Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 07:07 AM
Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday, my weekly feature where I tell you about a Trade-Up I’ve made since learning about NuVal and give away free stuff to one lucky reader. Today’s Topic? Peanut Butter!
When I first came to interview at NuVal, I met with Nancy McDermott, the CEO. Nancy, who I knew from my previous jobs, introduced me to the whole concept of NuVal by walking through some slides to show how the scores worked. As we talked, NuVal seemed to be just a lot of common sense at first. Spinach gets a 100, Cheetos get a 5. Made sense to me. It was when she got to the Peanut Butter Slide that I said, “No way! Get out of town!” Well, I probably said it more professionally than that, given that this was an interview and all. But it was an “Ah Ha” moment. You see, Reduced Fat Peanut Butter scores lower than regular – by a lot. Yes, you read that correctly. Jif Creamy Peanut Butter scores a 20. Jif Reduced Fat Creamy scores a 7! Ouch!
As Nancy explained it, although the Reduced Fat Peanut Butter has less Saturated Fat, it has more Sodium (Salt), more Sugar, more Calories and less Fiber than the Regular Peanut Butter. These combined factors cause the Reduced Fat Peanut Butter to have a lower NuVal Nutrition Score than Regular Peanut Butter. Now that made sense to me. There are so many reduced fat products out there and let’s face it – it’s not magic. If the manufacturer takes out some fat, they probably need to add something else to make it taste good. My peanut butter of choice at the time was Reduced Fat Jif, although my son ate Teddie Smooth
Fast forward to now and you will find only Teddie Smooth in our household - in our refrigerator. Yes, the refrigerator. Natural peanut butters are not easy. You have to stir them up – which is hard and it makes a big mess. Then, you have to refrigerate them, so they are difficult to spread. But it’s worth the effort. Natural Peanut Butter scores much better. Teddie Smooth Unsalted scores a 49. Teddie Super Chunky scores a 38. My 6-year-old son is a huge fan of peanut butter so we go through a lot!
Tina, my new colleage at NuVal, and I talk food a lot. We’re both avid cooks (and eaters!) so we trade recipes and ideas all the time. One suggestion she had was to put peanut butter in my oatmeal. I tried it out and it is delicious!
Peanut Butter Oats definitely have some sticking power and I’m finding that I can often get from breakfast to lunch without needing a snack when I eat it.
Today’s GiveAway
One lucky ABBG (that’s our acronym for A Better Bag of Groceries – like it?) reader will win my Peanut Butter GiveAway. Included is a jar of Teddie Smooth and a jar of Teddie Crunchy so you can try them out for yourself! To enter, just leave a comment telling about a Trade-Up you’ve made since learning about NuVal. And if you haven’t made one yet, check out www.NuVal.com or www.TradingUpDowntown.com for some ideas.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Trade-Up Tuesday, peanut butter
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
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 07:33 AM
Today, I’m guest-posting over on www.yumyucky.com, a site devoted to trying to find balance between fitness and your greedy side. Josie, is a mom of 4 (gasp!) and she is fuh-ney! She eats food and then she talks about it – and she doesn’t hold back. Check it out!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: peanut butter, yumyucky
