40 Of The Healthiest Packaged Foods You Can Buy At The Supermarket

To that end, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) publishes newsletters naming the healthiest brand-name foods you can find at the supermarket. To make their selections, CSPI, which is an independent organization that doesn’t take money from the government or the food industry, crunched data on calories, saturated fat, sodium, and other nutritional information, depending on the category. CSPI says the selections below, handpicked by its nutritionists just for BuzzFeed, taste good, too.

These recommendations are based on daily nutritional limits for a 2,000-calorie diet. CSPI advises eating no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium, 20 grams of saturated fat, 25 grams (or 6 teaspoons) of added sugar for women, and 36 grams (or 9 teaspoons) of added sugar for men each day. Keep in mind that nutritional information listed on products can vary from store to store and from what is published online, so always check the label of the product you are purchasing. If you’d like to get the full newsletters, subscribe here. In the meantime, here are some helpful highlights to keep in mind next time you shop: 

Breads

“Bread is the number one source of sodium in the average American’s diet,” says Jayne Hurley, a Registered Dietitian at CSPI. So if you love sandwiches — and who doesn’t? — pay attention.

THE CRITERIA: CSPI’s picks for bread have no more than 120mg or less of sodium per slice, are made from all (or almost all) whole grain, and do not include breads made with the artificial sweetener acesulfame potassium, whose safety tests CSPI says “were conducted in the 1970s and were of mediocre quality.” (More information about this sweetener and others is available here.)

TOP PICKS:
•Nature’s Own 100% Whole Wheat: 60 calories and 110mg of sodium per slice.
•Sara Lee Classic 100% Whole Wheat: 60 calories and 120mg of sodium per slice.
•Pepperidge Farm Stoneground 100% Whole Wheat Bread: 70 calories and 70mg of sodium per slice.

  

Cheeses

“Cheese is two-thirds saturated fat,” says Hurley. “And saturated fat is the kind of fat that clogs arteries, so it’s the harmful kind of fat.” So, if you’re going to eat a lot of cheese, she advises choosing the lower-fat kind. “I agree the fat-free cheeses suffer from a rubbery texture,” says Hurley. “But for the light cheeses, I think many pass for being as good as the full fat ones.”

THE CRITERIA: CSPI’s picks have no more than 3 grams of saturated fat and 170 milligrams per ounce.

Note: “Because of rounding inconsistencies, [CSPI] included some cheeses whose labels list up to 3.5 grams of saturated fat.”

TOP PICKS:
•Cabot’s 50% Less Fat Sharp Light Cheddar: 70 calories, 3g of saturated fat, 170mg of sodium, and 20% of your daily calcium needs per ounce.
•BelGioioso Fresh Mozzarella Snacking Cheese: 70 calories, 3g of saturated fat, 90mg of sodium, and 15% of your daly calcium needs per 1 ounce ball.
•Chavrie Original Mild Goat Cheese: 50 calories, 2.5g of saturated fat, 120mg of sodium, and 2% of your daily calcium needs per ounce.

  

Yogurts

CSPI recommends sticking with plain, unsweetened yogurt and adding your own fruit at home. “The problem with the fruit-on-the-bottom ones, or let’s call it ‘fruit glop on the bottom,’ is it’s mostly sugar,” says Hurley. “The most ‘fruited’ yogurts have 3-4 teaspoons of added sugar.”

THE CRITERIA: Because yogurts come in so many different sizes, CSPI’s precise requirements vary from size to size. All of the picks below are plain and unsweetened, have low calorie counts, and provide a decent amount of calcium and protein. Any sugar in these yogurts are naturally occurring from the milk — they are not added. While there are some variations in nutritional content, these are all good choices and Hurley says to “follow your taste.”

