Friday, September 9, 2011 at 07:03 AM
I am a huge fan of The Boston Globe. I prefer the paper edition. We are 7-day-a week subscribers and our paper does get read, mostly thanks to my husband’s 35-minute ride on the commuter rail each day. He always makes sure to scour the “G” section each Wednesay for that is “Food” day and he always lets me know what needs my attention. The cover story this week certainly did!
Juice boxes? How bad are they really? Actually, the article, titled The Drinks Dilemma, did a thorough job of covering the challenge faced by all parents when it comes to beverages.
Basically, there are more choices in the beverage aisle than ever before. And more and more are being marketing to children. Look around and you see kids drinking juice boxes, water drinks (like Capri Sun), sports drinks, flavored milks. What are the best choices? What’s a mom to do?
I’ve blogged about his topic before. What beverage should I put in a lunchbox that is going to warm up to room temperature during the day? What should I do now that my daughter suddenly hates the taste of milk? How can I get my kids to drink more water?
One thing that I loved about this article is that it helped me to understand how a juice labeled “100 percent juice” may have added sugar. I hope the reporter won’t mind that I am going to quote her verbatim here, because these words really helped me to understand it.
Juice once seemed like a good choice for nutrition-conscious parents. But even a juice labeled “100 percent juice’’ may have added sugar. How is that possible? Look closely at a bottle of “100 percent juice’’ and you often see such ingredients as apple, white grape, and pear juice concentrate on the label, even when the juice flavor isn’t apple, grape, or pear. Those concentrates may be “stripped juices,’’ stripped of flavor, color, vitamins, minerals – everything except the sugar and water. It’s effectively sugar water, but using it allows manufacturers to label their products “100 percent juice.’’
Thank you Jane Dornbusch. I finally understand!
Another point this article makes is just how confusing the beverage aisle has become. Is it ever. Dornbusch compares these four beverages:
It would have been cool to see the NuVal scores next to those beverages, so here they are:
- Hood Premium Lowfat Chocolate Milk: NuVal score of 29
- Capri Sun 100% Juice Fruit Punch: NuVal score of 8
- Apple & Eve Fruitables Fruit Punch: NuVal score of 25
- Naked Juice Mighty Mango: NuVal score of 34
I actually buy those Fruitables weekly because a 25 is one of the highest scores you can get in the juice box aisle and my kids love them.
I love what this article had to say about Sports drinks. Remember the day I featured them for Wordless Wednesday?
Sports drinks such as Gatorade might be fine – for youngsters who are actually engaged in strenuous athletic activities. “A teenager at a soccer game or practice, that’s OK,’’ says Heidi McIndoo, a registered dietician (and mother). “But if a little kid is just riding a bike around the block, he doesn’t need a sports drink.’’
This article has so much more – and I don’t want to give it all away here -so I highly recommend that you read it. Afterwards, I thought about what I’m doing well when it comes to beverages and my kids:
- They both drink non-flavored skim milk (NuVal score of 91). At least they both do at dinner time. My daughter likes her milk super-cold, so I have not been able to send her with a milk box for lunch.
- They both drink water – although they could drink more. I got them stylish water bottles that they love. My daughter’s has dolphins on it. My son has a Star Wars water bottle.
- I limit juice boxes to 1 or 2 per day. (I really need to get to one). And I buy high-scoring juice boxes, like Fruitables.
- I water down juice with Seltzer. My kids love cranberry juice with seltzer (otherwise known as Mommy’s soda) and orange juice with seltzer (aka Daddy’s soda).
- We never buy Gatorade or energy drinks.
- Soda is a very rare and occasional treat (like my Son gets one at the Mother/Son dance).
This article inspired me to do even better in the beverage department. I like the idea of adding sliced fresh lemons to water to get your kids to drink more of it, like this mom does.
I also want to really try to get my daughter to drink milk at lunch time. Maybe I should freeze her milk boxes and let them thaw during the morning? Or let her buy milk in the cafeteria?
The Beverage Dilemma is not easy. But parents need to be aware so they can make the best choices for keeping their kids hydrated. And ultimately, we need to teach our kids to make the best choices for their health.
