Bottoms Up

Well, the sneakiness has reached a new level. Start flipping your containers upside down. You’ll discover concave bottoms like the peanutbutter, BBQ sauce and Cranergy Drink, or false bottoms like the oatmeal, sobe drinks and yoghurt. The biggest offenders have actual squared out ginormous indentations eliminating a significant amount of space that you don’t even know about until you’ve used it up (or turned it over) – the Hadley Date Nuggets have a 3/4 of an inch indent (updent?) while the Orville Redenbacher popcorn has a 1 and 1/4 inch indent and the Arrowhead water container has a whopping 2 and 1/4 inch indent in addition to the “convenient” indents on the sides.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Quaker Instant Oatmeal – Maple & Brown Sugar

Cooking time: 2 minutes
Serving size: 43 grams
Calories: 160 (20 from fat)
Fat: 2 grams
Sugar: 12 grams
Total Carbs: 32 grams

Quaker Oatmeal Express – Golden Brown Sugar

Cooking time: 1 minute 15 seconds
Serving Size: 54 grams
Calories: 200 (25 from fat)
Fat: 2.5 grams
Sugar: 18 grams
Carbs: 42 grams

Quaker Oatmeal To Go – Brown Sugar Cinnamon

Cooking Time: NONE
Serving Size: 60 grams
Calories: 210 (35 from fat)
Fat: 4 grams
Sugar: 19 grams
Carbs: 43 grams

And Check Out the Ingredients

The most convenient one has the most hideous list of ingredients!

For Your Viewing Pleasure

My entire house still smells like bacon. And by “entire” I mean including the TOWELS in my bathroom. And I have no desire to eat bacon again for a really long time, although there are 8 partially scavenged bags of bacon still in my freezer.

But the taste test was fun and I’d like to thank Janet, Jo, Susan, Linda, and Barbara for participating; we all brought our favorite bacon dish (we had BLT sandwiches, peanutbutter and bacon sandwiches, potato soup with bacon, green beans with bacon, bacon-wrapped date appetizers and bacon & green chile crescent roll appetizers) PLUS tasted 8 different bacons including:

Getting ready...

The Taste Test

Pederson’s
I liked this one the best – it was juicy and fatty tasting (but not disgustingly so) and 3 of us liked it the best while 3 of us ranked it somewhere in the middle. Those of us that liked it noted the smoky taste, the other 3 commented on its saltiness. This one took 1st place overall in terms of taste. Pederson’s actually had the greatest disparity between the fat and protein content with the fat content (6 grams) double the actual protein (3 grams) per serving. Kudos to Pederson’s for keeping the salt to a minimum – it had the lowest amount by far at 130 mg.

Farmer John
I thought this one was pretty darn salty and ranked it mid-range – 4 of us ranked it mid-range with comments like “sweet but not smoky” “little fatty” “maple sweetness” with 2 of us ranking it in our bottom 4 with comments like “chewy” and “bland”. This one tied for 3rd place with the Applegate Naturals brand. Cooking note: this one was sticking to the pan quite a bit and difficult to flip.

Nueske’s
I found this one way too salty with 4 of us noting the very hickory smoky taste and 3 of us noting the extra saltiness. 4 of us had this one in our top 3 while 2 of us (including me) had it much closer to the bottom because of the saltiness. It had the 3rd highest salt at 298 mg. per 15 g. serving. This one tied for 2nd place with Trader Joes’ brand. Nueske’s had the 2nd to the least amount of calories per 15 gram serving at 65 calories.

Gelson’s
I found this one pretty mild but listed it in my top 3 along with one other taster, 3 of us ranked this one in our bottom 4. Most of us noted it was a little sweet, but nothing special. This brand was overall 2nd to last place in terms of taste. Cooking note: This one was the easiest to cook, nice big pieces and enough fat to not stick. Gelson’s tied Trader Joe’s for the most calories per 15 g. serving at 90 calories and coincidentally had one of the highest fat contents at 7 grams of fat per 15 g. serving. Gelson’s also had the largest amount of salt at a whopping 480 mg. per 15 gram serving.

Applegate Naturals
I thought this one was pretty mild with not much flavor – only two of us ranked it in our top 4, while everyone else had it in our bottom 4. Comments included “too thin”, “not pretty, bland”, “mild flavor reminded me of pastrami with a little sweetness”. This one tied for 3rd place with the Farmer John brand. Cooking Note: This one was the most obnoxious to cook, it feel apart completely in the pan and became sort of a scrambled bacon mess. Applegate had the least calories per 15 gram serving at 60 calories.

