Every Little Bit Helps

An early appointment this morning left you without time for your usual healthy breakfast. Now that the meeting is over, you're famished and it is too long to wait until lunch. On your way back to the office, you stop in the local Starbucks to pick up a muffin and a cup of coffee. 

You are perusing the choices and suddenly notice the calories displayed on the menu and prominently on the packaging. What? 

• Apple Bran Muffin: 350 calories. 
• Blueberry Scone: 460 calories. 
• Cheese Danish: 420 calories. 
• Double Iced Cinnamon Roll: 490 calories.
• Zucchini Walnut Muffin: 490 calories.

Wow! Zucchini and Walnuts are healthy for you! How do they end up being almost 500 calories? You move to the hot breakfast choices and have some better luck:

• Egg White, Spinach and Feta Wrap: 280 calories
• Reduced-Fat Turkey Bacon with Egg Whites on English Muffin: 320 calories
• Starbucks Perfect Oatmeal: 140 calories

You opt for the oatmeal and the deluxe fruit blend (90 calories), choose a unsweetened tea to drink and you're on your way. Breakfast total: 230 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 5 grams of protein. You've done very well!

Now, consider this... what would you have selected were it not for the calorie counts so clearly displayed? Maybe you would have gone with one of the other hot breakfasts... you're pretty aware of your food choices. But if you had gone for the scone or one of the muffins? You would have loaded your body with processed food to start the day. To be clear, this is not an indictment of Starbucks. They've made a decent effort in recent years to eliminate trans fat in their foods and provide healthier choices. 

This is about requiring places to post calories on the menu. The FDA plans on requiring many more places to post calorie counts (including airplanes, movie theaters and convenience stores). Contained in the healthcare law is the requirement for chains with 20 or more locations to include calorie information on menus. This part of the law was effective immediately so you will start seeing the information soon (or you will when the penalties begin next year).

People disagree if the practice is effective. Personally, I think it is effective... when traveling, a Starbucks offers consistent and reasonably healthy options in a sea of other bad choices. I've wandered into a Starbucks in New York City and it has a real impact to see the calories before you order. To combat the ever-increasing obesity numbers and to help to educate people so they begin to understand, we need to do something. If people are given the clear choice to choose between the cinnamon roll and the apple bran muffin, some percentage of them will make the better choice and save the 140 calories. 

Plus, this policy has the added benefit of helping the restaurants and chains and movie theaters begin to adapt their offerings and include more healthy choices. After all, do you want to be the owner of a place looking over your menu board only to discover most everything on there is 500+ calories? I don't think so. How could you live with yourself? 

There is nothing wrong with information and education. And, everything is wrong with hiding information just to make a sale. 

Each Step Counts

On a typical day, many of us encounter an elevator or escalator. The vast majority will choose the electrically assisted device which sets up a double-whammy: our health and the environment. 

Studies show taking the stairs helps you burn twice as many calories as riding. And, after a 12 week period, substantial stair use showed improved cardiovascular fitness fitness in young women. 

Elevators and escalators require energy to run. How much? A seemingly simple question with a complicated answer due to the many variables. Let's just leave it at this: if you ride instead of walk you burn earth energy and not human energy. 

It is a win-win for you and the environment to use your body's energy to make things happen instead of relying on anything with a motor to get the job done. Simple? Yes. And, remember... each step counts. 

To up your fun value, consider this experiment conducted in Stockholm. If the steps you take don't make sound, create your own notes. You'll burn extra calories by singing a tune on your way!

Entrepreneurship, Doing the Right Thing and Pressure

From the Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs, "Alva R. Kinney was raised in the small town of Crete, Nebraska. After graduating from Doane College in 1897, he went to work at Crete Mills, a local milling company. After a brief career as a traveling salesman, Kinney and some associates purchased Ravenna Mill in 1904. Over the next 15 years, he constantly upgraded the mill, which became quite successful."

The story goes on. Alva Kinney and the Ravenna Mill is the beginning of ConAgra. ConAgra, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, is now a $21.5 billion company with nearly 43,000 employees.

I've spent the week on ConAgra and much of what I've written hasn't been very flattering. I began to wonder about the company and how it started. Was the Founder a "good guy?" Did he have any idea what he began would turn into a world powerhouse controlling much of the food we consume? Did he care about his customers and the families that ate the products he produced? Digging into the real history of Alva Kinney would certainly be an interesting journey and one that doesn't fit into the time allotted to write today's blog. I'll leave those queries for someone looking for a documentary to produce.

More importantly, what about the people that work for and run ConAgra today? There are 43,000 of them and what are they like? My experience in working with large companies (in a different and also much-maligned industry) is that the people who work there everyday get up in the morning and want to do a good job and want to do good in the world. I've yet to find any truly evil people with a mission to profit by hurting others. I have met several people who are in a position that requires them to make hard decisions based on the bottom line. And, sometimes, when making bottom line decisions based solely on profit or the value to shareholders, some things along the way get trampled. Employees, customers, animals and the environment.

