Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 06:50 AM
Welcome to Trade Up Tuesday, a super day to visit A Better Bag of Groceries, because I talk about Trade-Ups I’ve made since learning about NuVal and I give away something for free. Today, in the spirit of Mother’s Day (which I personally think should last a week!) I put together a lovely little gift that I know I would like to receive: Cookies and Chocolate!
When it comes to dessert, cookies and chocolate are the things that I crave the most. I’m really not a cake person. My lack of desire for cake makes me feel like I’ve been given some sort of gift in the Craving Department. I easily say no to cake. Especially yellow or white cake with sickeningly sweet frosting. Bleeech! I don’t love it and I turn it down just about every time. Good thing because I feel like at least once a week there is an occasion where I’m offered a piece of cake. No thanks! Same thing holds true for sugary candy (Twizzlers, jelly beans, Swedish Fish). It’s just not my Go To treat.
That being said, I do love a treat once in a while, but for me they usually are in the form of a cookie or dark chocolate. The cookies and dark chocolate that I’m giving away today are the highest scoring of the bunch.
Cookies, as you can guess, do not get the same high NuVal scores as do something like Fruit. The scores for cookies range from 1 – 40, and the average score for a cookie is a 7. These Kashi TLC Oatmeal Raisin Flax cookies are the highest cookie we’ve scored so far at NuVal. They get a 40. Kashi does make a version of this cookie where they throw in some dark chocolate, but those cookies only get a 24. Bummer!
Dark chocolate is something that I absolutely cannot resist. Even if it’s just a few dark chocolate chips, I have a little bit every day. I remember the moment when I was reviewing the scores on the shelf at a Price Chopper supermarket (how cool that I get to do that as part of my job!) and I found out that this chocolate bar got a score of 21! Most of the other dark chocolates I’ve seen get scores below 10, so when I saw that, I was in heaven!
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky commenter will receive these High Scoring Treats and a NuVal t-shirt. All you need to do is leave a comment below, telling me about a Trade-Up you’ve made since learning about NuVal. If you haven’t made one yet, check out this blog or Trading Up Downtown for ideas. You can also check out sample scores on the NuVal site. I will choose one winner at random at 7 am EDT time Wednesday. Good luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cookies, Kashi, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Cookies, dark chocolate, Kashi
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 06:29 AM
Welcome to TradeUp Tuesday, a weekly feature here on A Better Bag of Groceries, where I talk about TradeUps I’ve made and give away free stuff. Today’s Topic: Kashi! Ask anyone who is focused on living and eating healthfully to tell you some of their favorite brands and Kashi is sure to come up. When I first started blogging about NuVal, the students in my Pilates class wanted to know, “How does Kashi score?” Great question! And the answer is, “it depends on which Kashi you mean.” There are some Kashi products that are NuVal Rock Stars, scoring among the highest in their categories. And then there are some Kashi products that score lower than you might think.
Let’s take Kashi cereal products for starters:
Kashi 7 Whole Grain Cereal Puffs 91
Kashi GoLean High Protein and High Fiber Cereal 47
Kashi Go Lean Crunch 33
Kashi 7 Whole Grain Flakes 29
Kashi Good Friends 26
Kashi Strawberry Fields 11
Are those good scores or bad scores? Well, cereals range from 4 – 100 on the NuVal scale and the median score (half score above it, half score below it) is a 25. So, I try to aim for cereals that score above a 25. Most people think that Kashi Good Friends score better than they do. And that Kashi Strawberry Fields is quite low. You would be better off choosing Kellogg’s Cocoa Krispies which get a score of 13.
How about the products in this week’s GiveAway?
Well, you already know that Kashi Go Lean scores a 47. Kashi 7 Whole Grain Nuggets score lower – only a 28. Hmmm. those nuggest might be best served as a sprinkle for your non-fat Greek yogurt rather than as a whole bowl of cereal. The Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate cookies are my favorite treat. They score a 24, which is great for a cookie. The median score for cookies is only a 3. I also love the Kashi TLC Dark Mocha Almond Granola bars, which score a 29. Can you tell that I like chocolate?
So, I guess the moral of the story is to choose your Kashi (and all your products, really) carefully. Don’t assume that one brand makes only highly nutritious products. It’s not always the case.
To enter today’s GiveAway:
One lucky winner will get all 4 Kashi products plus a NuVal T-shirt!!! All you need to do is leave a comment below and I’ll randomly select one after 11:59 PM Eastern time tonight. Just tell me about one product that has a NuVal score that surprised you. For ideas, check out nuval.com, A Better Bag of Groceries, Trading Up Downtown or Nutrition Outlook. Be sure to check back here tomorrow to see if you’re the winner!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Kashi, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Kashi
Monday, December 14, 2009 at 09:54 AM
When I started blogging, back in July of 2009, one of my first posts was about Cereal for Grown-Ups. I wrote about it because one of the most frequently asked questions I get, once people learn that I work for NuVal, is about cereal and how it scores. People want to know about Kashi, Shredded Wheat, and other popular brands of cereal that adults tend to eat. This is true for kids’ cereals too. A lot of moms ask me about brands that they choose for their children, most notably Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Kix. Let’s face it, most of us mothers start out by feeding our kids Cheerios but by the time the kids are 5 and they are walking the grocery store with us and they are beginning to read words (like Lucky Charms!) they start asking for more than just plain old Cheerios. Add one of their favorite movie characters to the front of a box of cereal and it’s Meltdown In Aisle Five.