Trader Joes
5 of us ranked this one as in our top 4 and almost everyone noticed how sweet it was; it tasted almost exactly like honey-baked ham. This one tied for 2nd place with the Nuesk’es brand. Cooking note: This one also fell apart in the pan – the slices were so thin (both width wise and depth wise) that it was challenging. Trader Joes tied Gelson’s for the most calories per 15 g. serving at 90 calories and one of the largest amounts of fat per 15 gram serving at 7 grams.

Hormel
This was my least favorite as it tasted like I was eating a giant wad of fat. Only one of us had it as their favorite one and 4 of us ranked it at the bottom with one person holding out for the middle; comments included:can taste the fat”, “fatty flavor”, “distinctive flavor” and “big blobby fatty fat fat” (OK – that last one was my comment). This one was last place overall. Hormel also had a high amount of fat per 15 gram serving at 7 grams although managed to keep their calories slightly lower at 80 calories. This one had the 2nd largest amount of salt per 15 gram serving at 380 mg. It also appears to have used more sugar in the curing process with both sugar and dextrose.

Boars’ Head
This one ranked fairly low with 5 of us ranking it in our bottom 4 and one person placing it as their 3rd favorite. A couple of us noted that it was a little “chewy” and “mild” “no smoke flavor”.

The Ingredients

The Chemicals

Sodium Nitrate
I’m sure we all know by now the evils of sodium nitrate although it’s easy to overlook it so we don’t have to miss out on all those great hotdogs, bacon and sausages. But we are seeing more and more products going organic and “natural” because we ALL know it’s possible to make really good stuff without all the extra chemicals. See Sodium Nitrate Hazards from Livestrong.com. Super kudos to Trader Joes’ and Applegate Naturals for not using any sodium nitrates.

Other Preservatives
Sodium phosphate is a chemical compound used to change the texture of a food and prolong shelf life. Sodium Erythorbate is a chemical compound that Helps the meat cure faster and retain it’s pinkness. Once again Trader Joe’s and Applegate Naturals are able to preserve their bacon without the extra chemicals.

The Winners

I think the biggest factor to consider is the salt content so I would knock out Gelson’s and Hormel’s for their high salt content and then taste should be the next factor so I would knock out Boar’s Head (Gelson’s and Hormel’s also get double knocked out for taste). If we’re thinking about calories next we would knock out Gelson’s (again) and Trader Joes which had the highest calories. That leaves us with Pederson’s, Farmer Johns, Nueskes, and Applegate Naturals. So if you’re concerned about the chemicals, Applegate Naturals would be the winner. If you are okay with the extra chemicals and want the best tasting one (overall), then Pederson’s wins.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Just ignore the blue package - It wouldn't fit in the oven with all the rest and I got lazy...

The Contenders

Stouffer’s Farmers Harvest Meat Sauce Lasagna (made with whole grains). The description says: Freshly made pasta layered with an herb seasoned tomato and meat sauce and real cheese. The “made with whole grains” statement sounds exciting until you realize that they have ALL used some kind of whole grains so it’s really not that big of a deal.

Marie Callender’s Three Meat and Four cheese Lasagna with Ricotta, Mozarella, Parmesan and Romano Cheeses in Hearty Marinara Sauce. They also have on the package: “Love it or it’s free – Preferred over the leading Meat Lasagna” which means they just confessed to NOT being the leading meat lasagna which I would not have known until that moment. And the “Love it or it’s free” is an easy promise to make as they added so many flavor enhancers that they really can’t lose – unless someone looks at the ingredients and decides not to buy it to begin with.

Stouffer’s Lasagna with Meat and Sauce – Lasagna layered with meat and herb-seasoned tomato sauce and three cheeses. No preservatives. But apparently no real cheese either since the other Stouffer’s one identified REAL cheese instead of THREE cheeses.

Michael Angelo’s Meat Lasagna with imported Pecorino Romano Cheese & Vine-Ripened Tomatoes. They also have a symbol that says Small Batch from Scratch which I initially thought was some kind of Scratch & Sniff and I was excited about it until I read it more closely. This one also says absolutely no preservatives on the box.

These 2 brands showed ginormously thick Ricotta (or Cottage) cheese layers in the photos that were clearly someone's fantasy; the Marie Callender's one did come closest to looking like it's photo from the top...

The Taste Test

Stouffer’s Farmers Harvest really did have a big wad of real cheese on top – yum! And it was nice and crusty on top (as was the Marie Callender’s one – the only 2 that had you take off the plastic film ½ way through cooking). It was a little milder than the other ones with lots of big pieces of pasta but tiny little blobs of cottage cheese in the middle instead of ricotta cheese.

Marie Callender’s also had more pasta than cheese but at least the chees was Ricotta. The flavor was the best of all 4 but only because it had all kinds of cancer-causing chemical flavor-enhancers (see below).

