The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 78

The Miami Herald Thursday October 1 1987 help from frail to nuts Quid: Fines What CHRIS USHER Miami Herald Our panel rates new lunch products By JILL SINGER Herald Staff Writer Who knows better than kids what kids really like in their lunch boxes? Listen to Heather Ashton 9 on: Cheese and crackers: like the crackers but hate the Peanut butter and cheese crackers: one part is salty and one part is Weight Watchers snacks: "They taste like astronaut food and feel like Styrofoam but I love Blueberry Elfin Loaf: sort of good but Swiss Miss Pudding: "D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S" Heather and six other children tasted 20 ready-to-eat products rating each on a scale of one to five (highest) Tops with all the kids above sweets such as Oreo Big Stuff cookies or fun fruits and salty choices such as plantain chips and peanut butter crackers was a crunchy juicy apple Nearly all the kids liked the Dannon snack pack-size strawberry yogurt very said Ryan Gaskill 6 None of the kids however liked the Friendship cottage cheese and fruit combination sour mushy and said Allan Joseph 9 Ashish Ghai 11 enjoyed the Kraft crackers and cheese: you mix it up it forms a good taste" Scarlet Constant 9 on Ring Dings: melt in my hands but creamy and Lauren Sapp 11 rates bite-sized chunks of cheese: nothing like I've ever had It would take eight to fill me Allan Joseph as excited about Sara Lee snack cake definitely not so The Swiss Miss Pudding chocolate flavor got high marks with all the testers "Thick chocolatey and Scarlet said great and I loved Andy Gaskill said Our panel of judges included above from left Allan Joseph Lauren Sapp Ashish Ghai Andrew Gaskill and Heather Ashton At right an expert in the matter at hand The Experts Speak A panel ol seven lunch box experts ranging in age from 6 to 1 1 taste-tested 20 popular products that can go straight from the store shelf to the lunch bag or box The highest-rated items the ones kids would like most to find in their brown bag lunch were: 1 A crisp apple 2 Del Monte Lite Fruit Cup (although most of the children had difficulty opening the pop-top can) 3 Sunkist Fun Fruits Animals 4 Kraft cheese and crackers 5 A tie between Sara Lee individual snack cakes and Oreo Big Stuff The products tested were: Sara Lee individual snack cakes Elfin Loaves another snack cake yogurt-covered raisins Oreo Big Stuff by Nabisco Quaker Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars Peanut Butter Boppers by Nature Valley Swiss Miss Pudding Del Monte Lite Fruit Cup Sunkist Fun Fruits Animals Kudos Chocolate Chip Granola Snacks Weight Watchers fruit snacks Keebler Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers Plantain Chips Muss Natural Applesauce Friendship cottage cheese and strawberries Dannon strawberry yogurt a bite-size chunk of cheese Kraft cheese and crackers Ring Dings and a McIntosh apple JILL SINGER SNACKS from IE Salad Singles I spotted both a chicken and a ham salad come in plastic containers you just pop into a lunchbox the trick is to keep them cold Children were tickled by Kraft peanut butter and cheese crackers found near the deli case (The key is that the peanut butter and the cheese are in separate compartments with a plastic spreader so children can "do it Another new product making a big initial come-out on the playground was Betty Pudding Roll-Ups pudding the company somehow turned into a flat sheet similar to a fruit leather At least kids get some calcium out of the deal I also found that most parents were packing frozen boxes of juices and milk rather than Thermoses The boxes thaw by lunchtime but keep other foods cold In the supermarket an aisle-byaisle search turned up all kinds of quick fixes In the dairy case I found mini (4-ounce) fruit yogurts lunchbox-size cottage cheese with fruit and refrigerated puddings including flan in pack-and-go cups (for some reason these are in the next case with the eggs) In the meat case there were prepackaged cups of chicken tuna crab and ham salad Amid the canned fruit there were four-packs of peaches and fruit cocktail in pop-top 5-ounce cans and minicups of applesauce plain cinnamon and combined with other fruits such as cherries i Along the baking goods aisle there were some surprises Dried fruit means a lot more than bags of prunes and boxes of raisins There were boxes with individual Hags of trail mix some of it all fruit some of it adulterated with chocolate chips and the like Also id individual packages: coated raisins and other fruits fruit leathers fruit gummies (Some of these are far removed from plain dried fruit in the nutrition department see below) On the peg board of nuts we found small packages of dry-roasted nuts and honey-roasted peanuts that would make lunchtime treats with some nutritional value and were very impressed with new trail mix made with cashews peanuts raisins and banana