Amy’s top picks:
Any brand, unsweetened and unsalted
Sunbutter Organic Sunflower Seed butter
Justin’s Classic Almond or Peanut butter
]]>Amy’s top picks:
Quinoa
Buckwheat Groats
Bulgur
What would be at the bottom, you might ask? Some of the grains that contain the least amount of nutrients, in decreasing order, are: couscous, white rice, soba noodles, and corn grits.
]]>Amy’s picks from food bars:
Larabar
Kind
gnu Foods flavor&fiber
Why: Snack bars have evolved into the mainstream in a big way, far beyond their beginning as those flavorless protein bars eaten primarily by serious athletes. When purchasing snack bars, it is important to first look at the ingredients – do you recognize many of the foods? Is the bar a mix of whole, real, foods that you could purchase on their own? Larabars, for example, are made from dried fruits and nuts and thats it. Whole foods = good choice. The last on the list, gnu Foods bars, do have some derived ingredients, such as inulin, chicory root, and wheat protein isolates. The first two are manufactured fibers which aren’t as high on my list as naturally occurring fibers. However, the overwhelming number of whole foods in the ingredient list compensated and helped this bar eek into third place. Another thing to consider when purchasing these bars is the purpose of the bar – convenient snack or meal replacement. The calorie content of food bars varies greatly and some can pack a hefty punch. Don’t assume that smaller bars mean smaller caloric loads. General rule of thumb is to keep snacks around 100 calories. A third thing to consider is the sweeteners used in the bar. “Yogurt” coatings are generally best to be avoided. Be aware of the many names sweeteners can take in the ingredient list – corn sweetener, corn syrup, dehydrated cane juice, dextrin, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltodextrin, malt syrup, maltose, maple sugar, molasses, raw sugar, rice syrup, rice dextrins, saccharose, sorghum, sorghum syrup, sucrose, treacle, turbinado sugar, and xylose. Shew. That was exhausting. It may be easier to grab a handful of almonds and call it square.
]]>Amy’s picks from crackers:
Wasa Hearty or Whole Grain
Melba Snacks, Whole Grain variety
Wild Harvest Organic Stoneground Wheat
Nabisco Triscuit, Hint of Salt
Kashi, Heart to Heart
Why: The vast majority of crackers available in your basic grocery store are nutritional duds. To find the best of the worst, compare the sodium, fiber, and trans fat content. Choose a cracker that is among the lowest in sodium, the highest in fiber, and does not contain “partially hydrogenated oils” in the ingredients list. Keep serving sizes in mind when making comparisons across brands. You should also look for a whole grain (which provides the fiber among other nutrients) as the first ingredient. Ritz “whole grain” crackers , for example, claim to contain whole grains yet the first ingredient is an enriched fiber (a.k.a. not a whole grain).
]]>Amy’s picks from tub butters/margarines:
Smart Balance Omega Light, Smart Balance HeartRight Light, and Smart Balance Light
Olivio Light, and Olivio
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Fat Free
Promise Fat Free, Promise Light, Promise active Light
Why: Tub butters and margarines can wallop you with heart-damaging saturated and trans fats. So, when choosing a tub spread, you want to pick on one without trans fat and that is low in saturated fat. The
saturated fat content can be found on the food label. The food label will also report the trans fat content but you can’t rely on this information. The Food and Drug Administration allows a label to say “0 grams” if it contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. Read the ingredients list to make sure there isn’t any “partially hydrogenated” oil in the spread. That is the way to find out if the spread is free from added trans fat.