Did Rx bar sleep with Harvey Weinstein for $600 million?

On Friday, news of Harvey Weinstein’s “habits” was everywhere. There was another big news story that you may have missed. In my food centric world it was maj. Rx bar, a nutrition bar company, was bought for $600 million dollars by Kellogg’s. That’s a really big number and I tried to be excited for a company we’ve supported since its infancy. But there’s a problem.Rx bars are notable because they slap a short ingredient list on the front of the package. And they get bonus points for humor by listing “No B.S”. What you see is what you get, we’re honest and genuine.

Facebook commenters alerted me to a  letter RX bar sent to customers (but not their wholesalers). The gist was that even though they sold (out, oops)  you will never know anything was different. Kellogg's likes them just the way they are. But we do know. And I’m not sure it feels honest and genuine to be “in bed” with or married to a company built on B.S. (Pop tarts, Eggo, Froot Loops). Strangely, I couldn't cut and paste the "smart label" for Pop Tart's but here are the ingredients:

ENRICHED FLOUR

SUGAR

CORN SYRUP

SOYBEAN AND PALM OIL (WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS)

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP

DEXTROSE

FRUCTOSE

SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK

MODIFIED CORN STARCH

SALT

BROWN SUGAR SYRUP

LEAVENING 

MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES

SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE

GELATIN

DATEM

SOY LECITHIN

YELLOW 6 LAKE

BLUE 2 LAKE

NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS

YELLOW 5 LAKE

RED 40 LAKE

COLOR ADDED

NIACINAMIDE

REDUCED IRON

VITAMIN A PLAMITATE

VITAMIN B6

VITAMIN B2

Some of my colleagues support this union. After all, this will give RX bars reach and exposure. Just tell me how this is different from an actress saying, OK I’ll jump in the sack (I think he prefers showers, ick) with Harvey because it’s good for my career, for my brand. No, everyone thinks that’s wrong. Sure, it’s a little different, using power to coerce women is different than a corporate merger but not entirely different. As a commenter said on my Instagram post "you can't shtup the devil and claim purity."

Carolyn and I have each had lucrative opportunities with brands we don’t necessarily endorse. Each time, we have lengthy discussions and, at times, try to see if we could make a positive change with our messaging. But we wholeheartedly believe in quality and, for that reason, work with a handful of smaller companies at a time. We turn the majority of tempting offers down. And, for that reason Foodtrainers isn’t worth 600 million dollars (yet). 

What do you think? Is this how natural brands boost themselves? Or, is integrity allowed?

Are you "well" read?

 Over Christmas break I received the following message:

Would you consider doing a post about what your twitter feed looks like or what you wake up and read immediately--a day in the reading life of Lauren?

The closing of this message included a postscript, which read:

PS: I got engaged over the holiday. A nice surprise.

Needless to say, I was much more determined to receive the proposal details than to talk reading. While the engagement specifics will remain private, I figured better late than never with my daily reading. I also called on some of my well-read wellness peers for their reading lists.

A day in the reading life of Lauren:

I do a blog hop many mornings. This includes cooking blogs, running blogs, yoga blogs and of course nutrition blog. When a new post is up, I get a little excited. Some of my favorite blogs include:

Svelte Gourmand 
Ivy League Insecurities 

Fooducate 

Herbal Water 

Formerly Hot 

Dish by Trish 

I also get the NY Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal on my kindle. I love Tuesday’s Personal Journal in the WSJ and of course the Science and Dining Times in the NY Times. 

On Twitter, I always check out @Blisstreedotcom, @MarionNestle, @TheAtlanticFood, @The_Stir, @AmyTaraKoch.

And there’s generally a “real” book or 2 in the mix I’m now enjoying (by the fire) Poser by Claire Dederer and also reading Keith Block’s Life Over Cancer.

Hemi Weingarten, founder of Fooducate.

Fooducate was one of the first blogs I followed when starting mine. Fooducate has a fantastic IPhone app that rates food products like students.

Hemi’s daily reading:

Newspapers:

LA Times Booster Shots is great, USA today, NY Times health (only a small % is food)

Blogs:

Marion Nestle's Food Politics is the best. She tells it like it is. It's Not About Nutrition by Dr. Dina Rose - amazing take on getting kids to eat well. 

I also get good email roundups from:

Smartbrief for Nutritionists

Phil Lempert Supermarket Guru

Food Navigator

Progressive Grocer

My best source of topics though, comes from readers who alert me to things going on (commercials, ads, new products, etc.)

