Trading Up Downtown

Hi, Trading Up Downtown readers. My name’s Evan from Food Makes Fun Fuel. I’m a college student who loves to run, cook, and eat! More specifically, I run distance for fun, and eat foods with all-natural ingredients. I’d say I’m a very brand-loyal consumer, and definitely have my “fallbacks” when grocery shopping anywhere besides Whole Foods that I know fit my lifestyle.

When I heard that NuVal came to my local Price Chopper during my first semester away, I had to see how they scored some of my favorites. When I started scoping out the scores for my favorite eats, I started getting a little surprised at some of the “low” items I love. After a while, I got the hang of NuVal: it’s all about adjusting to comparing.

Some things I kind of already figured, like plain yogurt scores higher than pre-sweetened. That’s perfectly fine with me; I like to sweeten my own yogurt with vanilla stevia or a delicious fruit jam (just make sure fruit is the first ingredient).

Being an on-the-go type of person on the days when my class schedule is booked, I’ve come to do a lot of relying on granola bars and other portable foods that are supposed to be “healthy.” I’m sure we’ve all heard stories of the granola bar which is really as healthy as a candy bar, so I wanted to see how two of my favorites stacked up.

A win and a loss. I love my Z-bars and the chocolate brownie is just the best to me. Apparently, it’s also not too shabby in the world of bars, scoring higher than most of the ones I could find on the shelf without compromising on chocolate flavor. If you really want a high scoring bar, reach for a fiber-fortified one, though I think you might find those ingredient lists surprisingly scary. I kind of figured that my vanilla chip Cascadian Farms’ bars, while organic, were not too great for me. I’ll still enjoy them, but at a 7, I don’t think I’ll be relying on them so heavily anymore.

Of course, no trip to the store would be complete for me without checking out the peanut butter. I love all nut butters, and needed to see how mine rated.

Needless to say, I was a little shocked when my “healthy” Smart Balance scored a mediocre 24. Rather than let myself get down, I looked for the up and down scores. I found that, while not outstanding, 24 isn’t bad. And there were certainly higher highs and lower lows.

Like I thought–never go for the reduced-fat peanut butter; I think a 7 speaks for itself (the median score for peanut butter is higher than for granola bars, so a 7 here is even worse than with the Cascadian Farm vanilla chip bars). The 49 on the Teddie’s totally surprised me since it’s over double the Smart Balance and the median score. That alone convinced me to buy a jar. And it was good! I loved the consistency and it definitely had a roasted peanut flavor to it.

NuVal might have confused me at first, but after figuring out what it’s all about, the comparing not only assured me in my purchases but showed me some new alternatives, too. Of course, you should have your sweet potatoes (96) and bananas (91), but it’s OK to let some lower scoring junk food slip into your cart, so long as they’re high in their own domain (my choice is the Kashi Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Mmm!)

Category: Guest Posts by Tina