chips Next to the nuts came the puddings individual-size pop-top cans and plastic containers in various flavors (A plus with the canned puddings is that these are made with nonfat milk If you buy the refrigerated puddings check labels carefully many of these are made with nondairy products) In the cereal aisle the possibilities zoomed There were endless boxes of granola bars peanut-butter and cereal bars cereal and chocolate and the like bars There were also mini boxes of cereal to be considered as off-beat lunchbox fare The chips aisle offered little of appeal to the nutrition-conscious but for the first time I discovered plantain chips in individual bags There much to be found in the frozen foods beyond the Elfin loaves and Sara Lee snack cakes discussed elsewhere in this group of stories Weight Watchers does have a couple of desserts that do not need to be heated just defrosted such as the individual-size cheesecakes The drawback is that you will have to rewrap these since packed two to a box Along the bread counter there was not much to choose from beyond the usual Tasty-kakes Twinkies and Ring-Dings But there were individually wrapped brownies fig newtons and oatmeal cookies here rather than in the cookie aisle where we had expected to find them This is a sampling of nutritional information price-per-serving and other notable information we found on snack packages ranked them in categories according to how much redeeming nutritional value the snacks offer When you put packaged foods in lunches keep three factors in mind the guidelines we used in grouping the snacks in our sampling: The recommended daily allowance of calories and protein and the like are different than those for adults (Children 4 to 6 for example need 1700 calories and 30 grams of protein those 7 to 10 need 2400 calories and 34 grams of protein) I Be aware of sodium content as many packaged foods have heavy doses As a guide the National Academy of Sciences recommends adults without hypertension consume between 1100 and 3300 milligrams of sodium per day Check the percentage of calories that come from fat For children it should not be more (han 40 percent Facing an empty lunch box? help snack-size yogurts For something sweet Dezenhall recommends chunks of fruit graham crackers oatmeal cookies sunflower seeds or raisins But as most parents know even the best intentions guarantee a lunch that a child will actually eat For six years Franca Chase has watched hundreds of kids ravage through their lunch bags and boxes tossing away barely eaten sandwiches and gobbling up sweets At Whispering Pines Elementary in South Dade where she works as a aide responsible for monitoring kids at mealtime Chase is known affectionately as "The Lunch lot of kids get rid of the she says "When parents pack lunch they know what to fix because they know what kids like That always mean the lunch gets In fact Chase a mother of two school-age children will call parents if kids refuse to eat their lunch or nibble on selected items can tell a lot about what is going on in a life by what they eat or eat for she says a leader in the snack cake and pie industry as many as 52000 Twinkies are zapped with vanilla cream filling each hour says Cathy Dunkin the public relations manager She says the $1 2-billion yearly snack cake and pie industry continues to grow Her company which has sold 40 billion of the ever-popular golden sponge cake Twinkies since 1930 has introduced two new items this year in its 20-product line-up Hostess Pudding Pies come in vanilla and chocolate Choco-Bliss is two layers of cake with chocolate filling and icing keep coming up with new ideas because people tell us what they are interested Dunkin says a good percentage of the cakes are a lunch-time item for all While sweet snacks bring a smile to a brown bagger or lunch-box toter of any age Amy Dezenhall chief dietician at Miami Hospital recommend them as a daily delicacy should be a monotony breaker but not a she says "They should be part of lunch for a special occasion but not as everyday Be selective when choosing some of the goodies kids demand Dezenhall says "The ones with milk like the pudding have some redeeming value because of the calcium and vitamin But because of the chocolate which is high in fat and the added sugar a mixed bag Many of the cracker snacks potato and plantain chips are high in salt and fat she says potato and plantains are good but what they do to them in the frying process that makes them less A lot of granola snack bars are loaded with fat too she says And the Oreo Big Stuff: "Yuk they put more of the white stuff in the inside all sugar and nothing Some healthier suggestions: Alternate between standard sandwiches and easy-to-make creative alternatives a scoop of tuna fish rolled inside a lettuce leaf can eat it like an egg says Dezenhall Or a turkey or chicken leg or wing bite-size chunks of cheese cottage cheese or a cheese