TOP PICKS:
•Siggi’s Icelandic Style Skyr, 0% Milkfat, 5.3 ounces: 80 calories, 0g of saturated fat, 15g of protein, 20% of your daily calcium requirements and 1 tsp of sugar. (Dannon Oikos, Stonyfield Organic Greek, and Brown Cow Greek have about the same nutritional content, so you if you like those brands better, take your pick.)
•Chobani Plain Greek Yogurt 0%, 5.3 ounces: 90 calories, 0g of saturated fat, 15g of protein, 15% of your daily calcium requirements and 1 tsp of sugar. (Voskos Plain Greek Yogurt 0% fat ties.)
•Stonyfield Organic Smooth & Creamy Fat Free Plain, 8-ounce serving: 100 calories, 0g of saturated fat, 10g of protein, 35% of your daily calcium needs and 4 tsp of sugar.

Hot Cereals 

Yes, sometimes it seems like pulling up to a drive-thru is the easiest way to get a hot and delicious breakfast. But plenty of healthy, hot cereals can be made in less time than it takes to get to the local drive-thru window. These are all unsweetened — add fruit for a healthy way to sweeten your breakfast.

THE CRITERIA: CSPI only chose cereals that are made with 100% whole grains, have no added sugar, and no more than than 100mg of sodium per serving.

TOP PICKS:
•Hodgson Mill Apples & More Muesli, 1/4 cup dry: 150 calories, 4g of fiber, 5g of protein, and 0g of sodium.
•Quaker Oats Old Fashioned, Quick 1-Minute, or Steel Cut, 1/2 cup dry: 150 calories, 4g of fiber, 5g of protein, and 0g of sodium.
•McCann’s Regular Instant Irish Oatmeal, 1 packet: 100 calories, 3g of fiber, 4g of protein, and 80mg of sodium.

  

Cold Cereals

There are few places in this world as confusing as the cereal aisle. So many labels! So many health claims! How’s a person to know what’s actually good for them?

THE CRITERIA: CSPI’s choices have no more than 2.5g of saturated fat per serving and no acesulfame-potassium, sucralose, or monk fruit extract. They also have at least 3g of fiber per 100 calories (and if a cereal lists processed fiber as an ingredient, it has to list bran first), and the cereals have to either list whole grains as the first two ingredients OR contain little or no refined grains (bran counts as a whole grain).

TOP PICKS:
•General Mills Cheerios, 1 cup: 100 calories and 3g of fiber.
•Kashi Organic Promise Berry Fruitful, 29 biscuits: 170 calories and 6g of fiber.
•Post Bran Flakes, 3/4 cup: 100 calories and 5g of fiber.

  

Frozen Novelties

The beauty of a frozen novelty dessert is that the serving size is built-in. You don’t have to worry about your scoops being too big and accidentally eating more than you intended. But they can be tricky, too, because they usually have a lot of sugar, fat, and artificial sweeteners.

THE CRITERIA: CSPI’s choices have no more than 120 calories, 2 grams of saturated fat, and “are free of unsafe or questionable artificial sweeteners.”

Note: “Added sugar numbers are all estimates. [CSPI} cannot estimate added sugar on the fruit bars because we do not know how much naturally occurring sugar is coming from the fruit.”

TOP PICKS:
•Ciao Bella Adonia Wild Blueberry Greek Frozen Yogurt Bar, 1 bar: 80 calories, 0g of saturated fat, and 2 teaspoons of added sugar.
•Healthy Choice Strawberry Greek Frozen Yogurt Cup, 1 container: 60 calories, 1g of saturated fat, and 1.5 teaspoons of added sugar.
•Dreyer’s (or Edy’s) Fruit Bars in Strawberry, Wildberry, and Lime, 1 bar: 40 calories and 0g of saturated fat.

  

Soups

Most canned soups have too much sodium to make it onto CSPI’s list. But these soups keep the sodium count low without sacrificing taste, CSPI says.

THE CRITERIA: CSPI’s picks have a maximum of 300mg of sodium and 2 grams of saturated fat in each 1-cup serving.

TOP PICKS:
•Imagine Organic Light In Sodium Creamy Garden Broccoli: 70 calories, 0g of saturated fat, and 190mg of sodium per cup.
•Pacific Organic Light In Sodium Creamy Butternut Squash: 90 calories, 0g of saturated fat, and 280mg of sodium per cup.
•Amy’s Organic Light in Sodium Low Fat Minestrone: 90 calories, 0g of saturated fat and 290mg of sodium per cup.

