Exciting news everyone! After a lot of work over the last few months, our vitamin D calculator app for iPhone and iPad is finally live on Apple’s iTunes app store. It is a really cool app which allows you to easily estimate the daily intake of vitamin D from foods, multivitamins and casual sun exposure. It also connects you to a vitamin D calculator page on Facebook and Twitter.

Click on the link below for a free download! Don’t forget to rate and write a review.

All milk in the United States is fortified with vitamin D (1 cup = 25% daily value). So it is natural to think that yogurt and yogurt products should also have vitamin D. After all, they are all made from milk.

Not really.

Although, there is a trend now to add vitamin D to yogurt, there are still a lot of products out there with no vitamin D.  I decided to do a little research this weekend at the local Walmart. Here is a summary of what I found:

Yoplait original is the top of the pack with 50% DV of both calcium and vitamin D. The new packaging shows this fact prominently on the front of the box. Stonyfield is another good option but their Oikos brand organic greek yogurt does not have any vitamin D. Dannon, our long time favorite has a lot of catching up to do!

When I asked my Twitter followers about this, @peekababy informed me that the Yobaby and Yokids brands from Stonyfield also has added vitamin D. Sure enough, a quick check on their website showed that they have 25% daily value of vitamin D added to each serving.

With so much news on vitamin D deficiency, especially in kids, you would think that all yogurt brands would start fortifying their products with vitamin D.

What is in your yogurt? Take a peek inside your refrigerator and check if your yogurt contains vitamin D or not. Then leave a note below with the brand name and amount of vitamin D in each serving.

Disclaimer – I have not received any sponsorship or free samples of product for writing this review. For complete nutritional information check out the websites of these products.

©2011 Littlestomaks.com

As we drove back home from daycare today, my daughter made an interesting remark.

“Dad, this fruit juice is very healthy”, as she sipped the last of her fruitables^TM juice.

“What makes you think it is healthy for you?”, I asked, expecting her to read the nutrition facts label on the box.

Yes, ever since we had our small breakthrough when she discovered the word “sugar” at the back of the box of instant oatmeal, she has been reading labels and other information on food packages.

“Fruitables..a juice beverage that is packed with fruits and veggies but has less sugar than other juices and juice drinks”….she read out loud the marketing pitch on the back panel.

“Really?”, I exclaimed hiding my surprise.

“This is one refreshing way”, she continued, “to get healthy nutrition you need every day!

“Very interesting”, I thought. She was reading the whole thing…

“And daddy, long time ago, someone said fruits and vegetables weren’t delicious!”

I found that very funny and laughed out loud because I had not seen the whole message myself. Surely, she made it up I thought.

I decided to take a closer look at the juice box when we reached home. The marketing message was clever, and she did indeed read pretty much the whole thing verbatim. Except the part at the end, which she tweaked a little based on her interpretation.

Clearly, fruit juice is not equal to real fruit in terms of overall nutrition value. The marketing message is clever, no doubt, as it attempts to separate this product from other juices which have added sugar.

One box of Fruitables (200 mL) has 9 g sugar only 66% juice. Quite close to “empty calories”, but not a bad alternative to other beverages when used in moderation.

Clever food marketing messages and package design can attract a child’s attention and curiosity. I think it is good to let them absorb these messages, but very important to help them interpret correctly so they don’t fall for them.

What do you think?

Disclaimer – I have not received any sponsorship or free samples of product from Apple & Eve, LLC  for writing this review. For complete nutritional information and other products, visit Fruitables website.

©2011 Littlestomaks.com

A big thank you to all those who participated in the discussion on my last blog article Fruity Cheerios vs Froot Loops where I shared how we managed to switch my daughter to Cheeios from Froot Loops. This was a big deal because she is so fond of Froot Loops that she doesn’t want to try anything else.

But I need to give a special word of thanks to Selmada who left a comment about teaching her to read labels. I tried this idea over the weekend, first with her reading the label on the Fruity Cheerios just to get her used to the contents of a nutrition facts label. She got quite interested in it running her tiny forefinger down the long list as she read out vitamin D, calcium and iron. Later that night at dinner, we talked about the food label and the different items it contains and what they mean. We talked about sugar, fat, protein, vitamin D and calcium. We talked about how calcium and vitamin D made our bodies strong and gave us good bones. We talked about how junk food is full of sugar and fat. We also talked about how different breakfast foods contain different things and why some of them may be better for us. All this conversation happened without the box of cereal on the table as we ate our dinner together.

