The 20 worst supermarket foods

NEW YORK, (BUSINESS WIRE) --David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding revealed a definitive list of the "20 Worst Supermarket Foods in America" as featured in the updated and expanded Eat This, Not That! All New Supermarket Survival Guide (Rodale; Paperback, $19.99) -- the essential guidebook for navigating the American supermarket. To compile the list of the most caloric and nutritionally devoid supermarket options from across the country, Zinczenko and Goulding, who have spent countless hours interviewing leading nutritionists and industry experts, scoured grocery store aisles for surprising nutritional pitfalls and their calorie-wise counterparts.

"The average supermarket contains more nutritional minefields than ever before," said Zinczenko, author of the bestselling EAT THIS, NOT THAT! series and Editorial Director/Editor-in-Chief of Men's Health. "Whether items are masquerading as healthy or the food is a more obvious indulgence, like Marie Callender's Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie, with its first listed ingredients being chicken fat, oils, cream, and cheese--careful consideration and proper research always produces a better swap." 

To come up with the "20 Worst Supermarket Foods in America," the authors evaluated calorie counts and other nutritional values such as fat, saturated fat, sodium and added sugar across 20 specific categories, including condiments, cereals, canned goods, frozen entrees, ice cream and others. After analyzing nutrition labels and ingredient lists, they came up with 20 grocery aisle atrocities--one within each category--which are among the worst supermarket items in America. 

Topping the 2012 list is Marie Callender's "Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie," which packs a colossal 1,140 calories and 72 grams of fat--the calorie equivalent of nine 12-ounce bottles of Guinness Draught. 

Top 10 Worst Supermarket Foods:

-- Worst Packaged Food: Marie Callender's Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie (1,140 calories)

-- Worst Frozen Entree: Hungry-Man Select Classic Fried Chicken (1,030 calories)

-- Worst Frozen Pizza: DiGiorno Traditional Crust Supreme Pizza (790 calories)

-- Worst Stir-Fry/Skillet: Stouffer's Sautes For Two Steak Gorgonzola (730 calories)

-- Worst Breakfast: Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowls Pancakes & Sausage Links (710 calories)

-- Worst Individual Snack: Hostess Chocolate Pudding Pie (520 calories)

-- Worst Kids' Meal: Lunchables with Juice, Nachos, Cheese Dip + Salsa (490 calories)

-- Worst Pie: Marie Callender's Southern Pecan Pie (450 calories)

-- Worst Frozen Treat: Mrs. Fields Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich (450 calories)

-- Worst Packaged Side: Pasta Roni Fettucine Alfredo (450 calories) 

Entertaining and informative, Eat This, Not That! All New Supermarket Survival Guide, the 13th installment in the best-selling series, is the consumer's ultimate secret weapon for burning fat and building leaner bodies--not by eating less, but by making smart, healthy food choices every time. The books in the popular EAT THIS, NOT THAT! series, which currently has more than 7.7 million copies in print, identify unhealthy foods--in fast-food chains, restaurant chains and grocery stores--and offer healthier alternatives. 

EAT THIS, NOT THAT! 

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The 20 worst supermarket foods

Formaldehyde in my Ice Cream, Reallly???

Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's true. 

 

Ice cream usually contains 20-25% cream and milk products, 15% sugar and sometimes egg and then lot of chemical additives as stabilizers, emulsifiers, buffers, synthetic colors, surfactants, artificial flavors and preservatives. Stabilizer is used in order to retain the smoothness of the ice-cream by preventing the formation of coarse ice crystals.

 

Many commercial ice creams today are simply chemical concoctions presented in appealing packaging designed to sell a product that is not fit for human consumption. Everything from hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and dry milk solids are used to produce something still allowed to be called ice cream.  Many ice creams are also filled with air to double the volume.

Research shows methylcelluose is formaldehyde used as a thickener in medicine and food including ice cream and avocado dip.  Same stuff used to emulsify wallpaper paste.  If you're lucky you might find other chemicals like caroxymethyl cellulose, butyraldehyde, and amyl acetate are additives in some commercial ice creams. How about some diethyl glycol -- a cheap chemical used to take the place of eggs, which is also used in anti-freeze and paint removers.

 

Now don't get me wrong, I love ice cream like the next person. In fact, most ice creams have the benefit of containing vitamins A, B2 & B12 plus they contain calcium. But, wouldn't it be great if they also had things like real raw cream, egg yolks, and pure maple syrup.

 

Just because most of these additives are on the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list by the FDA, doesn't prove they aren't harmful.   In fact, the FDA does not require ice cream makers to label all of their ingredients. Really???

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Formaldehyde in my Ice Cream, Reallly???

Who’s Your Daddy? Guess 8 Surprising Ownerships in the Food Industry

Can you guess which megacorp on the right owns each of the young brands on the left?
Solution after the jump.


Click to enlarge

In many cases, these baby brands don’t prominently display their parent company logo on their packaging or website because they want to retain an innocent, healthy image, one that is long gone in the multi-billion dollar conglomerates.

Here’s the list:

1. Stoneyfield Farm, a producer of organic dairy products led by visionary entrepreneur Gary Hirshberg, is owned by French Danone Group, manufacturers of conventional Dannon Yogurt. It’s not full ownership, rather a majority stake.
2. Horizon Organic is part-owned by Dean Foods, one of the largest conventional dairy and soy companies in the world.
3. Cascadian Farm, purveyor of organic cereals, is owned of  General Mills. The brand is part of Small Planet Foods, whose portfolio includes Larabar and Muir Glen. General Mills acquired Small Planet  in 2000, to the dismay of some fans of Cascadian Farm.
4. Not to be outdone, Kashi is owned by Kellogg’s since 2000.
5. Ben and Jerry’s, eco-loving cows and all, is owned by Dutch food conglomerate Unilever.
6. Honest Tea, Odwalla, Dasani water, and Sokenbicha Japanese tea are all owned by Coca Cola.
7. Naked Juice is owned by PepsiCo.
8. Jenny Craig, the fitness empire, is owned by Swiss Nestle. They now have an entire line of foods for weight loss…

What you need to know:
Many of the companies started out as small regional players. But getting shelf space in supermarkets is incredibly difficult. As are the distribution logistics when you want to grow from one metro area to several, or to expand nationally.

Becoming part of a big food corporation solves these two issues nicely. It usually brings in a tidy amount of cash to the founding team as well.
Sounds like a win-win. But what can be the downsides?

• Degradation of product quality. This can happen because corporate HQ now demands cost cutting measures every quarter. It can also happen as a result of opting to work with cheap (i.e. Chinese) ingredients rather than more expensive locally sourced inputs.
• Reformulation of products. Example: Cascadian Farm customer noticed a funny new taste one day. it turns out the cereal tripled its sugar count!

This doesn’t always happen. But it happens enough.

What to do at the supermarket:
Next time you pick up a cool and healthy looking brand thinking it must be from a small family run business, think again…

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Who’s Your Daddy? Guess 8 Surprising Ownerships in the Food Industry