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Monday, January 5, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Product Review: EnviroKidz
In the nice little giveaway package from Kelly, I received a number of products with the brand name of EnviroKidz. Specifically, 3 organic crispy rice cereal bars (peanut butter, berry, and chocolate), and 2 boxes of cereal ("Leapin' Lemurs Peanut Butter & Chocolate" and "Penguin Puffs Whole Grain Cereal with Brown Rice, Kamut, Corn & Qunioa").
EnviroKidz prides itself on two main points: a) being organic, and b) donating part of its sales to a wildlife charity. Aww! How sweet! Then you realize that it's 1% of all their sales. Which I'm sure amounts to quite a bit because cereal companies are a jackpot, but even so, you're making all that money and then you donate 1% of your sales to a wildlife fund just so you can stamp that on all your packaging? To me that's kind of like adopting a homeless kid just so you can drag them off to special events and show them off to people to demonstrate what a generous person you are (a la this episode on the Sarah Silverman Show).
(End of rant).
Organic Crispy Rice Cereal Bars
The front nutritional claim states that these bars contain nothing artificial and no additives. And, of course, it's organic! Turn the package over and the nutrition facts label is very similar for each bar: 110 calories per 28g bar; 2.5-3g fat, 20g carbs with 1g fiber and 7g sugar, and 2g protein. Not much in terms of vitamins and minerals, unless you count the 15% daily value of iron in the chocolate bar.
Okay, so now comes the fun part of flipping up the wrapper so we can look at the tiny print of the ingredients list. Seriously, what is it with bars and ingredients lists? The ingredients list is arguably the most important piece of information on the package and it's always in tiny print and hidden from view. No wonder we don't know anything about the food we are eating!
(End of rant #2).
They all share the same beginnings of the ingredients list: organic crispy rice (organic brown rice flour, granulated organic sugar cane juice, sea salt, organic molasses, organic rice bran extract), organic brown rice syrup, organic honey. Then they go on to include many other things, but among them is organic soy oil, organic corn starch, organic invert cane syrup, organic peanut butter, and organic cocoa.
Let's have fun for a moment and take out the word "organic" from the ingredients. Now re-read that list. Mmm, sugar! Remember that organic does not mean something is nutritious. That word on the package implies the environment is being treated right and that there's no weird chemicals, but does not mean its healthy.
Basically, we're looking at a candy bar here, although I will agree that this is going to be better for you than other candy bars because there are far fewer calories and fat in this one, and it also does use natural ingredients. Also, even though sugar is listed under different names many times, 7g of sugar for a cereal bar isn't too bad. That's just under 2tsp of sugar for the whole thing.
Now for the good part, the taste! Super delicious. The peanut butter had very distinct peanut butter and honey flavours; the chocolate was decidedly chocolatey, and I loved that the berry one used freeze-dried blueberries and raspberries in it. These are decently sized and chewy. They make for a tasty treat!
The Cereal
Leapin' Lemurs tastes exactly like peanut butter and chocolate flavoured corn pops. They are super crunchy and are honestly fantastic in a bowl with skim milk (my feeble attempts to make it somewhat healthy:)). Penguin Puffs also have a corn pops taste and their nutrition facts are almost identical to Leapin' Lemurs.
Nutrition Facts: 120 calories per 3/4 cup serving; 1.5g fat, 25g carbs with 2g fibre and 8g sugar, 2g protein.
Ingredients List: organic corn meal, organic whole grain corn meal, granulated organic sugar cane juice, organic peanut butter, organic molasses, organic cocoa, sea salt, organic soy oil, natural flavour, tocopherols.
No doubt about it, this cereal is far more dessert than cereal! Take out the word "organic" again. At least the first two ingredients aren't sugar, I suppose?
Overall, it would probably be better to not get either the cereal or the bars for your kids, because they might get addicted. Yum. These food products really can't be considered part of a healthy breakfast or snack, but they're way better than just about any other kids sugary cereals out there, and if you're looking for a tasty once-in-a-while treat that uses natural ingredients, then EnviroKidz would fit that description very well.
Tasty!
EnviroKidz prides itself on two main points: a) being organic, and b) donating part of its sales to a wildlife charity. Aww! How sweet! Then you realize that it's 1% of all their sales. Which I'm sure amounts to quite a bit because cereal companies are a jackpot, but even so, you're making all that money and then you donate 1% of your sales to a wildlife fund just so you can stamp that on all your packaging? To me that's kind of like adopting a homeless kid just so you can drag them off to special events and show them off to people to demonstrate what a generous person you are (a la this episode on the Sarah Silverman Show).
(End of rant).
Organic Crispy Rice Cereal Bars
The front nutritional claim states that these bars contain nothing artificial and no additives. And, of course, it's organic! Turn the package over and the nutrition facts label is very similar for each bar: 110 calories per 28g bar; 2.5-3g fat, 20g carbs with 1g fiber and 7g sugar, and 2g protein. Not much in terms of vitamins and minerals, unless you count the 15% daily value of iron in the chocolate bar.
Okay, so now comes the fun part of flipping up the wrapper so we can look at the tiny print of the ingredients list. Seriously, what is it with bars and ingredients lists? The ingredients list is arguably the most important piece of information on the package and it's always in tiny print and hidden from view. No wonder we don't know anything about the food we are eating!
(End of rant #2).
They all share the same beginnings of the ingredients list: organic crispy rice (organic brown rice flour, granulated organic sugar cane juice, sea salt, organic molasses, organic rice bran extract), organic brown rice syrup, organic honey. Then they go on to include many other things, but among them is organic soy oil, organic corn starch, organic invert cane syrup, organic peanut butter, and organic cocoa.
Let's have fun for a moment and take out the word "organic" from the ingredients. Now re-read that list. Mmm, sugar! Remember that organic does not mean something is nutritious. That word on the package implies the environment is being treated right and that there's no weird chemicals, but does not mean its healthy.
Basically, we're looking at a candy bar here, although I will agree that this is going to be better for you than other candy bars because there are far fewer calories and fat in this one, and it also does use natural ingredients. Also, even though sugar is listed under different names many times, 7g of sugar for a cereal bar isn't too bad. That's just under 2tsp of sugar for the whole thing.
Now for the good part, the taste! Super delicious. The peanut butter had very distinct peanut butter and honey flavours; the chocolate was decidedly chocolatey, and I loved that the berry one used freeze-dried blueberries and raspberries in it. These are decently sized and chewy. They make for a tasty treat!
The Cereal
Leapin' Lemurs tastes exactly like peanut butter and chocolate flavoured corn pops. They are super crunchy and are honestly fantastic in a bowl with skim milk (my feeble attempts to make it somewhat healthy:)). Penguin Puffs also have a corn pops taste and their nutrition facts are almost identical to Leapin' Lemurs.
Nutrition Facts: 120 calories per 3/4 cup serving; 1.5g fat, 25g carbs with 2g fibre and 8g sugar, 2g protein.
Ingredients List: organic corn meal, organic whole grain corn meal, granulated organic sugar cane juice, organic peanut butter, organic molasses, organic cocoa, sea salt, organic soy oil, natural flavour, tocopherols.
No doubt about it, this cereal is far more dessert than cereal! Take out the word "organic" again. At least the first two ingredients aren't sugar, I suppose?
Overall, it would probably be better to not get either the cereal or the bars for your kids, because they might get addicted. Yum. These food products really can't be considered part of a healthy breakfast or snack, but they're way better than just about any other kids sugary cereals out there, and if you're looking for a tasty once-in-a-while treat that uses natural ingredients, then EnviroKidz would fit that description very well.
Tasty!
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