A Better Bag of Groceries

Guest Post: Stephanie Presents McKayla’s Story

Friday, June 10, 2011 at 07:15 AM

One of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to meet a lot of really smart dietitians from all around the country.  Stephanie Walker is a young, rising star who just wows me. 

Stephanie and Dr. Katz

Stephanie works for Festival Foods, a 14-store supermarket chain in Wisconsin – small in the grocery biz.  So that means that Stephanie does everything:  PR, training, community relations, the works.  If you ask Stephanie, one of her favorite things about her job is that she gets to go out into the community and teach kids all about NuVal.  Stephanie was so kind to share her experience with all of you A Better Bag of Groceries  readers.  So without further ado, I turn the keyboard over to Stephanie!

Last year about this time, Ms. De Villers offered me an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. She invited me to be a part of each rotation of her Family and Consumer Science classes for 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders at West De Pere Middle School. Each and every trip to school throughout the year left me more knowledgeable (even though I was doing the teaching). As part of the class, each student is required to complete a “Health Bank: Health is a habit!” project, which is meant to demonstrate nutrition or wellness practices that can enhance individual or family well-being.

While I was impressed with all of the projects I caught glimpses of throughout the year, there was one in particular that caught my attention in my last trip to West DePere for the 2010-2011 school year. McKayla Dietzen did her project using NuVal™  Scores, which are available at Festival Foods stores, to make nutritious food choices. And she did not stop there – she then took the foods she purchased and turned them into a fantastic meal for her family! 

I was impressed and couldn’t wait to meet McKayla!  When she arrived to class that afternoon, I immediately asked if she would mind if I shared her project on my blog. I am grateful that both she and her parents agreed, because this is exactly how NuVal is meant to be used!   Here is what she did:

McKayla went to Festival Foods and used NuVal scores as a guide in purchasing the following items:

Once she had a cart full of nutritious options, McKayla then had to figure out how to use them. She decided to make a soup and a fruit salad. Pictured in her poster below are photos of the items she bought, and the delicious meal she made out of them. McKayla and Stephanie McKayla's Project So there you have it!  NuVal makes it easy to find the most nutritious choices within a food category (or for each recipe ingredient) – you simply have to look for the highest NuVal score on the price tag. While purchasing the foods with high NuVal scores does not miraculously put a meal on the table, it is a tool that can help to fill your cart with nutritious items, giving you a healthy base of ingredients to work with once you get home! Thank you, McKayla, for your hard work on this excellent project. I appreciate you allowing me to share it with all of our blog readers! Finally, I also want to thank Ms. De Villers for inviting me into her classroom to talk about my job, nutrition, and how marketing can influence our purchasing decisions. It was a pleasure meeting all of the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in her classes throughout the year, and I found that I too learned in the process! Have a safe and fun summer vacation!

Posted by: Melissa 5 comments

Posted in: Guest Bloggers

Tags: Festival Foods, Guest Posts

Guest Blog: Sylvia from Price Chopper

Friday, May 6, 2011 at 07:11 AM

Sylvia Geiger, MS, RD, CD is a Community Nutritionist who works for Price Chopper Supermarkets  in the beautiful state of Vermont.  As part of her job educating Price Chopper’s customers about healthy living, she writes for Price Chopper’s blog, Chopper Shopper Chatter.  Price Chopper was the first supermarket company in the nation to implement NuVal  chain-wide, so they have had NuVal scores on their store shelves for over 2 1/2 years now!  Sylvia’s posts (like mine) often involve great tips for using NuVal to make nutritious decisions while shopping and cooking.  Sylvia has this great advice for Celebrating Mother’s Day.  So, without further ado, I turn the keyboard over to Sylvia!

Flowers, breakfast in bed, or dinner at her favorite restaurant are ways we celebrate our mothers and show them our love.

But this year let’s show our appreciation for mom by supporting her in her efforts to care for her own health.  In their role as caregivers, moms are likely to put their own health on the back burner or even at risk in order to care and provide for their loved ones.  This can have serious consequences—especially for their heart. We’ve long known that women are just as likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease (heart attack & stroke) as men but somehow the myth prevails that women don’t need to actively work towards preventing heart disease.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Women of any age will benefit from exercise, diet and lifestyle choices that promote heart health.

Let’s show mom how much we love her by helping take some positive steps towards eating for a healthy heart.

1. Heart-healthy eating means selecting plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes & beans, lean meats & fish and low-fat dairy foods everyday.
2. Use the NuVal shelf tags scores to find foods with the highest NuVal numbers—these foods will be more heart healthy. The American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugars, sodium, cholesterol, and saturated  & trans fat—and all of these undesirables lower the NuVal scores for a food.
3. Look for whole grain breads, crackers, rice, and cereals. Again, the higher NuVal score, the better for your heart. These foods will have more fiber, a lower Glycemic Index and less sodium and added sugars.
4. Aim for eating fish twice a week and choose lean meats & poultry.
5. For more information see our Healthy Heart Wellness Center or visit American Heart Association for more tips for preventing heart disease.

