Foods That Are Bad For You: Now Good For You!
The Times has a write-up of the Smart Choices campaign, an industry-supported healthy foods labeling program that generously designates foods like Fruit Roll-Ups, mayonnaise, and Cocoa Puffs as good for you. "These are horrible choices," says the head of the nutrition department at Harvard School of Public Health.
Health experts, the FDA, and the USDA aren't impressed with the criteria that allows Lunchables and Froot Loops to be designated a "Smart Choice."
"You could start out with some sawdust, add calcium or Vitamin A and meet the criteria," said Mike Jacobson from the Center for Science for Public Interest. Well yeah, sawdust is pretty much all fiber, so this new vitamin-enhanced fiber sounds great!
For Your Health, Froot Loops [NYT]
(Photo: ninjapoodles)
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Companies that participate pay up to $100,000 a year to the program, with the fee based on total sales of its products that bear the seal.
I think we found the reason!!!
I just bought a carton of gummy bear vitamins. Ridiculous, but so, so, tasty.
@brandihendrix: Mmm, sausagey. I had a really terrible omelet this morning, so that's what I get for eating eggs and vegetables instead of eggs and a small piece of ham.
So the food industry has taken over this program as well? What a surprise.
Then again, look at how the food lobby influenced the previous administration to not mention the "don't eat" or "use sparingly" in their pyramid.
Lunchables. Heh.
That's some fine-eatin' there.
The letter said the agencies would be concerned if the Smart Choices label "had the effect of encouraging consumers to choose highly processed foods and refined grains instead of fruits, vegetables and whole grains."
Make the Smart Choice. Choose Froot.
Seems like a terrible choice. How long before this Tufts Dean loses her job?
"You're rushing around, you're trying to think about healthy eating for your kids and you have a choice between a doughnut and a cereal," Dr. Kennedy said, evoking a hypothetical parent in the supermarket. "So Froot Loops is a better choice."
Awweeesome logic Dr. Kennedy.
[Froot Loops] contains the maximum amount of sugar allowed under the program for cereals, 12 grams per serving, which in the case of Froot Loops is 41 percent of the product, measured by weight. That is more sugar than in many popular brands of cookies.
If I understand correctly, my Sugar Cubey Cubes™ cereal would also be a "Smart Chioce", as long as I define a serving as 12 g?
@brandihendrix: That doesn't change the fact that they are trying to market fruit roll ups as "healthy."
While fruit roll ups are made from fruit, they are (nearly) all sugar. I mean - corn syrup comes from corn, so it must be good for you, right?
I remember being jealous of kids whose parents would buy them Fruit Loops growing up, as we were only allowed to have "non pre-sweetened" cereals, as my mother would call them.
Then one day we took a trip to Battle Creek to tour the Kelloggs factory, and were allowed to take a free box of cereal home. I finally scored my Fruit Loops.
I learned soon after that I hadn't been missing much. Even at age 8 I thought they were disgusting.
@pecan 3.14159265: Sugary muffin or sausagey and cheesey biscuit?
Brilliant new breakfast sandwich: sausage, egg & cheese sandwiched between two muffin tops.
@FatLynn: My ex-girlfriend had to take those. They were literally the only vitamins she could find that were gluten-, soy- and dairy-free (she had intolerances to all of those).
@Michael Belisle: Donuts or Froot Loops? Donuts or Froot Loops?!
I CAN'T DECIDE!!!!
I want to serve my kids healthy food, and these are my only two options. WHAT DO I DO?!?!?!
Oh. Well, the Froot Loops have that healthy sticker on them. THANK YOU FOOD INDUSTRY!
Interesting slection of foods, and I agree with the Harvard guy with the exception of mayo.
Mayo (Hellmans anyway) I think is somewhat of a healthy choice due to the Omega 3's.
Froot Loops, Cocoa Puffs and Fruit roll up wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.
@Michael Belisle: Add some vitamins and you're all set!!!
You can even add exciting text to the box that will talk about how much calcium a healthy* breakfast with Sugar Cubey Cubes has (after the milk has been added added.)
* "healthy" meaning... well, meaning nothing at all of course...
@rpm773: There's one in Omaha that was a popular summer job for many of my friends. Some of them still smell like Froot Loops years later.
@FatLynn: I take those! The multivitamin pills get stuck in my throat and make me nauseated, so these work great for me.