Some would claim this is the problem with capitalism. Others would say it is related to politics and policy and the stock market. The why doesn't really matter. The people do. We can, each of us, make a choice to do what has always been done, do what is expected of us, or make a tough choice and do something different. I'm guessing ConAgra and the people who work there are not evil. Yes, some (if not many) of the products they create could be more healthful for their customers. Yes, they could use their considerable power and position to help get whole, natural food to more people. Yes, they could revolutionize agriculture to be earth-sustainable, animal-friendly and human-beneficial. And, until we create other opportunities and ways to measure success, we'll be left to rely on the people. The most powerful of them? You.

The Advanced Search

Feeling rather advanced today, we proceed to the "three-step process to search according to brand(Healthy Choice, Marie Callender's, etc.), category (Frozen Foods, Snacks, etc.), or more detailed dietary restritions."

As an amusing aside, I copied and pasted the above line from the website and voila! a typo. Granted, I didn't catch it while reading the site but the spell checker on trusty blogspot was quick to notice. 

Step 1 gives us the choice to search by Brands or Categories. Upon making a selection (in this case Brands) you are then presented with step 2 and a giant list of Brands Available. You choose your brand and click >>ADD. You can choose more than one brand or add all brands. Interesting... 

In keeping with our theme, we'll choose Manwich and proceed to step 3. This is where things get even more advanced! In step 3 you're presented with two drop down boxes. The first one includes: 

• Less than 
• Less than or equal to
• Equal to
• Greater than or equal to
• Greater than

I'm having flashbacks to elementary school math and something to do with which way the fish mouth is facing. Let's not spend too long in that nightmare and proceed.

In theory, the next step would be the little box to the right of the first drop down and before the second drop down box. I'm not sure what to put in the box so we'll move on to drop down box number two. Oh my... This is a dizzying array of choices. 

Is this helpful? Does some doctor say only eat things with more than 50 milligrams of potassium per serving? What about less an 50 milligrams of sodium per serving? That seems a bit more possible, though I think unlikely. Let's see what happens... Darn. If you were searching for Manwich with less than 50 milligrams of sodium per serving you would be very disappointed. "No results found. Please broaden your search criteria." What about with less than 100 milligrams of sodium per serving? Nope. No, Manwich for you.

How frustrating! What if I'm craving some Manwich and am trying to watch my sodium intake? 150 milligrams? So sorry. 200? Nope. 300? No again. 400? And, no. Finally, we get to searching for Manwich with less than 500 milligrams of sodium per serving and.... drum roll, please.... we have Manwich! And two choices of Manwich! Let's select the "i" for the Manwich Original 15.5 oz can and see what nutritional powerhouse is in store for us.

To make it easier to read, some results:

• Serving size: 1/4 cup
• Calories per serving: 40
• Sodium: 410 mg (17% of your recommended daily intake)
• Protein: less than 1 g

By eating 1/4 cup of Manwich (probably unlikely... I suspect most people mound at least 1/2 cup on a bun), you are rewarded with nearly 1/3 of the amount of sodium likely to be contained in the new daily recommendation guidelines due out later this year. And, it took you about 20 minutes to figure it out using the ConAgra website.

For the record, if you don't select or enter any data in the boxes you'll be presented with a list of all of the Manwich options. Granted, the website doesn't actually say you don't have to go through all of that agony to get an answer. If you do that, you get one more Manwich choice: Manwich Bold 16oz. And for the brave and the bold? You'll get 70 calories and 800 mg of sodium per a 1/4 cup serving.

I must admit, I would have given up on this crazy website long, long ago were it not for a greater purpose. An hour devoted to your health, dear readers. My advice? Avoid Manwich. Sorry, ConAgra but I think it should be against the rules to make such stuff and pawn it off as food. People need actual help not ill-health in a 1/4 cup serving.

Product Nutrition Search

When I seek nutrition information on a product, the best way is a simple text entry box in which to type the product name. Perhaps this method doesn't work for some people so, in an attempt to make things easier, some websites have created other ways to get nutrition information.

As promised in yesterday's Manwich update, I thought we'd take a peek at the ConAgra Product Nutrition Search to see how it works. Here is a screen shot from their website. 
To find nutrition information you have two choices: one-click search and advanced search. One-click sounds easy and look they have nifty sub-categories to help consumers: fat free, low fat, good source of protein, low cholesterol, sodium controlled, good source of fiber. Let's take a look, shall we?

Under the fat free category, the first results are: Egg Beaters, PAM (such a tasty meal choice), La Choy bamboo shoots. Hmmmmm. Is this helpful? Would a consumer, in an attempt to make more healthful food choices go to this website, find something fat free and then go and buy it?

I contend this is exactly what ConAgra is hoping for and spent quite a tidy sum of money on website design for. Does this tool actually help people make better food choices? If I was told to eat a fat free diet, would I use this tool to make my shopping list? Perhaps if I was a consumer without an good understanding of nutrition. Perhaps the first thing on the list should be actual, whole, real foods (like vegetables) and a way to educate consumers about those food choices. And, why in the world is PAM on this list? It isn't food.

I was curious about the nutrition information for Hunt's Basil, Garlic and Oregano sauce so I clicked on the little "i"to dig a bit deeper.