The next morning, I was quite surprised when she asked for a bowl of instant oatmeal with milk instead of the usual Cheerios! She even insisted on helping me take out 1/2 cup of instant oatmeal mix and mix with a cup of milk; reading the label of course! It was ready in a few minutes and she happily sat down on the table to begin eating it after it had cooled down a little.

I encouraged her to look at the label and find how much sugar the oatmeal had. She ran her tiny finger again and read 1 g. Then I showed her the box of Fruity Cheerios and she read 9 g. As she made the connection, she exclaimed “Cheerios has more sugar than oatmeal”! I said it was ok and we could still enjoy it once in a while.

Then I pointed to the bottle of honey and helped her find the amount of sugar – it was very difficult to find because the label is small and not easy to read.

“16 grams”, she exclaimed in a loud, surprised tone of voice.

“..and that is why we should use only a little bit of honey in the oatmeal”, she suggested after the difference in amount had registered in her mind.

“Yes”, said I as I watched her squeeze out a smaller than usual amount of honey from the bottle.

Her twin brother got interested in checking out the label once he had his own bowl of oatmeal in front of him.

Wow, sometimes things just have a way of coming together!

©2011 Littlestomaks.com

photo credit: maia hopes.

My daughter loves Froot Loops^® for breakfast. Every morning she likes to have a bowl of these colorful rings with milk. As if it is not sweet enough for her, she squeezes a generous dose of honey over it from her Honey-Bear bottle. It has become her daily routine. She does not want to eat any other cereal. In fact, we carried two boxes of Froot Loops with us to India because we knew she was not going to touch anything else in the morning!

I know, it is not really healthy. Surprisingly – and to our great relief – she is not big on other sugary stuff, which is why we don’t try to stop her from enjoying her favorite breakfast cereal. Because eating breakfast each morning is very important, we have accepted her preference.

Still, we have been trying to find a way to reduce the sugar level in her breakfast bowl. This weekend, we stumbled upon Fruity Cheerios® which looked almost identical to the box of Froot Loops sitting on the nearby shelf. Since Cheerios is one of our favorite food brands, we decided to give it a try!

We also bought a box of our regular Froot Loops, just to be safe!

Front of the box labeling on Fruity Cheerios emphasized whole grain, calcium and vitamin D. But on a closer look, as shown in the following table, it has lower sugar and higher levels of other vitamins and minerals compared to Froot Loops.

When I showed the Fruity Cheerios box to my daughter, she paused for a moment but then happily tried it instead of the Froot Loops. Just for the record, I did not try to trick her into thinking that I was giving her the usual Froot Loops. Plus she can now read the box anyway!

She still added the regular dose of honey….oh well!

Overall, I think it is a better choice, but in some ways you could call it the lesser of the two evils. There are, no doubt, healthier breakfast choices, but then we don’t have that option right now. We plan to slowly start introducing her to other foods at breakfast.

What do you think? Share your child’s breakfast favorites in comments below!

Disclaimer – I have not received any sponsorship or free samples of product for writing this review. For complete nutritional information check out Fruity Cheerios and Froot Loops.

©2011 Littlestomaks.com

There are days, when as a parent, you feel on the top of the world! You cherish the smiles and funny faces of your kids in your photos and home movies. You pour your heart out, and perhaps your wallet, as you try to pick a gift for them during the Holidays. And you love their cute comments which seem to come out of nowhere at just the right time.

Then there are days, when nothing seem to go right. Your kids refuse to eat what you prepare for them. When all you hear is a big NO out of their mouth for everything you ask them to do. When you have to deal with a terrible tantrum in a public place with everyone else looking at you as if you are the worst parent on the face of the earth!

“Children don’t come with an instruction manual”, writes Dr Kathleen Cuneo in her new workbook for parents of toddlers and preschoolers called Empowered Parenting. She was kind enough to send a copy for me to review. Kathleen is the founder of Dinner Together, a website devoted to helping parents build healthy families one meal at a time. She has successfully used the power of family meals for raising kids with healthy eating habits.