Ice Creams 

Keep in mind that these numbers are all based on half-cup servings (which is a pretty small scoop), so either keep an eye on your portion sizes or multiply accordingly.

THE CRITERIA: Each 1/2-cup serving has no more than 130 calories or 2.5g of saturated fat; none include acesulfame potassium as an ingredient.

TOP PICKS:
•Edy’s (or Dreyer’s) Slow Churned Ice Cream, Vanilla Bean: 100 calories, 2g of saturated fat, and 2.5 teaspoons of added sugar per 1/2 cup. (Check out this line’s many other flavors, too — they all meet CSPI’s criteria.)
•Turkey Hill Stuff’d Junior Mints: 120 calories, 1.5g of saturated fat, and 3.5 teaspoons of added sugar per 1/2 cup. (The line’s Praline Pecan Paradise andStrawberry Cheesecake are also good options.)
•Breyers Blast! Oreo Cookies & Cream Mint: 120 calories, 2g of saturated fat and 2.5 tsp of added sugar per 1/2 cup. (The line’s Oreo Cookies & Cream Chocolate, Sara Lee Strawberry Cheesecake, and Creamsicle Orange are also good options.)

  

Nut Butters 

Choosy eaters should choose the nut butters without added salts and sugars but with plenty of protein. While these butters can still have small amounts of sugar, they are naturally occurring in the nuts.

CRITERIA: CSPI recommends nut butters that contain no added salt or sugar. Each 2 tablespoon serving should have at least 6 grams of protein and no more than 3 grams of saturated fat.

TOP PICKS:
•Krema (or Crazy Richard’s) Natural Peanut Butter, Creamy or Crunchy: 190 calories, 9g of protein, and 0g of sodium per 2-tbsp serving.
•Smucker’s Natural No Salt Added Creamy Peanut Butter: 210 calories, 7g of protein, and 0g of sodium per 2-tbsp serving.
•Justin’s All-Natural Classic Almond Butter: 190 calories, 7g of protein, and 0g of sodium per 2-tbsp serving.

  

Salad Dressings

Making salad dressing at home can be very simple. “If you were making your own dressing,” Hurley says, “make it low in sodium or just leave the sodium out entirely.” But if you’re buying you’re dressings, keep an eye out! Many dressings are high in calories, sugar, and sodium.

THE CRITERIA: In each 2-tablespoon serving, there are no more than 110 calories and 100mg of sodium. Plus, none of these list sugar (or any sweetener) as the first ingredient.

TOP PICKS:
•Annie’s Naturals Balsamic Vinaigrette: 100 calories, 1g of saturated fat, and 60mg of sodium per 2-tbsp serving.
•Cindy’s Kitchen Chipotle Ranch: 100 calories, 1g of saturated fat, and 80mg of sodium per 2-tbsp serving.
•Vino de Milo Creamy Light French: 40 calories, 0g of saturated fat, and 90mg of sodium per 2-tbsp serving.

Margarine Spreads 

Spreads taste great but they are also an easy way to add a lot of calories, and often trans fats, to your sandwiches.

THE CRITERIA: Each tablespoon has no more than 1.5g of saturated fat and 50 calories. These brands also contain no partially hydrogenated oil, a source of trans fats.

TOP PICKS:
•Country Crock Light: 50 calories, 1.5g of saturated fat, 90mg of sodium per tablespoon.
•I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Light: 50 calories, 1.5g of saturated fat, and 90mg of sodium per tablespoon.
•Smart Balance Light: 50 calories, 1.5g of saturated fat, and 90mg of sodium per tablespoon. 

Coffee Creamers

Holy cow there are a lot of options when it comes to coffee creamers. But many are full of sugars, artificial sweeteners and fat, so choosing the right one can be tough.

THE CRITERIA: Each 1 tablespoon serving has no trans fats, no more than 0.2g of saturated fat, no more than 15 calories (which limits sugar) and no artificial sweeteners.

