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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – It is always fun to explore and taste new food products. Some are interesting and innovative. Some are not worth the calories. And, others become part of your kitchen staples. Here are a few new products that are definitely worth a try. Enjoy!
Not necessarily the most nutritious choice, but a quality product nonetheless, Prosperity Cakes by Full Circle Flavors. A great tasting cake with a decent shelf like, which freezes well, is a great find. Three sisters, who work together and seem to have fun doing it, developed 3 terrific tasting cakes: Amaretto, Limoncello and Chocolate Razz. Limoncello was my favorite. They sell all three flavors as full size cakes (serving 10 to 12) or as junior cakes (serving 2 to 4). The junior cake is a wonderful idea, allowing you to indulge with a sensible portion.
Many of us are embracing a plant based diet, some as full-fledged vegetarians or vegans and others as quasi vegetarians, eating nonmeat meals a few times a week. Men, in their 40’s and 50’s, are giving vegetarian cuisine a new face. They are hegans – eating a totally or semi plant-based diets to make up for a gluttonous youth, to lose weight and to cheat death by avoiding disease. Gardein, a line of refrigerated and frozen plant-based foods with a meaty texture by Garden Protein International will appeal to hegans, vegans and quasi vegetarians alike. The products, which include animal and dairy-free entrees, can easily and conveniently form the core of any healthy meal. Even dedicated meat lovers will be enticed by the robust taste of the selections such as BBQ Pulled Shreds, Home Style Beefless Tips, Chick’n Marsala and Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick’n.
Frozen fish disappoints more often than not. So it was a pleasant surprise to experience the quality and excellent taste of frozen seafood entrees by Sea Cuisine which include: Shrimp Scampi, Mediterranean Crusted Salmon, Tortilla Crusted Tilapia, and Potato Crusted Cod. Packages serve two and the calorie, and sodium values of most were quite good. No entrée exceeded 370 calories a serving and many were lower. Nine of the 14 entrées had less than 600 milligrams of sodium per serving. Definitely a good choice to increase your fish intake.
Wild Planet offers a line of canned, sustainably caught, wild seafood including sardines, tuna, salmon and shrimp. The product line is sourced from Northern Pacific fisheries, caught by pole and troll fishing methods which eliminates bycatch of other marine species. Wild Planet tuna is packed raw in BPA free cans and then cooked once in the can to retain the natural flavor and omega-3 fats that are lost in traditional tuna processing where the fish is precooked before canning and processed a second time in the can. Wild Planet tuna is also low in mercury because the fishing methods used catch smaller fish, between 9 to 25 pounds. Younger and smaller fish accumulate less mercury than larger older tuna.
Two mom-driven products were Gudernoobs by WooHoo Foods and allergy-friendly, Lucy’s cookies.
Gudernoobs are a healthy, bite-sized, chewy treat for children in four flavors: Big Time Brownie, Outrageous Oatmeal Banana, Awesome Apple Cider, and Perfect Peanut Butter. They are made from apples, bananas, cocoa, dates, flax, oats, peanuts, raisins, and walnuts and the 4 different flavors are packaged in 1 bag with 20 pieces. This could be a drawback if your child favors one flavor over the other. Gubernoobs are bite-sized with 30 calories in 1 piece. This makes them a good, healthy choice for young kids. They are an appropriate between meal snack or lunchbox treat.
Lucy’s gluten-free, allergy-friendly cookies were developed by Lucy Gibney, MD, who is the mother of a child with severe food allergies. The cookies are available in chocolate chip, cinnamon, sugar and oatmeal flavors in both boxes and grab and go packs. All are baked in a dedicated facility without wheat, gluten, dairy milk, butter, eggs, casein, peanuts or tree nuts. The product is subjected to an allergen control program which includes testing for trace allergens in an on-site lab. For those with severe allergies these precautions are important. The cookies are kosher and vegan certified.
For more information go to:
Prosperity Cakes: www.fullcircleflavors.com
Gardein: www.gardein.com
Wild Planet Seafood: www.wildplanetfoods.com
Gubernoobs: www.woohoofoods.com
Lucy’s cookies: www.drlucys.com
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales in excess of 8 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Calorie Counter, 5th Ed., 2010
The Ultimate Carbohydrate Counter, 3rd Ed., 2010
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
The Diabetes Carbohydrate and Calorie Counter, 3rd Ed., 2007
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to The Nutrition Experts
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