Parenting is not easy, yet it often appears that everyone but you have figured it out! Parenting is also one of those topics you are likely to get a lot of unsolicited advice. Everyone but you seem to know how to raise your kids these days. This workbook will definitely empower you make your own game plan so you can simply smile off these unsolicited tips!

This is a workbook, which means you need to do some work! I am only half-joking because this is exactly why I like it so much. She does not offer a cookie-cutter formula or a set of “rules” which will magically solve your parenting problems. Rather, she walks you through 3 simple principles using worksheets, questionnaires and practical tips. The 3 focus areas for you to work through are:

1. Knowing yourself
2. Knowing your child
3. Communicating effectively

The exercises under the first point of “Knowing yourself” will help you figure out your parenting style,  help you articulate your expectations and make you aware of your hot buttons. You will learn how to become more aware of yourself, your strengths and blind spots. If you do it right, you will feel more confident in your approach to parenting and not get distracted by others.

Knowing your child is equally important because each child is unique and develops at his or her own pace. Quite often, parents feel the anxiety of missing the so called standard growth milestones. They compare their child with others in the park and begin to wonder if they should be doing something else. Unless there are medical issues, it is important to accept your child’s growth pattern as completely “normal”. The exercises in this section will help you identify your child’s individual strengths, emotional responses and reactions to new environments. They will also help you understand the triggers for bad behavior and motivators for good behavior. Again, if you do it right, you will be able to brush off outside advice about how you should handle your child’s behaviors.

The final section will help you  match your style to your child’s temperament and personality so you can communicate effectively. The keyword is “effectively”, because the goal should be to motivate your child to develop the positive behavior you desire. Dr Cuneo provides many examples of specific situations where you can exercise the tools of effective communication. It is not just what is spoken, it is also the body language and emotional expressions that matter. She also addresses the subject of rewards and how you should use them to motivate these behaviors.

In the final chapter, she offers tips for promoting healthy sibling relations and managing conflicts.

One thing I wish Dr Cuneo had emphasized in this workbook is that parenting is a team sport. Traditionally moms have done the heavy lifting when it comes to raising young kids. However, the times are changing and dads are beginning to get more involved. Naturally dads have a different approach, which at times, may seem at odds with a mom’s approach. It is important to have a good understanding, and acceptance of these differences in parenting styles so you don’t find yourself playing the good cop/bad cop with your kids. Having said that, there is no rule that you should do the exercises in this workbook alone.

A suggestion for the next update of this workbook would be to include a few specific exercises aimed at understanding your partner’s style and developing a common plan of action.

Overall, this workbook is worth the investment of your time. The good news is that Dr Cuneo is offering a huge discount for a limited time. Check out the offer for the workbook and other products on her website.

©2011 Littlestomaks.com

We got this Pumpkin Patch Bread and Muffins Mix from a Tastefully Simple party and tried it over the weekend. It is super simple to prepare! All you have to do is to add water and an egg (or egg substitute), mix it all together and bake in the oven at 350 °F for 40-45 minutes. The result is a delicious, flavorful pumpkin bread you can enjoy with friends, like we did during a small pumpkin painting party last weekend. Here is the full recipe from the back panel of the box:

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F
2. Combine ingredients (1 cup water, mix, 1 egg) in a medium bowl; stir until well blended
3. Spread batter into greased 9 x 5 loaf pan. We used olive oil to grease the pan.
4. Bake 40 – 43 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean; cool completely before slicing.
5. Makes about 12 servings

Here is what we like about this product -

1. Very easy to make and tastes very good.
2. Added walnuts and dried pumpkin flakes add to the flavor.
3. Uses enriched flour to provide vitamins and minerals.
4. No trans fat, no cholesterol (you get some from the egg).
5. Provides fiber and protein.

Here is what we don’t like about this product -

1. Heavily processed with a long list of ingredients – contains trans fats from partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils.c
2. Contains added sugar and salt.
3. Not appropriate if you or your child has wheat, soy or nut allergy.

Overall, I think this is a very convenient and tasteful way to enjoy the season and to celebrate Halloween with friends! Have you tried it? Share your experience in comments below.