Note: CSPI “estimated saturated fat content for these because per labeling rules, if the product contains less than 0.5g fat, the product may list 0g fat on the label (even though it may contain up to just under 0.5g).”

TOP PICKS:
•Land O’Lakes Fat-Free Half and Half : 10 calories, 0.2g of saturated fat, and no added sugar, per tablespoon.
•So Delicious Original Coconut Milk Creamer: 10 calories, 0.2g of saturated fat, and no added sugar, per tablespoon.
•Organic Valley Original Soy Creamer: 15 calories, 0.2g of saturated fat, and no added sugar, per tablespoon.

10 Reasons Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat

1. The ingredients simmering in a Japanese kitchen are a simple variety of foods eaten on a consistent and daily basis:

Fish
Sea Vegetables
Land Vegetables
Soy
Rice
Fruit
Green Tea

2. The Japanese enjoy home cooked meals on a daily basis. A traditional meal consists of grilled fish, a bowl of rice, simmered vegetables, miso soup, sliced fruit for dessert and green tea. The Japanese consume almost 10 percent of the world’s fish, although they make up about 2 percent of the world’s population. That’s 150 pounds per year, per person compared to the world average of 35 pounds. And this daily dose of omega-3 fatty acids may well explain why they live long and healthy lives. That, and the fact they consume 5 times the amount of cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, that Americans do.

3. The emphasis of Japanese cooking is to use what is fresh and in season. According to author Moriyama, “Japanese supermarkets are cathedrals of freshness. Food is not only dated, it’s timed—Japanese women buy fish, meat, vegetables, or prepared meals that are timed by the half hour they were packed that day.”

4. The Japanese eat small portions of a variety of courses at a meal. According to Moriyama, from childhood they are taught to eat slowly, savoring every bite. And the food is served on plates at least a third the size of American tableware. Moriyama includes the basic foundations of Japanese home-cooked food presentation:

Never completely fill up the plates
Never serve a big portion of any item
Each item is served in its own dish
Less is always more
Each item is arranged to showcase its natural beauty
Food should be garnished and dressed–lightly
Fresh is best

5. Japanese cooking is intentionally light and cooked gently. Most of the work is done on top of the stove using a variation of techniques such as: steaming, pan grilling, sauté, simmer or quick stir fries in a wok. The Japanese chef uses heart healthy oils and flavored broth to season a dish. And though the meal is light you feel content and satisfied, but not overly full.

6. The Japanese eat rice instead of bread with every meal. This is an important distinction between the East and West way of eating. It is the over consumption of refined wheat flour that is a major cause of obesity in America today. Instead of eating bread with each meal try a serving size (half a cup) of brown rice or other whole grain 1-2 times per day.

7. In Japan, breakfast is considered the most important and biggest meal of the day. It can consist of a variety of small courses which include green tea, steamed rice, miso soup with tofu and scallions, small sheets of nori seaweed, an egg omelet or piece of fish.

8. Sweet desserts are eaten less often in Japan and in much smaller portions than in America. That is not to say that chocolate, pastries, cookies, ice cream and red-bean cakes are not treasured. Rather, they are respected for the power they can unleash in the appetite and harm they can do to the body when eaten in excess.

9. The Japanese have a different mind-set about food. While Americans are concerned with dieting and weight issues the Japanese are raised and encouraged to enjoy a more diverse variety of foods without dieting concerns. However, watch out Japan, with the introduction of western style fast foods obesity rates amongst Japanese youth are beginning to climb.

10. Exercise is part of the Japanese daily ritual. According to a 2004 Time magazine cover story, How to Live to Be 100, “The Japanese are in good health and in excellent shape, they are an active people who incorporate plenty of incidental exercise into their days.” They have created a welcome environment for bicycling around town, walking, hiking, and generally staying active.

5 Reasons High Fructose Corn Syrup Will Kill Us

The current media debate about the benefits (or lack of harm) of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in our diet misses the obvious. The average American increased their consumption of HFCS (mostly from sugar sweetened drinks and processed food) from zero to over 60 pounds per person per year.