Christine Egan, editor in chief of Blisstree. I contribute to Blisstree weekly and find that we’re on the same page when it comes to snark. Blisstree doesn’t shy away from honesty with its content and for that reason I visit daily. I always end up with some great information and a chuckle (the non-edible variety).

Christine’s reading list:

Well + Good NYC 

Vital Juice 

The Guardian's website does great health video series: 

Science Daily 

GOOD 

EcoSalon 

NPR radio (pretty obvious) 

 I also usually look at the health sections of all the major newspapers online.

Dr. Ayala is a pediatrician, artist, blogger, mom, and the creator of Herbal Water. Dr Ayala’s posts are so well referenced that it doesn’t surprise me she’s a voracious reader.

Dr Ayala’s reading list:

I read The New York Times and listen to NPR when I’m in the car or cooking. I go to the BBC for another perspective.  I catch yesterday’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart when I’m exercising -- he makes the news more bearable.

Blogs: 

Food52 

New York Times Well Blog  

Marias Farm Country Kitchen 

Foodtrainers 

101 Cookbooks 

Books: I’m addicted! If I don’t get an hour of reading my day is not complete!

Scientific magazines: I read mainly about nutrition and pediatrics (American J of Clinical Nutrition, Pediatrics), and go through the leading medical journals (NEJM, Circulation, Lancet, BMJ).

Twitter: Such an amazing way to meet new people and hear about what’s going on! Tweeps introduce me to news resources and new ideas I wouldn’t otherwise have known about.

 I hope you enjoyed these lists and learned about some new resources (I did). I’d love to hear what you, my readers, "ingest" on a daily basis. Please share your reading list in your comments.

Suddenly Sugar

Lately there has been a lot of “sweet” or maybe not so sweet news. There was a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association linking added sugar to heart disease, this week a correlation between chocolate and depression (which I found completely depressing) made headlines and now some interesting findings that agave is perhaps not the sweet savior many thought it to be.

While I read every study that comes my way, what I’m wondering is don't we know this? Since when was sugar ever healthy? I recall growing up (pre MS or RD) knowing that sugar causes cavities and that too much sugar makes you gain weight. Later, working in a hospital setting, we always discussed sugar with patients when we saw their triglycerides were elevated (one of the findings of the recent study). Despite, years of knowing sugar isn’t a health food people are consuming more and more sugar. And what’s worse is that sugar is not really on our radar. Perhaps it's a vestige of the 90s but many people monitor fat intake. Salt has received more attention lately but even before Bloomberg clients coming to my office had a sense that salt increases blood pressure and certainly females know salt increases bloat. Maybe fat and salt are easier to grasp.

We may be less sugar conscious because we associate sugar with diabetes or cavities and sadly these issues may be less scary or real. Yet sugar plays a role in arthritis and asthma, may intensify mood swings, PMS and depression and via insulin and inflammation can set the stage for cancer growth. This isn’t meant to alarm you (well maybe a little) but rather to shed light on sugar. American consume, on average, over 60 pounds of sugar annually. The JAMA study on heart disease and sugar gauged daily sugar intake at over 20 teaspoons of added sugars a day. I hope this sounds as appalling to you as it does to me.

So what are we to do? For starters, look at food labels and ingredient panels. On food labels you’ll see sugars listed in grams, there are about 4 grams to every teaspoon (12 grams of sugar would be 3 tsp). If you want a daily budget I would suggest 25 grams for women and 50 grams for men however I’m not a big fan of counting what we eat. On your ingredient lists, sugar can be sly. Some sugars end in “ose” such as dextrose, fructose and glucose. Others include the word syrup (corn, HFCS maple and rice) and then there is cane, honey and molasses. When you see any of these and sometimes you’ll see multiple sugar sources, that food has added sugar. Today, take inventory of your sweet foods. Coffee with sugar…check, yogurt with honey…check, sweet salad dressing- they add up quickly. See where you can cut down or cut out sweetness. If you can get down to 1 or 2 sweet items daily you’re doing pretty well.

With my clients, I have an exercise called a Savory Day where clients forego anything sweet 1 day a week. Try this and let me know how it goes, you may feel, as I do, that sweet begets sweet and the less you have the less you crave. I use dried fruit and minimal honey and maple syrup and have acclimated to unsweetened coffee though it took some time. Actually less sweetness led to less coffee too.
So how “sweet” are you? How many sweet items to do you consume? What sweeteners to you use?