When you click the "i" you are rewarded with a pop-up box of the product label as shown on the left.
What is most interesting about this label? It does not show what is actually in the can. I guess the website designers thought an ingredient list would be too much information. Unless of course, someone didn't want "high fructose corn syrup" to appear in print on a website. Or the spurious term "spices" which can mean a whole bunch of things you really don't want to consume.

I am left curious and would love your thoughts. Is this information helpful? Will it guide a consumer to make better food choices? Or, do you think it is a clever way to "help" consumers make a shopping list of ConAgra produced food based on somewhat questionable health claims?

Tomorrow? The advanced search. Stay tuned!

Follow-Up on Manwich

Up early, good exercise and some time this morning reading comments on yesterday's redux blog on Manwich led me to see if there were any updates on the ConAgra website since they didn't have nutritional information when last I checked. Goodness... are we going to have fun with this for a few days!

Yes, ConAgra has updated and launched a new site for Product Nutrition information. Excellent, I thought. I will go and search for Manwich and see what I can find. Should be easy, right? ConAgra would want their consumers to quickly find the information they are seeking, right? Ha!

I would consider myself a pretty savvy web user and... this is one of the most confusing, difficult-to-use search features I've ever encountered. For the record, the idea of the web is to make it easy for people to find what they are looking for. Can I just have a search box to type in Manwich and get the nutritional information? No! 

When I tried the search box and entered Manwich, I did get a nifty news release on the Investor Relations page that talks about the release of the "full serving of vegetables" campaign and says: 

• "new television advertising campaign promoting the full serving of vegetables found in each serving of Manwich"
• "mark Manwich’s first new creative campaign in three years"
• "new strategic message requires a deeper communication with the target consumer"
• "promoting the full serving of vegetables strategic messaging and encouraging moms to feel good about serving Manwich to their families more frequently"
• "lighthearted spots feature a young girl who is dressed as a Manwich for a school play while her classmates are dressed as vegetables. She touts the wholesomeness of Manwich to her classmates and family."

Excuse me? This a strategic message to encourage Moms to feel good about serving Manwich? How about a strategic message to help Moms understand what is healthy and good for their family? How about a commercial with only the vegetables on stage? 

There are so many things wrong with this, I don't even know where to begin. Discuss and share. Until we get together and point out the absurdity of such things the people who need good and honest advice the most will continue to be subjected to "strategic messages."

Tomorrow? An experiment in actually using ConAgra's Product Nutrition Search. Stay tuned!!!

The Redux: Meat Your Vegetables? Seriously?

We were so busy today building very nifty, new cool features to help you track your wellness goals and progress that we didn't make the time to sit down and do the blog fantastic. So sorry! On the upside, you're going to love, love the new tracking system. On the next upside, we're republishing one of our favorite blogs and one that has gotten lots of great feedback.

Until tomorrow... enjoy!

Meat Your Vegetables? Seriously? 

The benefit of small amounts of television watching is you miss some of the ridiculous commercials which proliferate prime time television. Last evening, I saw this commercial for Manwich which claims every serving of Manwich has a whole serving of vegetables. The commercial ends with the tagline, "Manwich. Meat Your Vegetables." On the ConAgra Foods website, they report a "Full serving of vegetables" means that one 1/4 cup serving of Manwich contains or is the equivalent of 1/2 cup of vegetables.

So many questions come to mind! First of all, what is the "equivalent" of 1/2 cup of vegetables? Second of all, what unnatural thing does one have to do to 1/2 of vegetables to make them fit into 1/4 cup serving with other stuff in it? Third of all, what exactly is in the can?

I don't happen to have a can of Manwich around the house and can't really bring myself to go and buy one. For the record, the link to get nutritional information on the ConAgra website leads to a page that says "We are updating our product nutritional information. Our apologies for the inconvenience. Please check back later." I wonder how long this message has been there and if they are not posting nutritional information because it is too frightening. According to this blog, the ingredients are:

Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Distilled Vinegar, Corn Syrup, Less than 2% of: Salt, Sugar, Dehydrated Onions, Dehydrated Red and Green Bell Peppers, Chile Pepper, Tomato Fiber, Spices, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Dehydrated Garlic, Carob Bean Gum, Natural Flavors.

It doesn't really seem likely that all of those ingredients would total up to a full serving of vegetables. Unless.... unless, of course, they are counting the High Fructose Corn Syrup and the Corn Syrup as vegetable. Yes, both of those ingredients come from the much produced vegetable, corn. Though I don't think it fair to trick the average consumer into thinking if they eat a Manwich for dinner they are eating a full serving of vegetables.

I would like to believe a full serving of vegetables looks more like, well vegetables. Carrots, broccoli, kale, lettuce. You know... the stuff you buy around the edges of your grocery store, the stuff that comes in its own skin or peel, the stuff which doesn't require a box or a can. Come on, ConAgra. Stop fooling the American consumer so you can sell more stuff in a can. More stuff mostly made out of corn (which when processed, doesn't really count as a vegetable!).

P.S. - When you do a spell check on something and words are highlighted as mis-spellings DO NOT EAT THEM! Guar and Xantham gum (made with corn...).