 Surprise mom with this week’s Heart Healthy Mothers Day Celebration Meal

All main ingredients are on sale

Even the kids can help put this meal on the table!

(NuVal score for raw ingredient in parentheses.)

v  Maple Glazed Seared Salmon (87)  

or  Fish Sticks (82)

or Chicken Breast & Mushroom Cream Sauce (39)

v   Broccoli  (100) or Baby Carrots (99)

v  Baked Potato (92) or Brown Rice (82)

v  Romaine Heart Salad (100) or Dole Salad Blends or Kits (100)

v  Chocolate Fondue with Fruit (96-100)

Question of the Day

How are you making sure that you  do something to support your  mom’s heart-healthy eating this Mother’s Day?

Posted by: Melissa 2 comments

Posted in: Guest Bloggers

Tags: Guest Blogs, Price Chopper

Guest Post: Toni from Long Island

Friday, April 8, 2011 at 07:26 AM

 Today, I turn the keyboard over to a Long Island Mom who does it all.  

Toni is a registered nurse, a mother of two girls, a runner currently training for the Long Island Half Marathon coming up on May 1st AND she is a blogger.  Even with all that going on, she took time out of her busy schedule to meet up with the NuVal team at King Kullen supermarkets and take a tour this week.  She wrote a great post about it – and it originally ran on her blog – Running, Loving, Living.   Check it out – she has great recipes and my Readers Who Run (and My Readers Who Want to Start Running) will love all her tips and running profiles.   

With Toni’s permission, I am re-posting her original post here on A Better Bag of Groceries today.  So, without further ado, I give you new NuVal fan, Toni!

I had the opportunity to tour King Kullen and learn about the NuVal™nutrition score thanks to Tracey Cullen who works in operations and marketing at King Kullen.  Tracey is one of the people responsible for the Nuval™’s launch and implementation at King Kullen.  I’d also like to thank the store manager Ed Williamson who stayed late to accompany us on the tour and answer all our questions.  We were also joined by Michele Tonner, a nutritionist who works for King Kullen and Wild by Nature, she was able to provide us with a better understanding of the NuVal™ score and how it works…thanks Michele.

     Food shopping can be difficult especially with a 2 year old, so anything that will make my trip to the grocery store easier I’m all for, especially when it comes to nutrition.  NuVal™ is a nutritional scoring system that scores food items from 1-100 based on their nutritional value, it allows consumers to see the nutritional value of food at a glance.  It is a tool that consumers can use to easily make informed decisions about the nutritional value of the food they are buying.  The NuVal™ score is based on the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans, these guidelines provide advice for people two and older about how good dietary habits can reduce the risk for chronic diseases.  Since the federal Dietary Guidelines exclude infants and toddlers under two, so does the NuVal™ system.
     The NuVal™ score is calculated by taking more than 30 different nutrients and nutrition factors into account and through a complex algorithm food is labeled form 1-100.  Simply speaking, nutrients with generally favorable effects (like vitamins, minerals and fiber) on health are the numerator and nutrients with generally unfavorable effects (like trans fat, saturated fat, and sodium) are the denominator and these scores are divided to create the NuVal™ score. 
     In addition to the numerator and denominator nutrients, the algorithm takes in other key factors:

• Trans fat: Trans fat has a a very strong association with heart disease so the algorithm assigns a “weighted coefficient” to trans fat which substantially lowers the score of the foods that contain it.
• Quality of macronutrients (fats, proteins, carbs): The higher the quality, the higher the score.
• Nutrient dense foods: Foods with a significant amount of vitamins and minerals with relatively few calories receive extra credit and higher scores.

     The nutrient data used in the scoring process comes from the nutrition facts and ingredient list on the food’s packaging.  For non-packaged foods the data is primarily obtained from the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory. 
     The score for certain foods can change over time due to two reasons:

1. Scientific advancement requiring updates or revisions to the algorithm
2. Reformulation of packaged products such as the removal of trans fat

     I learned that King Kullen receives weekly updates on the changes so that they can keep the most current NuVal™ scores available for the consumers.  The NuVal™ website also has sample scores on their website but for a more comprehensive look at scores you much visit a retailer that has the NuVal™ score such as King Kullen.

     King Kullen recently implemented the NuVal™ scoring system into their stores this past February so as a consumer we can now see how nutritious items are just buy looking at the label on the shelf next to the item’s price.