@brandihendrix: "Cereal" can mean anything from crumbled extruded cake particles to steel-cut oats with no sweetener, though. And the sweet kid-aimed cereals are pretty much on a par with the first, and no different from that sugary muffin.
@FatLynn: We take those too. The only bad thing is that you're only supposed to eat two at a time. I figure I'm a big kid so I can eat three, but I always want to eat more.
@FatLynn: I have my Trader Joe's brand calcium gummy bears sitting to my left, waiting to help me fight calcium loss. It's the only kind of vitamin I'm not reluctant to take.
So if cereal is good for you because it's low in fat (even if it's high in sugar), does than mean that bacon is good for you because it has almost no sugar (even though it's obscenely high in all sorts of bad stuff like fat and nitrates)?
@brandihendrix: True that cereal can be a good choice, but there's a big difference in the nutritional value of Cheerios versus Froot Loops.
@Eustace Silly: I'm tired of all you people trying to bring bacon down. Bacon is the food of the gods and will keep you living for hundreds of years
@nnj: Everything can be considered "somewhat of a healthy choice" if you take one ingredient or vitamin/mineral and advertise it. But the bad thing about mayo is that everything else in it is horrible for you, despite it having some omega acids.
The key to healthy, at least in my book, would be low calorie, nutrient dense, and filling. Of course you can have higher calorie with more nutrients and still make out ok if you are living an active lifestyle. Everything should be a balance for a healthy lifestyle.
@brandihendrix: ooh, thanks for reminding me - i make my own cheesey biscuits at home - and today i brought some to work with me. snack time!
Oatmeal is the best. With blueberries and banana slices, its delicious.
@TCama: My ex-girlfriend had to take those. They were literally the only vitamins she could find that were gluten-, soy- and dairy-free (she had intolerances to all of those).
I have intolerances to something in all solid multivitamins. It sucks. I looked at the gummi versions and was appalled by the itty bitty vitamin list. Thankfully, I gambled on softgels and it worked out.
Those gummies are tasty though.
@rpm773: You were probably used to less sugar so that's why they tasted gross. When I read your post I thought "We must have the same mother!" My mom wouldn't buy sugar cereals, insisted on whole wheat bread for our sandwiches, and all natural peanut butter (the kind you have to stir and refrigerate). I think my sister and I went through a period of junk food rebellion when we were old enough to choose our own foods. However, ultimately I'm at the age where I can now see that much of what my mom did was right!
@nnj: Froot Loops, Cocoa Puffs and Fruit roll up wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.
Periodically my parents would decide to treat me with a box of something sugary. My favorite was always kix or cheerios. Sometimes they'd get me golden grahams and mix them 1:4 with kix or cheerios I always found it too sugary but didn't want to hurt their feelings. I was 8, btw, when they finally gave up and stopped buying the sugary stuff.
I'd suggest it as an alternative to giving a kid a whole bowl of the stuff.
This is just a slightly less ridiculous version of the logic used by proponents of the Atkins diet: bacon-wrapped sausage is fine for breakfast. In fact, have a block of cheddar cheese along with it. Just stay away from that sugar-filled glass of ------ orange juice...
Thanks, Consumerist, now I'm going to be craving sawdust all day.
@catastrophegirl: Are they like the ones at Red Lobster? I love those.. it's insane how good they are.
@Kimaroo - 20% More Kitty Added!: Those biscuits are addictive. It's the only reason why I ever went to Red Lobster. Mmmm biscuits. They have about 400 calories each, though. So mmmmm half a biscuit...
@Kimaroo - 20% More Kitty Added!: it's been years since i have had those so i don't recall. see, shredded cheese was on sale over the weekend so i made baking powder drop style biscuits, mashed shredded cheese into the dough and baked. they actually came out flakier and more tender than the half of the dough i baked without cheese. at least i know my biscuits don't have any HFCS!
Come one now...fruit roll ups may have nothing on real fruit jerky when it comes to health food, but is it really all that bad? Just because they're mostly plastic now and not really fruit?
I remember back in the day we had fruit roll up type snacks that were actually fruit jerky. Those things were great. Nothing beats pureed and dehydrated fruit.
Cereal, as opposed to a sugary muffin or sausagey and cheesey biscuit, is not so bad.
Everything in moderation.