There’s a massive campaign on billboards, TV and on the web. It’s a freedom movement, a revolution, and it’s inviting youth to join the cause.

The noble and worthy movement is not about minimum wages for tomato farm workers. Nor is it about better growing conditions for poultry. It’s not for local food either.

In fact, it’s not a real movement at all. It’s just a clever ad campaign, encouraging teens to stop eating at the table, and eat freely wherever and whatever they are doing. And what better way to do so than with a hot pocket?

We decided to exercise our freedom and analyze the ingredients and nutritional value of these mini meals. Not that any of said information is available on the eat freely or hotpockets website. Perhaps Nestle, the brand owner, doesn’t want you think that this freedom of information is necessary.

Let’s have a look at Hot Pockets Four Cheese Pizza, shall we? Read more…

Actually, both are not at the top of the healthy oil list.

Palm oil has 50% saturated fat. Palm Kernel Oil has 80%. These are very high values compared to oilve oil (14%) and canola oil (7%). Saturated fat is attributed to increasing the bad cholesterol (LDL) in our bloodstream thus raising the risk of heart disease.

Although both oils are from palm trees, they are actually 2 different types of oil. Palm oil comes from the fruit itself (reddish orange), whereas palm kernel oil is extracted from the seed (the white in the image above).

Palm oil (NOT palm kernel oil) isn’t all bad though, as it contains large quantities of oleic acid (40%), a healthy fatty acid also found in olive oil and canola oil. Palm oil also contains good levels of vitamin E.

Both palm oils are also at the center of a larger sustainability debate as rain forests are being cleared in order to grow the palm trees. The trend has accelerated in the last decade as palm oil has been used not just for human consumption but as a bio-fuel.

What to do at the supermarket:

Better options are canola and olive oils.

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It was a rough start of the year for the peanut butter industry. A major recall, one of the largest in US history, sent sales of all products, even innocent ones, down. But now sales are on the rebound, according to the latest market studies. White breads and jellies across the nation are rejoicing…

In celebration, we decide to take a look at what looks like a nutritious choice – Skippy’s Natural Peanut Butter Spread.

If the label says it’s natural, it must be healthy, right?

Read more…

Fresh off the recent candy expo in Chicago, we bring you a taste test and nutrition review of one of the better tasting products out there. Dove has been better known for its ice cream bars, but recently moved into the chocolate space.

Our testers loved the texture and rich flavor of this product saying  The peanut butter chocolates were delicious and very creamy. They didn’t quite look the same as the picture on the package, but then which food products do ?

Unfortunately, the taste comes at a nutritional price.

A packet contains around 30 pieces. A recommended serving size is 5 pieces (but show us the person who’ll stop there…)

Each serving will cost you 220 calories. Of those, 130 are from fat. That’s 14 grams of fat of which 8 grams are saturated. Those are 22% and 40% of your daily recommended maximum values, respectively. The label says 0 trans fat (we’ll see about that) and there are 8 grams of sugar (3.5 teaspoons).

The ingredient list includes the usual suspects (milk chocolate and peanuts) but also partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil and or partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Whenever you see a partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredient list, it means that the product DOES CONTAIN TRANS FAT.

How can this be if the nutrition panel says 0 trans fat?

Simple. There is an annoying loophole in the labeling regulations set by the FDA that lets you round off to zero anything smaller than 0.5 grams per serving. Manufacturers can then set the serving size to be just under the 0.5 grams threshold value. But as we mentioned earlier, 5 pieces of chocolate seems too little for a serving, so imaging you are sharing a bag with a friend. You’ll be consuming 3 times the servings, and possibly consuming a fair amount of this very unhealthy fat, without you even being aware!

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