     For King Kullen the implementation of the score comes around the same time as their new promotion in their produce department-Fresh Produce, Refreshing Prices, Every Day of the Week.  You can now get your fresh produce at King Kullen for great prices every day of the week.  In the produce department Nuval scores range from 81-100 with the average score being 96.

     One interesting fact I learned about produce and the NuVal™ score during my tour was that being organic does not affect the score of the produce.  At this time there is no scientific evidence to show that pesticides have any impact on the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables so the scores are the same among organic and non-organic foods. 


         Nuval™ scores are not only on signs around the store, like the ones you see above, but they are also on the shelves in front of the products.

     Regular Barilla pasta scores a 61 and Barilla plus scores a 91, trading up to the Barilla plus will make your pasta meal more nutritious but if your family doesn’t like the taste regular Barilla has a great score too!  Scores for dried pasta are driven by the amount of sodium, cholesterol, omega-3 fatty acids and fiber in the product.
    Milk and Flavored Milk scores range from 1-100, averaging in at 60.

• Skim milk: 91
• 1% milk: 81
• 2% milk: 55
• Whole milk: 52
• Tuscan and King Kullen milk both have the same score.

    As you can see skim milk would be your most nutritious option but just trading up from whole mile to 1% provides a significant increase in the nutritional value.  Scores for milk are driven by sodium, added sugar, saturated fat, calcium, vitamins D and A.
     These are just a few examples of what you will see when you go into King Kullen or any store with the NuVal™ score.  You can choose to trade up to a more nutritious product or not, but now thanks to NuVal™ you can make an informed decision on the nutritional content of a product just by looking at the shelf.
     There are some products that are not scored at this time, some examples are baby food, prepared food items (bakery, deli dept.), vinegars, spices, water, tea, coffee and beer.
  You can check out the NuVal™ website for any questions you may have, stores that have the NuVal™ system in place, blogs and more.
    As a registered nurse, mother, wife, blogger I think that this system rocks!!  The obesity epidemic in the United States is a major problem and if people have the nutritional information available to them in an easy score this will help everyone with making better choices.  It doesn’t take any extra time, you don’t even have to pick up a box, you just look at the label on the shelf and you can start making better choices for you and your family. 
     Thank you King Kullen for making the NuVal™ available on Long Island!!!

Posted by: Melissa 5 comments

Posted in: Guest Bloggers, King Kullen

Tags: Guest Blogs, King Kullen, running

Guest Post: Carrie and Andrea from Big Y

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 08:17 AM

As part of my job with NuVal, I get to work with registered dietitians at a whole bunch of different supermarkets.  Carrie and Andrea are two amazing ladies with incredible energy and Big Y is very lucky to have them on board!  They are always spreading the word about NuVal – on TV, on the radio, in schools, even on ginormous billboards overlooking the Massachusetts Turnpike.  I am still in my surprise location this week – so Carrie and Andrea jumped in and offered one of their recipes for today’s blog post.

Carrie Taylor and Andrea Samson

Have a favorite recipe or a family recipe that has been passed down throughout the generations that you know isn’t quite the healthiest one…but you would love to try a “healthier” version? Join Andrea and I as we collaborate with the Morning Show on Lite 100.5 WRCH for our new program “Trade Up to Smack Down”.

We provide tips on ways to use the NuVal™ Scoring System to trade up to more nutritious ingredients for use in your recipes.

For example, love fajitas?

Trade up that plain wheat tortilla (NuVal™ Score of 3) for a multi grain tortilla (NuVal™ Score of- 47), full fat sour cream (NuVal™ Score- 27) to fat free sour cream (NuVal™ Score- 33), four cheese Mexican cheese (NuVal™ Score- 20) to reduced fat cheddar cheese (NuVal™ Score- 23) and mix up the protein.

iStock image purchased by Big Y

Trade up from beef (average NuVal™ Score- 30) fajitas to boneless, skinless chicken breast (NuVal™ Score- 39), turkey breast (NuVal™ Score- 48), shrimp (NuVal™ Score- 75), tilapia (NuVal™ Score- 82), salmon (NuVal™ Score- 87), tofu (average NuVal™ Score- 49) or fresh vegetables (average NuVal™ Score- 96) and beans (average NuVal™ Score- 55).

Don’t forget to season everything yourself with dried and fresh herbs and a squeeze of lime in lieu of using fajita seasoning mix that is loaded with sodium!

Examples like this and more are discussed on-air on 100.5 FM in the Hartford, CT listening area, as well as online on the WRCH webpage for the Big Y® Trade Up to Smack Down program. The webpage includes tips, videos shot of the Living Well Eating Smart Wellness Team showing examples on ways to trade up breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner as well as customer questions and comments about ways NuVal™ Scores can be used to trade up their favorite recipes and dishes.

Visit the Trade Up to Smack Down  page to learn more!