During that time period, obesity rates have more than tripled and diabetes incidence has increased more than seven fold. Not perhaps the only cause, but a fact that cannot be ignored.

Doubt and confusion are the currency of deception, and they sow the seeds of complacency. These are used skillfully through massive print and television advertising campaigns by the Corn Refiners Association’s attempt to dispel the “myth” that HFCS is harmful and assert through the opinion of “medical and nutrition experts” that it is no different than cane sugar. It is a “natural” product that is a healthy part of our diet when used in moderation.

Except for one problem. When used in moderation, it is a major cause of heart disease, obesity, cancer, dementia, liver failure, tooth decay and more.

Why is the corn industry spending millions on misinformation campaigns to convince consumers and health care professionals of the safety of their product? Could it be that the food industry comprises 17 percent of our economy?

The Lengths the Corn Industry Will Go To:

The goal of the corn industry is to call into question any claim of harm from consuming high fructose corn syrup, and to confuse and deflect by calling their product natural “corn sugar.” That’s like calling tobacco in cigarettes natural herbal medicine.

Here are five reasons you should stay way from any product containing high fructose corn syrup and why it may kill you.

1. Sugar in any form causes obesity and disease when consumed in pharmacologic doses.

Cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup are indeed both harmful when consumed in pharmacologic doses of 140 pounds per person per year. When one 20 ounce HFCS sweetened soda, sports drink, or tea has 17 teaspoons of sugar (and the average teenager often consumes two drinks a day) we are conducting a largely uncontrolled experiment on the human species.

Our hunter gatherer ancestors consumed the equivalent of 20 teaspoons per year, not per day. In this sense, we would agree with the corn industry that sugar is sugar. Quantity matters. But there are some important differences.

2. HFCS and cane sugar are not biochemically identical or processed the same way by the body.

High fructose corn syrup is an industrial food product and far from “natural” or a naturally occurring substance. It is extracted from corn stalks through a process so secret that Archer Daniels Midland and Carghill would not allow the investigative journalist Michael Pollan to observe it for his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

The sugars are extracted through a chemical enzymatic process resulting in a chemically and biologically novel compound called HFCS. Some basic biochemistry will help you understand this. Regular cane sugar (sucrose) is made of two-sugar molecules bound tightly together—glucose and fructose in equal amounts.The enzymes in your digestive tract must break down the sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are then absorbed into the body. HFCS also consists of glucose and fructose, not in a 50-50 ratio, but a 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio in an unbound form. Fructose is sweeter than glucose.

And HFCS is cheaper than sugar because of the government farm bill corn subsidies. Products with HFCS are sweeter and cheaper than products made with cane sugar. This allowed for the average soda size to balloon from eight ounces to 20 ounces with little financial costs to manufacturers but great human costs of increased obesity, diabetes, and chronic disease.

Now back to biochemistry. Since there is there is no chemical bond between them, no digestion is required so they are more rapidly absorbed into your blood stream. Fructose goes right to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol); this is why it is the major cause of liver damage in this country and causes a condition called “fatty liver” which affects 70 million people.

The rapidly absorbed glucose triggers big spikes in insulin–our body’s major fat storage hormone. Both these features of HFCS lead to increased metabolic disturbances that drive increases in appetite, weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, and more.

Research done by Dr. Bruce Ames group at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute found that free fructose from HFCS requires more energy to be absorbed by the gut and soaks up two phosphorous molecules from ATP (our body’s energy source).

This depletes the energy fuel source, or ATP, in our gut required to maintain the integrity of our intestinal lining. Little “tight junctions” cement each intestinal cell together preventing food and bacteria from “leaking” across the intestinal membrane and triggering an immune reaction and body wide inflammation.

High doses of free fructose have been proven to literally punch holes in the intestinal lining allowing nasty byproducts of toxic gut bacteria and partially digested food proteins to enter your blood stream and trigger the inflammation that we know is at the root of obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia, and accelerated aging. Naturally occurring fructose in fruit is part of a complex of nutrients and fiber that doesn’t exhibit the same biological effects as the free high fructose doses found in “corn sugar.”