spread in the groove of a celery stick or a scooped-out cucumber up leftovers from last Dezenhall says seems like the obvious but people forget Stuff a slab of meatloaf inside a pita Cut up carrots kids love them Pack some cherry tomatoes kids can pop them in their mouths Try the FIXES from IE nutritious items ready to pop into a bag or box Last spring both Sara Lee and the Keebler Company introduced single-serve snacks sold in the supermarket freezers the Sara Lee folks call them cakes and make them in butter carrot chocolate fudge and cheesecake varieties at $239 for a box of 6 The cakes are 200 calories each Keebler is marketing the snacks as breads in blueberry banana cinnamon-raisin and carrot flavors The Elfin loaves cost $219 for 6 each bread weighs 2 ounces and ranges from 180 to 250 calories "They are a very sensible lunch says Peg Ransom manager of public affairs for the Kitchens of Sara Lee in Deerfield 111 travel well and very satisfying" Stuart Greenblatt public relations manager for Keebler best known for its crackers and cookies says the loaves are the first frozen product doing remarkably he says Even the Twinkies people are bringing out new products aimed at the lunch-box set At Continental Baking Co in St Louis also orange grape and cherry) Approximate price per serving: 32 cents (193 for six) Calories: 100 for 9 ounces Protein: 0 Fat: 1 gram Sodium: 10 milligrams Carbohydrate: 22 grams First 3 ingredients: strawberries corn syrup sugar Notable: Although these do contain some partially hydrogenated vegetable oil the percentage of fat (9) is very low as is the sodium level FRUIT SWIRL BARS: By Fruit Corners Made with and touch of real cream" a chewy bar kind of like taffy We bought the blueberry flavor also a raspberry and strawberry version Approximate price per serving: 30 cents (185 for 6) Calories: 90 per 8 ounces Protein: 0 Fat: 1 gram Sodium: 20 milligrams Carbohydrate: 19 grams First 3 ingredients: blueberries pear puree concentrate sugar Notable: Does contain partially hydrogenated oils but percentage of fat is low Contains artificial color Has 25 percent of RDA for vitamin partially hydrogenated vegetable oil nonfat milk solids nonfat yogurt solids dried whey dehydrated strawberry juice natural flavor citric acid lecithin artificial color) raisins corn syrup FRUIT ROLL-UPS: These are similar to fruit leathers and come in 7 flavors strawberry grape raspberry orange cherry apricot and watermelon We purchased the strawberry In very hot weather can be hard to separate from their wrapping Approximate price per serving: 24 cents ($193 for 8) Calories: 50 per xi ounce Protein: 0 Fat: less than 1 gram Sodium: 5 milligrams Carbohydrate: 12 grams First 3 ingredients: strawberries pear puree concentrate malto-dextrin Notable: The roll-ups contain 25 percent of the RDA for vitamin First 3 ingredients: peanuts (with peanut oil and salt) raisins almonds (with peanut oil and salt) Notable: The percentage of calo-ries from fats (48) is a bit high PLANTERS FRUIT NUT MIX: This is a new product containing peanuts raisins cashews and banana chips Approximate price per serving: 79 cents for the 3-ounce bag (see note) Calories: 150 Protein: 5 grams Fat: 9 grams Sodium: 90 milligrams Carbohydrate: 13 grams First 3 ingredients: peanuts and cashews roasted in coconut andor peanut oil raisins banana chips Notable: Although the nutritional information is based upon 3 servings per bag very probable that most people Please turn to SNACKS 9E Fat: 5 grams Sodium: 25 milligrams Carbohydrate: 20 grams First 3 ingredients: strawberries corn syrup sugar Notable: Contains both natural and artificial flavorings artificial coloring Jhe coating is mostly sugar saturated fats yogurt solids and lots of other things (see the Del Monte ingredient list below) The percentage of fat is 37 percent FRUIT SNACKS: Dei Montes version of the yogurt-coated something begins with a raisin the flavoring is in the topping We bought the strawberry also a plain They are individually wrapped Approximate price per serving: 29 cents ($175 for 6) Calories: 120 per 9 ounce Protein: 1 gram Fat: 5 grams Sodium: 20 milligrams Carbohydrate: 18 grams First 3 ingredients: strawberry-flavored vogurt coating (sugar Fairly healthy a sampling of cnacIfQ CREME SUPREMES: From Sunk- ist Made with fruit and "covered with We bought the strawberry flavor (there also is a cherry and an orange version) Approximate price per serving: 30 cents ($185 for six packages) Calories: 120 per 9 ounces Protein: Less than 1 gram SIERRA TRAIL MIX: Del Monte These are bags of nuts raisins yogurt drops and dried pineapple and papaya Approximate price per serving: 29 cents ($175 for 6) Calories per serving: 130 per 9 ounce Protein: 4 grams Fat: 7 grams Sodium: 35 milligrams Carbohydrate: 13 grams FUN FRUITS: A Sunkist product similar in texture to gummy candies which are very popular with young children We bought the strawberry flavor.