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
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 01:08 PM
Don’t you just love all those “Back To School” segments that permeate the airwaves at this time of year. My husband and I saw this short Healthy School Lunch piece on our local Boston NBC station Monday night. While I admire Molly’s nutritious choices and creative presentation, I just can’t see myself making a Turkey Kabob for my son’s lunch box. Molly cubed the turkey, and cut up pieces of home-made bread for her kabobs. That is just not happening in our household. And then I think of what my son would do with the skewer once he was done with the kabob? Use it as a weapon? Hmmmmm. Not a workable lunch idea for me. Even the news anchors were doubting Molly’s suggestion to get your children to eat roasted red peppers.
Instead of a labor-intensive lunch making plan, I decided to use one of my favorite strategies to make life easier: use child labor. My son started first grade this morning. So last night, I asked him if he’d like to make his own lunch. He enthusiastically agreed to do so. So I got him set up and he went to work. While he worked on his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I cleaned up dinner dishes. It was a win-win situation. Yes, there was jelly to clean up after, but it was worth it.
I went into the office today to see my friends who work in Scoring to see how my son’s lunch fared. I was pretty excited because I thought I had found THE AMAZING BREAD THAT SCORES AN 81. I was wrong.
Nature’s Pride 100% Natural 100% Whole Wheat Bread: 27
Trader Joe’s Natural Peanut Butter: ?
Smucker’s Strawberry Preserves: 1
Organic Baby Carrots: 99
Apple Slices: 96
Horizon Organic Reduced Fat Chocolate Milk: 27
So the bread that I bought looked really healthy. Look at all those claims – 100% Natural, 100% Whole Wheat. But it got a 27. Not bad, when you consider that the median score in Bread is a 25. But it’s not THE AMAZING BREAD THAT SCORES AN 81. That would be Nature’s Own 100% Whole Wheat Bread. And this is why I really wish I had a grocery store that actually had NuVal in it. I work there and I work with scores all the time, but when faced with the completely overwhelming bread aisle, I can’t remember which breads get what score.
The peanut butter that we used is from Trader Joe’s and we haven’t scored their store-brand products. Now, I could assume that it gets close to what Teddie Peanut Butter Smooth gets (a 36). But as I learned from my Bread experience, you really can’t make those assumptions.
My son also packed a snack for school.
Fruit Falls Tropical gets a 41 (a much better score than many juice boxes)
Pepperidge Farms Goldfish get a 24
Bananas get a 91
With my own first-day jitters, I worried that he might get hungry and so I quickly packed him a second snack this morning:
Minute Maid 100% Juice Mixed Berry which scores a 13 (see what I mean about those juice boxes)
Wheat Thins which get a 23 (nope, they’re not better than Goldfish)
Grapes which get a 91
Well, he’s home now and he had a great first day. His lunch may not have been made on a skewer, but it was a fun project. And it included this note that you see in the picture. Now that’s creative. And it only took me a minute.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Apples, Goldfish, Juice, bread, chocolate milk, peanut butter, wheat thins
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
Posted in: Annie's Cheddar Bunnies, Crackers, Goldfish