The takeaway: Cane sugar and the industrially produced, euphemistically named “corn sugar” are not biochemically or physiologically the same.

3. HFCS contains contaminants including mercury in amounts that may not be regulated or measured by the FDA.

An FDA researcher asked corn producers to ship a barrel of high fructose corn syrup in order to test for contaminants. Her repeated requests were refused until she claimed she represented a newly created soft drink company. She was then promptly shipped a big vat of HFCS that was used as part of the study that showed that HFCS often contains toxic levels of mercury because of chlor-alkali products used in its manufacturing.(i)

Poisoned sugar is certainly not “natural.”

When HFCS is run through a chemical analyzer or a chromatograph, strange chemical peaks show up that are not glucose or fructose. What are they? Who knows? This certainly calls into question the purity of this processed form of super sugar. The exact nature, effects, and toxicity of these funny compounds have not been fully explained, but shouldn’t we be protected from the presence of untested chemical compounds in our food supply, especially when the contaminated food product comprises up to 15 to 20 percent of the average American’s daily calorie intake?

4. Independent medical and nutrition experts DO NOT support the use of HFCS in our diet, despite the assertions of the corn industry.

The corn industry’s happy looking websites bolster their position that cane sugar and corn sugar are the same by quoting experts, or should we say misquoting. Barry M. Popkin, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has published widely on the dangers of sugar-sweetened drinks and their contribution to the obesity epidemic. In a review of HFCS in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,(ii) he explains the mechanism by which the free fructose may contribute to obesity.

He states that:

“The digestion, absorption, and metabolism of fructose differ from those of glucose. Hepatic metabolism of fructose favors de novo lipogenesis (production of fat in the liver). In addition, unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or enhance leptin production. Because insulin and leptin act as key afferent signals in the regulation of food intake and body weight (to control appetite), this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased energy intake and weight gain. Furthermore, calorically sweetened beverages may enhance caloric over-consumption.”

He states that HFCS is absorbed more rapidly than regular sugar and that it doesn’t stimulate insulin or leptin production. This prevents you from triggering the body’s signals for being full and may lead to over-consumption of total calories. He concludes by saying that:

“… the increase in consumption of HFCS has a temporal relation to the epidemic of obesity, and the overconsumption of HFCS in calorically sweetened beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity.”

The corn industry takes his comments out of context to support their position. “All sugar you eat is the same.”

True pharmacologic doses of any kind of sugar are harmful, but the biochemistry of different kinds of sugar and their respective effects on absorption, appetite, and metabolism are different, and Dr. Popkin knows that.

5. HFCS is almost always a marker of poor-quality, nutrient-poor disease-creating industrial food products or “food-like substances.”

The last reason to avoid products that contain HFCS is that they are a marker for poor-quality, nutritionally-depleted, processed industrial food full of empty calories and artificial ingredients. If you find “high fructose corn syrup” on the label you can be sure it is not a whole, real, fresh food full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants.

Stay away if you want to stay healthy.

We still must reduce our overall consumption of sugar, but with this one simple dietary change you can radically reduce your health risks and improve your health.While debate may rage about the biochemistry and physiology of cane sugar versus corn sugar, this is in fact beside the point (despite the finer points of my scientific analysis above). The conversation has been diverted to a simple assertion that cane sugar and corn sugar are not different.

Here are the two real issues we face:

1. We are consuming HFCS and sugar in pharmacologic quantities never before experienced in human history—140 pounds a year versus 20 teaspoons a year 10,000 years ago.

2. High fructose corn syrup is always found in very poor-quality foods that are nutritionally vacuous and filled with all sorts of other disease promoting compounds, fats, salt, chemicals and even mercury.

These critical ideas should be the heart of the national conversation, not the meaningless confusing ads and statements by the corn industry in the media and online that attempt to assure the public that the biochemistry of real sugar and industrially produced sugar from corn are the same.