Question of the Day
What do you struggle with when it comes to beverages for your children (or for yourself)?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Juice, Milk
Tags: Beverages, Boston Globe
Monday, March 7, 2011 at 07:25 AM
I talk about food. All. Day. Long. I like food – a lot – so this is a good thing. But when you’re in the business I’m in, you never really leave your work. I am always, always talking about food and nutrition and recipes and NuVal scores. Good thing I love what I do, right?
It’s always been this way. When I worked for a really big supermarket company, I would find myself at cocktail parties listening to people tell me all the things they did (or didn’t) like about their store. I would grin and bear it. Things are different now. With my NuVal job, I’m so passionate about what I do, that I want to talk about it 24/7, so it’s all good.
So, last week, in three separate conversations, I discovered a very interesting phenomenon. People are mixing it up in order to trade up for better nutrition. By that I mean, sometimes it’s hard to get all the way to the high-scoring food. So they are mixing their food to eventually get to the better score.
Here’s what I mean:
Getting to Skim Milk
My very vocal friend Ed announced at our dinner party that “we are an all blue-cap household now!” By that he means that he, his wife, Liz, and his two girls are all drinking skim milk. Yay for them! Skim milk scores a 91 on the NuVal scale. Other kinds of milk score lower:
- Skim milk: 91
- 1% milk: 81
- 2 % milk: 55
- Whole milk: 52
By “blue caps”, Ed is referring to the color of the caps that come on the milk bottles delivered by our beloved Munroe Dairy.
So, how did they get there? Mixing of course. Mix skim milk with either 1%, 2% or whole and increase the percentage of skim until you finally become an all blue-cap household! By the way, my friends Ed and Liz, and their two girls, made this switch in a three-day time period! So, you can do it too.
Improving Your Chocolate Milk
My spinning instructor, Alicia, is also a Munroe Dairy fan. While she likes them for their skim milk and Rhode Island farm eggs (just as I do), she does indulge in a little chocolate milk for her girls. (My son loves chocolate milk too!) Most chocolate milks that we’ve scored at NuVal score a 26, which is quite low when you consider that the average score for milk is a 60. So, to make it a little more nutritious, Alicia mixes it with skim milk. Great idea! I always think that flavored milks are a great way to get milk into a kid. Alicia’s trick is very creative.
Getting More Protein in Your Morning Cereal
In yet another conversation last week, this time with my friend/neighbor/morning babysitter Eileen, she told me an interesting story about Special K. She has been trying to switch her husband from regular Special K (NuVal score of 23) to Special K with Protein (NuVal score of 53). Problem is – he’s not crazy about the taste of Special K with Protein and really prefers the original. So, to make it more palatable for him, Eileen mixes the two. What a great idea! I wonder if my daughter influenced her. She loves to make cereal mixes. Or perhaps it was her own three kids. Nevertheless, it’s a great way to get to one of those higher-scoring cereals. Don’t think you can stomach a whole bowl of Shredded Wheat? Throw a few into your regular bowl for extra fiber.
Question of the Day
What strategy have you used to trade up (or to get your kids/spouse/significant other) to trade up for better nutrition?
Baby Update
For those of you following the baby watch, my sister-in-law, who comments here almost daily as “c neroni” gave birth to a healthy baby boy last night. Benjamin David weighed in at a sturdy 8 lbs. 6 oz. I’m sure that Christine’s nutritious eating had something to do with it!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Milk, Special K
Tags: cereal, Cereal for Grown-Ups, Milk, Special K
Monday, August 2, 2010 at 07:08 AM
Do you remember a while back I told you about my daughter and her sudden aversion to drinking milk? Well, unfortunately, the Milk Wars continue in our household. While we thought we had some good solutions in place during the school year (freezing Horizon Organic milk boxes and letting them thaw in her lunchbox since temperature seems to be her issue), these strategies are just not cutting it now that the summer is here. After seeing these milk boxes coming home from summer camp unopened again and again, I decided that we should just move on.
I must say, without NuVal scores, I ‘m not sure that I would have discovered this one!
This little juice box scores a 69 on the NuVal scale. Now that really stands out in the juice aisle.
Check out some of these other scores:
Apple & Eve 100% Apple Juice Organic & Calcium: NuVal score of 20
Apple & Eve Orange Tangerine Juice: NuVal score of 21
Motts for Tots Apple White Grape: NuVal score of 20
Nestle Juicy Juice All Natural 100% Apple: NuVal score of 11
Full disclosure here – when I first gave these juice boxes to my kids about a year ago, they did not like them. I just started buying them again a few weeks ago, and now they love them. Maybe because they know that the alternative is drinking milk on a hot day? I’m not sure. But I am excited that I have my kids drinking such a high-scoring juice box. I will still keep it to one a day, just as my pediatrician recommends.
