Dried fruit are a tasty snack. They are supposedly as good as fresh fruit nutritionally, and have the added benefit of being available throughout the year, easy to store, durable, and versatile.

We decided to take a look at a well known brand, Sunsweet, which has been selling an Antioxidant Blend for the past few years. While the main ingredients are dried fruit, we were also surprised to find added sugar and oils in the list.

Read on for a full review of Sunsweet Antioxidant Blend.

Read more…

Hiking, biking, jogging, kayaking, or just strolling in the park, you begin to feel a bit hungry. Not dinner-time-hungry, and not even snack-time-hungry, rather just-one-bite-hungry. You satisfy that one bite, and 10 minutes later, you want another one. And so forth. What do you do?

If you’re looking for a snack that can be consumed slowly over the course of an hour or more, chocolates and bars are not a great option. Things get sticky if you don’t finish them off right away.

But pouring some nuts and raisins from a pack and popping them in your mouth is nice, clean choice. And supposedly a healthy one too, right?

Theoretically Trail Mix is the super snack – all natural ingredients, no additives, and a good balance of protein, carbs, and unsaturated fats. Unfortunately, not all trail mix products are created equal. If you’re looking for a healthy snack, here are a few pointers:

1. There’s no rocket science here. Trail mix is just a mix of nuts and dried fruit. The most basic formula is roasted peanuts and raisins. In fact, you can make your own at home for a much lower price that buying it prepared.

2. Most brands of trail mix boast more than just peanuts and raisins. As long as the ingredient list stays “pure”, you’re good to go. Walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, and dried fruit such as apricots, pineapples, apples, cranberries, blueberries, etc… are all good.

3. You need to watch out for added “goodies”, such as m&m’s and other candy that really don’t add to the already complex sweet and savory flavor, and just add useless sugar and food colorings.

4. Look out for salted items, and stay away from them. Salted peanuts can contain as much 200mg (close to 10% of your daily maximum) per 1 oz serving.

5. Beware of added sugars used to coat dried fruit. The fruit are so sweet in their natural form that is an absolute crime to add any more sweet.

6. Yogurt coated raisins sound yummy and healthy, but folks, it ain’t really yogurt. Here’s an example of Vanilla Yogurt Coating – Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Nonfat Milk, Nonfat Yogurt Powder (Cultured Nonfat Milk), Whey, Titanium Dioxide, Soy Lecithin, Vanilla. Yes, it contains trans fat, thanks to the partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil.

7. Roasted nuts tend to be prepared with oil and salt. Look for naked nuts, no additions.

8. Dried fruit are often processed with sulfur dioxide (E220) in order to preserve their original color. Apples would appear brown and unappealing otherwise. Some people develop allergic reactions to this preservative, and some can actually feel its chemical aftertaste. But for the most part, it’s not a biggie.

What to do at the supermarket:

Consider buying the raw ingredients and preparing a trail mix at home. Base it on your family’s taste preferences. If buying a ready mix, look at the ingredient list and make sure it doesn’t contain any unnecessary oils, salt, sugars and preservatives.

What’s your favorite Trail Mix? How does it stack up nutritionally?

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Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo has figured out just the thing women need more of.

Not fruit, not exercise, not water.

You guessed it – snacks:

Last month the US firm launched its first snack – Smartfood Popcorn Clusters – targeted specifically at women.

Following their premise that the majority of women snack more than men, [PepsiCo] said at the time of the roll out that it seeks to cash in on an estimated $650m in additional sales from women consumers.

John Compton, CEO of PepsiCo Americas Foods, presented the ’smartfood popcorn clusters’ in the context of PepsiCo’s move to ‘Introduce new products for her’.

Listed by PepsiCo in the general criteria for ‘new products for her’ are: make it convenient/portable, ‘help me control my portions’, ‘take away the guilt’, ‘take out the negatives’, make it nutritious, and make it taste ‘great’.

Read more…

What you need to know:

We took a look at the nutrition label of the Cranberry Almond SmartFood Popcorn Clusters to see how smart this snack is.

First, the ingredient list: Cranberries are listed as the #10 ingredient in the list, and almonds are #3, although their placement on the packaging is much more prominent. The #1 ingredient is Brown Rice Syrup – a type of sugar. Popcorn is only the 4th ingredient, just ahead of – sugar! Wasn’t the rice syrup enough?

The nutrition panel is actually OK. Each serving is only 120 calories, and packs 5 grams of fiber through the addition of chicory root to the fiber in popcorn. The 10 grams of sugar are equivalent to 2 teaspoons of sugar, and contribute only 40 calories. And, squarely aiming at women, this product has 20% of the daily value for calcium.

All in all, this snack seems reasonable compared to other greasier, sweeter, fattening alternatives that PepsiCo manufactures.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you have tried out this new snack, we’d love to hear your take on it. Is such a small serving filling enough? How does it taste? Would kids and men like it too?

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flickr photo: ninjapoodles

The holidays are upon us, and with them, family time, festive meals, and an unfortunate side effect of weight gain.

Better Homes and Gardens lists 6 superfoods to help you eat healthier come next weekend – turkey breast, cranberries, pumpkin (also see our post), whole wheat dinner rolls, sweet potatoes, and peas. Too bad there’s no dessert in that list, but how about some fresh apples?

A 3.5 oz serving of skinless turkey breast is about the size of a deck of cards. It is rich in protein (30gr which is about half your daily requirement) and practically fat free (only 4 gr). It is low in cholesterol and high in folic acid and several important minerals, iron, zinc, phosphorus, potassium as well as B vitamins.

Generally, whiter cuts of meat are leaner than darker ones. So if you can’t get the breast, the next best options are leg or wing.

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