Authors:

Carrie Taylor and Andrea Samson are the registered dietitians for the Living Well Eating Smart program at Big Y Foods. Have a nutrition question? Visit their webpage at www.bigy.com/lwes or e-mail livingwell@bigy.com.

Living Well Eating Smart

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Yesterday’s Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to Commenter #20 Jordan, you’ve won yesterday’s Shelf-Stable Kids’ Snacks giveaway!  Please send Melissa an email at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your mailing address so that she can can mail your prize out to you.  Thanks to everyone who entered.

Posted by: Melissa 1 comment

Posted in: Big Y, Guest Bloggers

Tags: Big Y, Guest Posts

Guest Post: Alicia from United Supermarkets

Monday, March 28, 2011 at 07:21 AM

This week, I am in a surpise location.  It’s sort of like Where in the World is Matt Lauer – and stay tuned because you will find out just where I am by the end of the week.  Not to worry – the blog will keep going.  There is still a Trade-Up Tuesday Giveaway tomorrow and I’ve recruited some friends to help me out.  Today, I am honored to bring you the esteemed Miss Alicia Brown, MS, RD, LD and winner of 2009′s Registered Young Dietitian of the Year Award.  Alicia is Health and Wellness Marketing Manager  for the DFW area Market Street stores at United Texas.  “DFW” is “Dallas Fort Worth” for those of you who don’t speak Texas and Alicia does a phenomonal job for them.  By the way, she won’t be a “Miss” for much longer – she is getting ready for her wedding this coming October!  Without further ado, I hand the keyboard over to Alicia…

Did you know March is National Frozen Foods Month AND National Nutrition Month? When most people think of frozen foods ice cream, pizza and frozen meals are listed as the top frosty finds. Can frozen foods and nutrition meet in the freezer section without a frozen standstill? I was determined to prove it true. So, just as any frequent shopper does, I grabbed my warmest jacket and headed to the frozen foods aisle at Market Street.

I was on a mission to find not just good nutrition products but great products. Thank goodness for the NuVal system we have in place at Market Street, I didn’t have to spend half an hour reading food labels. I was able to actually see the overall NuVal score just looking through the door (no frozen fingers for me).

The first product that jumped out at me was the frozen hashbrowns. Did you know they receive a NuVal score of 91?! When you compare to the fresh potato which scores a 93, this is a pretty great find. Now you wonder “how can hashbrowns score a 91? Aren’t they fried in oil?” Ahh but the OreIda Frozen Hashbrowns are just shredded potato. It’s how you prepare them that counts. Instead of frying them, how about baking them? Convenient and better for you.

Strolling a little further down the aisle I saw Alexia Sweet Potato Fries. With a NuVal score of 49, these make a great Trade Up from the frozen pre-fried French fries. The family doesn’t have to do with out their beloved French fries! In fact, some kids like the sweet potato fries better than the original.

Moving swiftly to the next aisle (to avoid the frost bite) I run across the frozen vegetables. I don’t think I need to convince you that frozen vegetables are a great way to get good nutrition at a lower cost and added convenience. But one little bag you may not have noticed is the Stahlbush Diced Sweet Potatoes. Considering a fresh sweet potato gets a NuVal score of 96, these hit the bullseye with the same score. I love to bake these or add them to soups. The best part, the only ingredient is: Sweet Potatoes.

One area of frozen foods that is often overlooked is the frozen breads. Most of us are accustomed to buying bread on the bread aisle. If we jump over from the bread aisle to the freezer cas we find a breat with a NuVal score of 93. This is one of my favorite hidden hits. When the traditional bread aisle only brings in a top bread score in the 40′s this is a goldmine. Why is Food for Life Bran For Life Bread in the freezer case? There are no preservatives. If it were on the center shelves it would go bad very quickly. So put on your winter gloves, reach in and grab some Bran for Life Bread.

My last tasty find in the frozen foods sections is Blue Bunny’s Sweet Freedom No Sugar Added Fudge Lites. Would you be surprised to know that this is the highest scoring frozen treat? Guess what the score is? How about a NuVal score of 100!! Now I’m sure you are raising an eyebrow but rest assured, I’ve already questioned this product’s score a couple times. But if we look closely at the ingredients we find that the Fudge Lites are made mostly of skim milk. When skim milk gets a NuVal Score of 91, it’s easy to see how the fudge bars have a good foundation to stand on. With a little bit of fiber and the absence of added sugar the score moves up to 100! Now that’s a treat!

Take a look the next time you hit the frozen foods area. If you normally pick up the frozen pizza or some frozen vegetables, peek a few doors down. You may be surprised at the Fantastic Frozen Foods you find.

Have you discoverd a Fantastic Frozen Food? I’d love to hear about it.

Posted by: Melissa 7 comments

Posted in: Guest Bloggers

Tags: Guest Post, United Texas