I checked in with Rachel Rodek, MS, RD, LDN, CSSD and NuVal’s Manager of Nutrition Communications to see what she thought about my strategy of substituting my daughter’s lunchtime milk with this orange juice. Here are her thoughts:
Minute Maid Kids Plus (Score 69):
Contains 30% DV calcium and 20% DV vitamin D
Most likely equals to about 390mg calcium and 80mg Vitamin D (Based on adult 2,000 calorie diet)
Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice with Calcium and Vitamin D (Score 51)
Contains 50% Dv calcium (!) and 30% DV vitamin D
Equals approximately 650mg calcium and 120mg vitamin D
Milk is the typical go-to calcium-containing drink that parents use to help their kids build strong bones and teeth. But sometimes, milk just isn’t what the kids want. What do you do then? The good news is that food manufacturers have actually thought of solutions for you – especially when it comes to juices.
Juices are an excellent vehicle for calcium. The vitamin C in acidic drinks, such as orange juice, helps to shuttle the calcium into the body. Let’s look at a couple examples: Minute Maid Kids Plus scores a 69 and contains 30% daily value of calcium and 20% daily value of vitamin D. Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice with Calcium and Vitamin D scores a 51 and contains 50% DV calcium and 30% vitamin D. The Minute Maid scores higher simply because the first ingredient is ‘water’ and the second is Concentrate of juice, while the Tropicana is pure juice and therefore has more natural sugars and calories, bringing down it’s score slightly. If your primary goal is to increase calcium and vitamin D, both of these juices are a great choice for your kids as neither have any added sugars.
Side Note: Calcium needs vitamin D to help it absorb into the body. These two nutrients work together for strong bones, among the other benefits these nutrients have in the body. So when looking for a juice alternative to milk, always be sure there is at least 30% DV calcium and 20% DV vitamin D.
Thanks to Rachel for that insight. These juices do make fighting the Milk Wars a little easier!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Milk, Orange Juice
Tags: Milk, Orange Juice
Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 07:09 AM
That is the nickname that my husband and I are using for my five-year-old daughter these days when she is out of ear-shot. Unfortunately, it is not because her consumption of all things dairy is up. Quite the opposite.
Doesn’t this child look so sweet and innocent?
Well, most of the time she is. But these days, she has been testing our patience with a sudden and acute aversion to drinking milk.
Bam! This refusal to drink milk came on like a violent thunderstorm. No warning signs at all. Just no milk, no way, no how.
Now, long-time readers of A Better Bag of Groceries know that I take the milk in our household very seriously. I love, love, love the glass-bottled, local milk that we get from Munroe Dairy.
And until now, the kids loved it too. In fact, they both had worked their way from 2% to 1% to skim because the glass-bottled milk tastes so darn good. Skim milk gets an amazing NuVal score of 91. Curious about how different milk products score? Check out my milk blog post from last September.
For my daughter, the sudden “I hate milk” attitude seemed to be all about the temperature of her beverage. She would ask if we could eat inside instead of outside because she didn’t want the sun to warm up her milk. Once inside, she asked if we could keep the lights off to keep her milk cold. She even covered her cup with a napkin.
The worst day of the Milk Wars came when our little Dairy Queen lied. (*Sigh* – motherhood is not for the faint of heart). Over Memorial Day Weekend, after a lovely family bike ride, we came home, spread a blanket out in our backyard and had a picnic lunch. Both my son and daughter had one of their Horizon Milk boxes (NuVal score 55 for reduced fat) that we typically reserve for lunchboxes.
However since we were out having a special picnic, we felt we could splurge by using the expensive milk boxes. At the end of lunch, my daughter happily proclaimed that she was All Done, and threw her milk box into the trash can. My husband, who is smarter than your average bear, thought that just perhaps our Dairy Queen might have thrown out some of her milk. Well, he pulled it out of the trash can and it was almost full! It was then that we realized that she was probably throwing away full milk-boxes when she was at daycare! Thus began a few difficult days with the Dairy Queen sitting at the table staring down a glass of milk for a couple of hours.
