Monday, July 18, 2011 at 07:21 AM
So, here we were, sitting at the pool with our good friends, the O’Malley’s* last weekend when I had to open up my big mouth and reveal the not-so-hot score of the apple sauce that my friend Monique* was about to serve to her 3-year-old son. Ugh! Open mouth and insert foot. Why can’t I shut off my NuVal brain for even a day? I have ScoreHead and I just can’t let go! Well, the good news is that my good friend Monique also works in the grocery biz and is a bit of a grocery geek like me, so she took my low-score comment very good-naturedly. She also is a devoted reader of A Better Bag of Groceries, so she was eager to find a higher-scoring alternative – a trade-up! – so I promised her a post.
Oh – and by the way – we’re talking about the little cups of applesauce here. You know, the kind you put in your child’s lunch box or snack bag. Very portable.
So, here’s the deal. The apple sauce that Monique had bought is a really popular national brand: Mott’s Original Applesauce. 
It scores a 4 on the NuVal scale. Only a 4. The ingredients are apples, high fructose corn syrup, water and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).
Mott’s also makes Mott’s Plus Calcium. And that scores much higher.
Mott’s Plus Calcium scores a 27 on the NuVal scale. No high fructose corn syrup in that one.
There’s also Musselman’s Natural Unsweetened Applesauce with No Sugar Added. It gets a 29.
The ingredients in Musselman’s are apples and water and ascorbic acid to maintain color.
I really love Full Circle Organic Applesauce.
It scores a 50 on the NuVal scale!! The ingredients are organic apples. Full Circle is a Private label brand (that’s a store brand) found at grocery stores around the country. You can check their website for store locations.
Isn’t it amazing how a little cup of applesauce can vary so much nutritionally?
Well, the O’Malley’s have not picked up their stuff and moved to another area of the Pool. We’re still good friends – even after The Applesauce Episode. It’s nice to have friends who care about food, health, fitness and family, just like we do!
**Names in this post have been changed to protect this Mom who does not have NuVal in a store near her!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Score Lowdown
Tags: applesauce
Friday, April 16, 2010 at 07:22 AM
It’s that time of year – when I find myself limping to the finish line by the end of each week. Bus stops, teacher conferences, homework, more homework, making lunches, making snacks, squeezing in playdates, another birthday party?! How many days left of school? Are we in the single digits yet? Before I was a parent, I used to wonder why Moms would be happy to see the school year come to a close. Now I know! While summer brings it’s own set of challenges, I am looking forward to a little break in the routine and some less-structured weeks.
In the meantime, I must make lunches. And snacks. Snacks that will stay fresh in a warm back-pack until the designated 2 pm Snack Time in my son’s first grade classroom. By Thursday night, my husband and I are tempted to throw shelf-stable fruit products (snack packs of applesauce, canned peaches, pears or pineapple) into our kids’ lunches in hopes that we might get to sit down and enjoy some Instant Netflix before 10 pm. The thought of pulling out a knife and cutting board to slice up a fresh apple is overwhelming.
I work for NuVal so I know that the best thing to give my kids is a fresh apple. Duh!
You are not going to find an applesauce that beats a 96!
However, on my last visit to Price Chopper, I was pretty amazed to find that there is an applesauce that scores very high:
Full Circle Organic Apple Sauce gets a 50 on the NuVal scale!
That is much higher than Mott’s Natural Apple Sauce & Vitamin C with No Sugar Added. That only scores a 26.
I checked in with Rachel Rodek, MS, RD, LDN, CSSD to find out why the Full Circle brand scores so much higher than Mott’s. She checked it out for me and it’s because the Full Circle brand has more fiber and less sugar than the Mott’s. You would never know that just looking at them, would you? I mean, you could stand there in the aisle and try to figure that out from the nutrition facts panel. But who has time for that. There’s homework to do and playdates to make! That’s why we need NuVal in every supermarket in America!
So, while nothing beats a fresh apple, sliced with love and carefully packaged up in your child’s lunch box, give yourself a break once in a while and buy some applesauce – the high-scoring kind, that is. Just be careful – there are some duds out there!
In case you can’t tell, the score on the Mott’s strawberry is a 5! Yup, a 5! Cheetos score higher. And fresh strawberries get a 100.
For more on apples and applesauce, be sure to check out one of my favorite blogposts from Dina Rose, Ph.D. who writes It’s Not About Nutrition (the art and science of teaching kids to eat right). I helped her with ths scores when she wrote this post back in August of 2009, and at that time the highest applesauce we had scored was only a 30. Good to know we have now found one that is a 50!
How ’bout them apples!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Apples
Tags: Apple Sauce, Apples, applesauce, Full Circle