So, yes, I admit. We’ve been experimenting in the cereal department. In our cabinet right now are the following brands:
- Frosted Flakes
- Golden Grahams
- Cheerios
- Shredded Wheat (mine)
- Cinnnamon Toast Crunch
- Honey Nut Cheerios
I can tell you that the Golden Grahams and Cinnamon Toast Crunch made it into the basket because they had Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs characters on them. I have no idea how the Frosted Flakes made it into our cart and then into our cabinet. No idea. Perhaps one of my kids threw it in when I wasn’t looking? No idea.
Last week, my son had a half-day of school, so I brought him along on a Price Chopper visit that I had scheduled. We met up with my new colleague, Tina, to walk the store, to see some scores on the shelf and to try out some tools that we’ve developed at NuVal for teaching store employees about the system. I gave my son a Scavenger Hunt to do. He had to write down his favorite cereal and then go find it on the shelf to see what the score was. What did he pick? Frosted Flakes, of course. He found it on the shelf and wrote down the NuVal score: 24. Then I told him that he could go find another cereal that scored better than Frosted Flakes and that we would buy it. He was so excited about this little game. He is so used to being at our local grocery store with me (where they do not have NuVal), asking me to buy sugary, colorful cereals and getting the big NO. It was his big chance to show me that those Kid Magnet cereals really were healthy, Mom!
So, my son quickly found Lucky Charms (nope, NuVal score of 23), Fruity Pebbles (uh uh, NuVal score of 24), Apple Jacks (no, sigh, NuVal score of 24), and Cap’n Crunch (no, no, no, NuVal score of 10). My poor son! He was so deflated! It reminded me of A Christmas Story, when Ralphie so deperately wants a Red Ryder BB Gun, but everyone, including Santa keeps shooting him down. ‘You’ll shoot your eye out kid.”
Finally, my son found a colorful cereal that had a NuVal score better than that of Frosted Flakes: Fruity Cheerios. NuVal Score: 28.
Notice that he does not look overjoyed. It wasn’t that exciting. Fruity Cheerios have been resident in our cereal cupboard in the past. However, it was cool to see my son empowered with the NuVal scores to choose his own cereal – as long as it was above a certain number. In case you’re curious, Cereal scores range from 4 – 100 on the NuVal score, but the median score (half are above it, half are below it) is a 25.
Last week General Mills announced that it will be reducing the sugar levels in its cereals marketed to children. That’s great news. After the reformulations, NuVal will rescore those cereals and I will be sure to blog with an update.
On a bright note, the kids have been asking for Fruity Cheerios as a snack. The good news is that they’re munching on a little baggie of O’s which score a 28 while watching PBS Kids. Hey, it’s better than Cheetos. The bad news is that they have very sticky hands. This week, I’ll be sure to throw more hand wipes in my cart!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Kashi
Tags: Cereal for Grown-Ups, Cereal for Kids, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Kashi, Kix
Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 10:36 AM
Have you looked at the cereal aisle in your grocery store lately? It is huge. Absolutely humongous. And although there are many, many cereals to choose from, one of the most frequently asked questions I get when a friend or acquaintance learns that I work for NuVal is, “What about Kashi?”
Great question. I admit, I had a Kashi addiction circa 1996. I loved Good Friends. Loved it. It was life B.C. (Before Children). I was getting ready to be a bride, counted Weight Watchers Points obsessively, only had my own health and nutrition to worry about, had time and stamina for twice-daily workouts. When Weight Watchers added fiber to its little Points system slide rule (B.C. indeed!), I found that I could eat a really big bowl of Good Friends for breakfast. And I did – like, every day. My fiance (now dear husband) had many affectionate terms for the different Kashi cereal products, including Sticks, Twigs, and my all-time favorite, Compost. As life got much busier with two small children, I no longer had time for all that crunching, and we moved on to smaller bowls of something else.
So, when I’m asked about Kashi, my answer is that there are some Kashi cereal products that score really well and some that do not. Check out these scores:
Kashi 7 Whole Grain Cereal Puffs 91
Kashi GoLean High Protein and High Fiber Cereal 47
Kashi Go Lean Crunch 33
Kashi 7 Whole Grain Flakes 29
Kashi Good Friends 26
Kashi Strawberry Fields 11
Good or bad? Well the median NuVal score for cereal is 25 and scores range from 4 – 100. Cheerios get a 34. You think you’re doing a really healthy thing by eating Kashi Go Lean Crunch, but you could be just as healthy eating Cheerios.
If you didn’t know the NuVal scores, you might think you’re doing a really healthy thing by eating Kashi Strawberry Fields, which scores an 11. Just know you’re in the Capn’ Crunch range. It gets a 10.
My DH and I have a marathoner friend who has become a huge fan of NuVal and is living it. He’s a great athlete who posts Lance-Armstrong-like times, including 3:02 in Boston this year, when he runs. He chooses the best scoring products in each category whenever he can. These days he’s eating Post Shredded Wheat which scores a 91. He gets up really early to run and then chew through that.
As for what the adults in our household are crunching through these days: Kellogg’s Special K Protein Plus which scores a 60. That is much higher than regular Special K, which scores a 20. And it goes down easy.
Yes, there are a lot of sticks, twigs, composts and cereals. And a lot more stories to post, including those about kids’ cereals. Stay tuned.
For these and other cereal scores, check out http://www.nuval.com/Pages/ScoreCereal.aspx.
And check out this great interview with our own Dr. David Katz, the visionary behind the NuVal system, at http://bigthink.com/davidkatz/david-l-katz-a-food-system-for-dummies
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Kashi, Special K
Tags: Cereal for Grown-Ups, Kashi, Special K