Stouffer’s regular lasagna was really a Stouffer’s lasagna soup; very sauce-y and it totally reminded me of the Chef Boyardee ravioli I had as a kid – little bits of pasta floating around in a spicy sauce.

Michael Angelo’s had lots of sauce as well, but not as soupy and it had a lot more meat and the cheese was actually Ricotta – there was a decent amount of cheese once you peeked in the middle – but the cheese didn’t go all the way to the edges so it looked naked all around the sides.

The Stouffer's Farmers Harvest one in real life was closest to matching its overall photo - the noodles really were that big; you can see how saucy and different the regular Stouffer's one was...

Other Stuff

Cottage Cheese vs. Ricotta Cheese
My mom thinks that Ricotta Cheese is the only way to go and that using cottage cheese as a replacement is cheaper and, frankly, cheating. Both the Stouffer’s brands used cottage cheese instead of Ricotta. Marie Callender’s and Michael Angelo’s both have Ricotta cheese.

Bleached Flour
The Stouffer’s regular uses bleached wheat flour, which is a big no-no. Most breads and pastas no longer contain bleached wheat. (see the Fantastical World of Wheat)

Protein Pumping And Caramel Coloring
Most packaged products cheat by adding in extra protein to “beef” up their protein levels since they probably aren’t using all that much actual meat. And the caramel coloring seems to go hand-in-hand, presumably because it looks more palatable to have the fake meat look more like real meat? Stouffer’s adds in hydrolyzed meat protein and caramel color, the Stouffer’s Farmers Harvest uses soy protein concentrate and caramel color. Marie Callender’s has whey protein concentrate and, coincidentally, caramel color.

Chemicals Galore
Marie Callender’s makes no claims about being preservative-free which is a good thing because they have a boatload of both preservatives and flavor enhancers: BHA & BHT (chemical preservatives that minimally can cause behavioral problems and possibly cancer and are banned in most of Europe). Sodium nitrate (a cancer-causing substance known to cause DNA damage and increased cellular degeneration), Propyl Gallate (a chemical antioxidant that can cause stomach irritation, skin irritation, and allergic reactions that constrict breathing), disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate (which together have the same effect as MSG – a very clever way to add the flavor enhancer without anyone knowing). Super SHAME on Marie Callender’s for loading their food with chemical crap.

The Winner

Michael Angelo’s was the only one that did not have any preservatives, no flavor enhancers, no bleached wheat and no added “proteins”.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Last Fall Dr. Oz sparked some controversy when he talked about the levels of arsenic in apple juice. The FDA and some other experts claimed that he didn’t do the right tests and that the apple juice didn’t exceed allowable amounts of arsenic. Really? There are allowable amounts of arsenic? The apple juice brands Dr. Oz looked at were Minute Maid, Apple & Eve, Mott’s, Juicy Juice, and Gerber. Apparently you have to have less than 10 parts of arsenic per billion. The tests Dr. Oz had done through an independent laboratory showed that 4 of the 5 brands had samples testing higher than the 10 parts per billion (everyone but Minute Maid) with Gerber being the worst. Which of course scared everyone even more as Gerber is known for its baby food. He was chastised for not testing the organic and inorganic arsenic separately.

Natural and Organic?

Essentially Safe – NOT
Which brings us to the fact that arsenic is a naturally occurring mineral, but like many things found in nature, not necessarily something we should be INGESTING. Arsenic was used in pesticides in the U.S. up to 1970. The problem is that many of the apple concentrates used in our apple juices come from China and other countries that have NOT banned arsenic in their pesticides. The FDA calls organic arsenic “essentially harmless” (personally I’d prefer if they used the words totally safe” instead) but admitted problems can occur with the inorganic version.

See Dr. Oz Answers Your Questions About Apple Juice.

Here is the FDA’s version: Questions & Answers: Apple Juice and Arsenic

FDA Regulation
Even people who didn’t agree with the testing methods Dr. Oz used, are calling for the FDA to better regulate apple juice concentrate and other foods coming in from china.
Sen. Schumer calls on FDA to set arsenic standards in juices

Consumer Reports to the Rescue

Just last month Consumer Reports presented their own investigation into the arsenic-in-juice controversy. Their investigation into arsenic in apple and grape juice was very revealing. They compared arsenic levels (apparently measuring both organic and inorganic arsenic) to the FDA standards set for water; the FDA has no standards set for juice by the way. 10% of their samples from 5 brands had arsenic levels higher than allowed for drinking water. One in 4 samples had lead levels higher than allowed in bottled water. They also found that 35% of children 5 and younger drink more juice than is recommended by pediatricians. Arsenic juice. How scary is that? The report also said that we may be getting exposure through other foods in our diet. Read the report here: Arsenic in your juice – How much is too much? Federal limits don’t exist.

Dr. Oz Arsenic in Apple Juice Update – Pt. 5