Renee Shelton's Blog
Posted by Renee Shelton
Taco Bell's 'Fresco Menu' is a lower calorie menu for the fast food consumer. Although the menu options are still high in sodium (1410mgs for the new Chicken Fresco Burrito Supreme) the tacos and burritios contain much less fat and cholesterol than their regular menu counterparts.
How they are maintaining the lower calories for these new items is replacing the cheese and sauce on the new items and adding a 'Fiesta Salsa' that has five calories per serving. Choice of 7 new items can be found. A pictoral menu guide lists all the items and descriptions.
Comparisons to their regular menu:
- The Fresco Crunchy Taco has 150 calories with 7 total fat grams and 20mgs cholesterol vs. their Crunchy Taco Supreme which has 200 calories with 12 total fat grams and 35mgs cholesterol.
- The Chicken Fresco Burrito Supreme has 340 calories with 8 total fat grams and 25mgs cholesterol vs. their Chicken Burrito Supreme with 390 calories12 total fat grams and 40mgs cholesterol.
Read Taco Bell's complete menu nutrition information for all their menu items for calorie, sodium, fat and carb levels.
Posted by Renee Shelton
Nutritional standards have been proposed for ads seen by children. On Dec. 15 the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children worked to find solutions during the “Sizing Up Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity” that was held for the FTC.
Proposal included restrictions being placed on those items containing significant amounts of sugar, sodium and saturated fat. Proposals for advertised foods marketed for kids under 18:
- must contain less than 1 gram sat fat per serving
- sat fat not be more than 15% of total calories
- no more than 13 gram sugar added
- trans fat free
- no more than 200 mg sodium per serving, which will be eventually and hopefully be reduced over time to 140 mg
The food and beverage industry seem to trying already. The director of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, Elaine Kolish noted that since 2006 advertised cereals have already been reduced from 16 grams of sugar to now 11 grams and canned soups advertised to children have had sodium levels reduced 20-30%.
Even then, Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services has been quoted to have said:
"...if a kid gets diabetes when he’s 18 partly because when he was younger
he only ate the foods he saw everyday on TV and the Internet, that’s not his
fault. It’s our fault."
Perhaps a little bit of everyone's fault if parents only buy those products, or if those items are the only ones available to parents to purchase for their children to eat.
Posted by Renee Shelton
Smart Choices Program was first started by the Keystone Center, Food and Nutrition Roundtable, in 2007. The 'Smart Choices Program', first began to give consumers a quick peek at a product regarding its overall nutrition, and has been under scrutiny by many who wonder why products often containing high amounts of sugar are labeled as a 'smart choice' when shopping. For consumers who don't read labels, picking up a commercial package with a label stamped with a 'Smart Choice' and green check mark gives essentially a green light to eat it without reading the nutritional details.
Here is a criteria of foods that qualify and general nutrition information, from the Smart Choices Program.
This program is administered by the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) and NSF International, not the FDA. Even the FDA is concerned with the possibility of people choosing products that are more refined rather than the fresh foods themselves in this letter cowritten by the Senior Advisor for Food Safety at the Food and Drug Administration and Deputy Undersecretary for Food Safety at the Department of Agriculture.
The FDA has been looking at other labeling, such as the UK's Food Standards Agency Traffic Light Labeling. Unfortunately, not many companies here in the US would appreciate being singled out with a red light, but perhaps that would make it easier for consumers who don't read lables to easily spot those products that are excessively high in sugar, salt or other criteria.
Posted by Renee Shelton
They now have new Potato and Spinach Potato gnocchis and other pasta dishes that are gluten-free and wheat-free and are made from rice. These two new items are also vegan pasta products, and perfect for those who suffer from Celiac desease. Since they are lactose-free they are great for people who want to enjoy pasta dishes who might also suffer from other gastointestinal problems. Available at Whole Foods Market.
Posted by Renee Shelton
While commercial pizza may not be an everyday healthy eating item, many companies are coming up with new ways to draw in customers with fresh takes on their traditional pizza such as providing nutrition information, creating menu items with all-natural ingredients and lower sodium items, and identifying those items for customers with dietary restrictions.
Here are links to ingredient allergen, nutrition or ingredient sensititivity info from different popular quick serve and commercial pizza companies:
Pizza Hut -
- Food Alergen and Sensitivity Table - This is a .pdf file from Pizza Hut with which pizzas have peanut, tree nuts, eggs, wheat, milk, soybean, fish, shellfish allergens, and which have MSG or gluten for those who have sensitivity to those items.
- They also have an exchange list for their pizzas, with starch, high fat meat, medium fat meat, lean fat meat, very leat fat meat, fat, carbohydrate, vegetable and free food exchanges.
Pizza Pizza -
- Also has a similar food allergen table in .pdf for with information on which of their pizzas contains an allergen: listing these top food allergens - peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds, milk, eggs, fish/shellfish, soy, wheat/gluten and sulphites.
- And if you are looking for a certain ingredient to avoid, they have an ingredient list .pdf file that lists all the ingredients for their menu items, including their Halal items.
Dominoes Pizza -
- Dominoes has a whole nutrition portal page dedicated to calculating calories (their Cal-O-Meter), ingredients list, nutrition info, and lighter options list of items.
Papa John's -
- Their allergen info is done in an Allergen Question and Answer format, and Papa John's Pizza nutrition info can be looked up for all their core menu items.
Little Caesars -
- Their info was harder to get to, and Little Caesars nutrition info just had the basics, like cals, fat, carbs, etc., although they did have a suggestion for those on strict vegan diets and still want to enjoy their pizzas.
