters on the packaging. At Kohl’s we saw Toy Story 3 shoes:
And back at Stop & Shop, the Toy Story characters adorned bottles of kids’ shampoo and conditioner:
Let me just point out that the shampoo without Toy Story characters on the label had more ounces in the bottle and cost 70 cents less.
So, yes, some Toy Story Apple Jacks did make their way into our shopping cart this weekend. What’s the NuVal score? It’s a 24. The average score for cold cereal is a 27, so it’s below average. I guess it could have been worse. The Toy Story Kraft Macaroni and Cheese gets a 5 on the NuVal scale.
How did I get away with only one Toy Story product in my cart? Well, all of a sudden, my son is done with Toy Story. He even talked about donating his Toy Story toys this weekend. He has moved on to Star Wars, big time. He still wants to see the movie, but that’s about it. He told me that he is just too big (I’m almost 7, Mom!) as he surfed youtube for Beatles videos, rattled off facts about the Presidents, and read about the Celtics in the Sports section of the Globe. I guess it’s fitting that in the new movie coming out this weekend, Andy goes to college and his toys get shipped off to a daycare. I get misty just thinking about it!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cart Confessions, Macaroni and Cheese
Tags: Apple Jacks
Monday, April 5, 2010 at 11:35 AM
Welcome to Cart Confessions, a frequent feature here on A Better Bag of Grocerieswhere I ‘fess up and tell you about something that landed in my shopping cart that I am not so proud of. Today, it’s Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Colors.
How did these purple, pink and green fishies end up in my cart? Take a guess! Yup, you got it right. My husband did the grocery shopping! That is typically my job, but things have been a little chaotic these past few weeks on the homefront. And so it happened that I needed some time to catch up on NuVal work and he took the kids grocery shopping. And he does a wonderful job. Truly. I mean he has even bought stuff for blog giveaways. He has literally been in aisles calling me from his cell as we review UPC codes over the phone. So I will forgive him for this one slip-up. I mean, really, he just gave in to the kid-pressure. Look how happy my daughter is about her colorful fish!
I do buy Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, but I typically buy the Whole Grain variety which score a 28 on the NuVal scale. That is a great score when you consider that the median score (half score above, half score below) for crackers is a 14. I don’t usually buy Goldfish Colors because they used to score an 18. Did you notice that I said “used to score.” Past tense. They now score a 24. Pepperidge Farm recently changed the recipe. I checked in with Rachel Rodek, MS, RD, LDN, CSSD and Manager of Nutrition Communications at NuVal. She said that the reason the score has improved from an 18 to a 24 is that the new recipe has more healthy unsaturated fats than the previous recipe.
That is one of the coolest things about NuVal. We keep up with manufacturer reformulations. They happen all the time and we keep track of it. So, if the cereal company adds fiber and takes out some sugar, we rescore the product. And consumers (well, at least those consumers who are lucky enough to have NuVal in their local grocery stores) have the most-up-to-date data at their fingertips.
Back to the Goldfish. The kids devoured the bag of Colors and reveled in the fact that they got Daddy to buy something that Mommy usually says “no” to. Now, we are back to Whole Grain Goldfish. And hopefully, I am back to being Queen of the Grocery Shopping in our household.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cart Confessions, Goldfish
Tags: Pepperidge Farms Goldfish
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 07:21 AM
Happy Friday, Blog Friends! I thought I would head into this glorious Spring weekend – during which I can envision myself on my deck with a cocktail in one hand and a salty snack in the other – with a blog post about chips. Not just any chips. Chips that Mom’s eat to feel all virtuous and all. What I mean is – something other than a Cheese Doodle.
So, it’s Cart Confession Time! These Stacy’s Naked Chips find their way into my shopping cart every week. To be completely honest, we actually used to get TWO bags. But, you know, they’re not REAL chips. They’re pita chips! So they must be “healthy”, right? Well, they get a 24 on the NuVal scale. And that is fine. The median score for salty snacks is a 17, so they’re better than “average”. But many grown-ups probably snack on them thinking that they’re better than potato chips. Not true! Lay’s Original Potato Chips score a 24. Guess what Baked Lay’s get? Better right? Nope, they get a 24 also!
But Stacy’s Naked Chips MUST be better than Dorito’s, right? Uh-uh. Doritos score a 24 also. Fascinating, isn’t it? This is why I love my job!
And how about pretzels? They must be better than potato chips, right? Nooooooooo. Rold Gold Tiny Twists score a 13. Snyder’s of Hanover Thin Pretzels score a 9.
So what’s a crunch-and-salt-craving Mom to do? Well, there are a few salty snacks that do even better than Stacy’s, Doritos, and Lay’s:
- Bearitos Blue Corn Tortilla Chips: NuVal score of 40
- Terra Sweet Potato Chips: NuVal score of 49
- Garden of Eatin Blue Chips with No Salt Added: NuVal score of 52
As for Stacy’s Naked Chips – I still love them. My husband and kids do too. Nothing goes better with our favorite red pepper hummus. I’ll just keep our weekly purchase down to ONE bag!
Question of the Day
What do YOU crave that is crunchy and salty?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cart Confessions
Tags: Stacy's Chips
