A new year's resolution: no more fake food.

One of my resolutions for the new year is no more fake food.

No more blueberry Nutri-Grain bars, no more travel containers of Sugar Pops, and hardest of all, no more Nutritious Creation chocolate-chip cookies. Oh, how I love these cookies.

The wrapper claims that each cookie contains 150 calories, but I doubt it. The cookies are too tasty, and too big, to have so few calories. Seeing the number on the label makes it seem like a fact, but I remember the Pirate Booty scandal, when it was revealed that the labels on the supposedly low-calorie flavored popcorn were wildly inaccurate.

In Lisa Young’s fascinating book, The Portion Teller, she warns, “If you are buying a product that’s made by a small, regional company, even one that sells ‘health food,’ the labels are often notoriously inaccurate.” Sadly, that description perfectly fits Nutritious Creations.

I like eating fake food because I get hungry when I’m out during the day, and it’s often not convenient to sit down and eat proper food. Plus it’s a treat—I love cookies and candy. I would never dream of buying a real chocolate-chip cookie or a candy bar, but I can’t resist the supposedly low-cal version.

But I’ve come to see that fake food crowds out real food. I eat a “cookie,” then I’m not very hungry at lunch, so I don’t eat much, then I’m hungry again in the afternoon—when it’s not convenient to eat a meal, so I eat more fake food. More than once, I have to admit, I’ve had three “cookies” in one day.

But no more, I vowed. If I can’t sit down to eat, I’ll buy a banana or some yoghurt. I’ll carry a bag of apple slices in my backpack. I’ll eat bigger meals with more protein so I can more than an hour without a snack.

Of course, today at noon, what is the very first thing my eyes light upon as I walk into Toastie’s to get my made-to-order salad and yoghurt? I spot it among a sea of packaged foods: an intriguing new product, a “100 Calorie Brownie” from Healthy Benefits.

“Hmmm, what if I got this, instead of yoghurt? They have the same number of calories, and the brownie has seven grams of fiber, too…”

No! No more fake food!

Comments

[Monica Ricci]

Gretchen, it's as if you were in my head today when I was at the grocery store. Ugh, there is so much fake food... so much processing, so much enriched flour, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil. So much bleccccch in our foods! (and we wonder why cancer and diabetes and every other disease is ravaging our society) I came home with nothing but fresh produce, whole grain bread and toiletries. Yay! Happy 2007 to you!

[Jessica]

Gretchen, I really admire your resolution to eat more healthfully and to eat more real food. I would just caution that hard and fast rules like these sometimes make me feel deprived and resentful -- once in a while if there's no way to avoid it, it's no big defeat to have a fake cookie. :-) And, I know from experience that Type-A'ers like us can become a little nutty about food and control -- so just remember to maintain an attitude disposed towards health, but also flexibility!

[malcolm]

chekc out nina planck's book "real food what to eat and why" she ran the farmer's market in NYC and started one in london ,also grew up on a farm. Lots of forgotten research, common sense insight, and well written.
I used to think all those things like 'grass fed beef' was nonsense but she explains the whys and wherefores...and frankly i never been much of an animal rights activist but the description of industrial chicken farms was enough to make a vegitarian out of anyone - happily enough, a chicken that leads a natural chicken's life is also healthier to eat.

[malcolm]

ps here is her site
http://www.ninaplanck.com/

[Andy]

These are what I've come to refer to as "Weasel Foods," foods you eat in order to feel like you've gotten away with something. They all rely on the idea that we're not getting that many calories, but compare them to the real things, and they are often very close.

[Beth Kojima]

I eat a Nutritious Creations chocolate chip cookie every day, without fail (scary, I know). I came to the same conclusion that 150 calories per cookie must be wrong, but they are just SO good that I can't stop. One thing to note -- they decided to "change the packaging" of the Nutritious Creations banana walnut and oatmeal raisin cookies not too long ago, and in so doing, the calorie information now calls for 2 servings per cookie. I think it still only adds up to 180 or 200 calories in total, but definitely an interesting development...

[Gretchen Rubin]

I noticed that package change as well, and guess what I discovered: the internet reveals that several years ago, Nutritious Creations was nailed for mislabelling -- dramatically underreporting calories. I would tell myself that this only means that they are more likely to be honest today, but the fact is -- those cookies are just too big and tasty to have so few calories. Even 250 I think is too low. Alas...
Last year I tried just having one as an infrequent treat. No dice. I have to go cold turkey or I'll be up to a couple each day. As Samuel Johnson says, “Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.”

[danie shaughnessy]

Keep an orange peeler in your purse and carry and orange. Not, because they don't bruise easily, store great and have pick-me-up sugar, fiber and vitamin C, but because when you peel them everyone around you gets to smell a happy smell and you feel smarty smarty pants. :)

[emilie]

And, with the money saved over time avoiding 'fake food' & food on the go, it's easier to justify buying organic, or the occassional (ok, daily!) bottle of Pellegrino (my weakness...).

[Linda]

I reached the same conclusion about fake food, AND about snacking cutting into eating good food. I do eat some occasionally (I manage "occasionally" with the No-S diet - see www.nosdiet.com) but mostly I make healthier choices.

Even "real junk food" - like homemade cookies - is superior to the fake stuff.

[Lydia]

After the nutritious creations blondie and brownie "scandal": http://wcbstv.com/seenat11/local_story_314215015.html (the blondie had 343 calories, not 143 as labeled!) I emailed nutritious creations and asked them to send me the fda test of their chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies, as they "offer" to their clients on their websites. They said okay. Then I never received anything in the mail. They are a sketchy company and I think they should be held accountable for their actions.