I really wanted to get a photo of my daughter staring down the glass of milk for this blog post, but I didn’t want to give her the negative attention. I think you get the picture!
The Milk Stare-Downs were really not fun and after doing some Internet research, I realize that it probably was not the way to go. Instead, we have been focusing on trying to get her milk as cold as possible so that she will drink it. After all, I do think her issue is taste and temperature.
Enter Super-Grandma, who so kindly brought over my very own pewter cup that I used as a child.
This cup is amazing. It really keeps the milk ice-cold.
As for milk for lunch when the Dairy Queen is at daycare, we did two things:
- We talked to her teachers to let them know that we were having Milk Wars and that we wanted them to check in to see that the Dairy Queen was finishing her milk.
- We froze her Horizon Organic milk box in the freezer overnight and let it thaw during the morning. So when our daughter gets her lunch-time milk, it is ice cold. In fact, she told me that it was kind of like ice cream at the bottom.
Don’t get me wrong, her consumption is still down, so I am trying to find other ways to boost her Vitamin D and Calcium. Super-Grandma also brought over some cute Calcium-fortified orange juices that can go to school with snacks.
Rachel Rodek, MS, RD, LDN, CSSD, and our Manager of Nutrition Communications at NuVal suggested cooked broccoli for extra Calcium. She also suggested serving it with a side of something high in Vitamin C (like tomato sauce). I am also making fruit smoothies with Greek yogurt, skim milk and fresh fruit in the morning. Somehow, she doesn’t mind milk when it’s in a smoothie.
So that’s our strategy: try not to give negative attention, find ways to make milk palatable for her, get other caregivers on board, and find ways to ensure she’s getting enough Calcium and Vitamin D. One thing we have learned from this experience is that our daughter has a stubborn streak that she definitely inherited from both of us. I can only imagine what other Wars we will wage in our house as she gets older. I don’t even want to think about it.
Question(s) of the Day
Have you had a child refuse to eat or drink something and how did you handle it?
OR
Have you ever suddenly lost your desire for a certain food or drink?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Milk
Tags: Milk
Monday, April 26, 2010 at 06:56 AM
Hello Blog Friends! My husband surprised me with a long weekend on Cape Cod to celebrate my 40th birthday. The kids are at Grandma and Papa’s for three whole nights! So, I thought it would be good timing for you to hear from someone else who works for NuVal - Tina Haupert!
Tina is an award-winning healthy living blogger with a humongous following on her own famous blog, Carrots N Cake. She and I connected last fall and she came to work for NuVal in October. She also writes a NuVal blog called Trading Up Downtown. It’s pretty amazing to work with Tina and to hear all her stories. She’s always doing cool blogger things, like making cakes with Kelly Ripa! So, without further ado, I bring you Tina!
In general, I incorporate a number of healthy foods into my diet, but there’s always room for improvement, right? Even when it comes to the milk in my morning cup coffee, I know it’s possible to trade up its nutrition.
As a kid, I drank tons of low-fat milk. My sister and I could easily go through a gallon of 1% milk in just a few days. It was nuts how much milk we drank. When I moved out and went off to college, however, I stopped drinking milk as often. Sure, my college had it in the dining halls, but it wasn’t something I’d keep in my dorm room.
Once I graduated from college and moved into my own apartment, I started to buy milk again. But, since I was watching my calories, I opted for the non-fat version. Non-fat milk is a very nutritious option, but when it came to my morning cup of coffee, it was like adding water! It didn’t lighten my coffee at all. I love creamy coffee, so I switched from non-fat milk to soy milk and never looked back.
Ever since I started working at NuVal, I’ve paid much more attention to the nutritional value of the foods that eat. When I realized that soy milk scores an 82(Silk Soymilk LightMilk) on the NuVal scale and non-fat milk scores a 91, I knew it would be an easy trade up, so I decided to give the non-fat version another try.
Adding non-fat milk to my coffee still makes it watery, but now I just leave more room for it. I still love soy milk in my morning cup of coffee, but every few days, I make sure to trade up my milk selection for the more nutritious option.
Thanks Tina! Lots of our NuVal employees have made trade-ups for better nutrition. Read about Tyler, Alison, Annette, Leslie and Laura here!
Question of the Day:
How do you take your coffee?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Milk, Uncategorized
Tags: Milk, Tina Trades Up, Uncategorized