Disclaimer – I have not received any sponsorship or free samples of product from Tastefully Simple for writing this review. For complete nutritional information and other products, visit Tastefully Simple website.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

The Kid Tested, Mother Approved® and made with All Natural corn messaging attracted my attention to try this cereal. I am always on the lookout for products we can try (and write about) that appear to offer a healthy nutrition to young kids. Although, it was really difficult to locate it on the shelf and I had to ask for help, I was determined to find it after I heard about it from a reader. I should add that until I came across this product, I had never tried Kix before even though it seems to have existed for over 70 years!

Here is what we like about this product -

1. Only 3 g sugar in a 30 g serving (1 1/4 cup).
2. 3 g dietary fiber, made with whole grain corn.
3. Only 110 calories, 150 if you add 1/2 cup of skim milk.
4. No saturated fat, no trans fat, no cholesterol.
5. Added vitamins and minerals especially iron and vitamin D3.
6. Good crunchy taste. The small corn balls captured the fancy of my son who made Mickey ears out of them! It makes a good finger food.

Here is what we don’t like about this product -

1. Contains added salt, 1 serving has 190 mg or 8% of daily recommended value on a 2000 calorie diet.
2. Contains trisodium phosphate – according to nutritiondata.com, it is used as a buffer, emulsifier, foaming agent, neutralizing agent, sequestrant, stabilizer, suspending agent and whipping agent. In short, it helps mix a lot of different things! The description on Wikipedia shows its use in cleaning agents, as a flux and a paint enhancer.
3. The small corn balls, although fun and crunchy, are a choking hazard for young toddlers.
4. Higher cost – boxed cereals, in general are expensive and we mostly buy them on sale. This particular product, although priced at the standard $3.99 contains a slightly lower weight than other similar sized cereals. The net effect is that you are paying a slightly higher amount.

I asked my followers on Twitter and Facebook what they thought about this product. Here are a couple of comments:

Rashmi Nigam @yumkid shared her own review of Kix as she agreed with the good taste:

We just tried Kix last week and reviewed it. It tastes quite yummy.

Registered dietitian Sarah Eastridge Hortman was also positive in her comment on facebook:

Kix is a really great choice. Kid friendly and nutritious without too much sugar! Kix is one of the top choices in my article on Top 8 Kid Friendly Cereals

Dr. Susan Robin @DrSuRu who prefers to serve cooked grain, eggs or dinner leftovers for breakfast, shared her opinion on cereals

My family & I stay away from boxed cereal for many reasons. Health, environment, economy to name a few.

Overall, I think that the best feature of this product is low sugar. A good alternative if you want to see some diversity on your cereal shelf.

Disclaimer – I have not received any sponsorship or free samples of product from General Mills for writing this review. For complete nutritional information and other products, visit Kix website.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Struggling to get your growing child interested in fruits and veggies? Well, you are not alone because this is a big challenge for most toddler parents. There is a lot of advice out there on how to encourage your child to eat fruits and veggies, but no good tool that can help you succeed. That is why I was super excited to get this handy kit from Kia Robertson of Today I Ate A Rainbow!^TM. She has developed this tool especially for young children to get them excited about fruits and veggies. It is a very simple colorful chart you can post on a refrigerator or a magnetic board. The chart has 5 columns corresponding to different colored fruits and veggies – red, orange, yellow, green and blue/purple. Using color coded round or square shaped magnets, you can teach your child to track his intake of fruits and veggies during the day.  If they complete all 5 colors, they get a reward sticker!

We had a lot of fun with our twins the other night who found it fun as they tried fruits and veggies of these 5 different colors just to be able to stick those magnets on the chart.

My son picked the square shaped magnets while his sister got the round ones.

Here is what we like about this product -

1. It works!
2. It is simple and colorful
3. Kids love it and get a sense of accomplishment
4. They learn about different colored fruits and veggies
5. The kit also contains a very nice illustrated book “The Rainbow Bunch” written by Kia Robertson, perfect for bed time reading to reinforce the idea of eating fruits and veggies
6. There is a blank shopping list you can use to involve your kids in selecting their favorite fruits and veggies

Here is what we don’t like about this product -

1. The kit is supposed to have 4 sets of distinct round and square magnets for family of upto 4 children to track their progress. We found it a little confusing because it was not easy to separate them in groups. Still, it worked out for us since we have only 2 and we decided to play round magnets vs. square magnets.
2. If you have a stainless steel fridge, like we do, the magnets will not work. We decided to use a small magnetic dry erase board instead.

Overall, we love this product and will continue using it as long as our twins remain excited about it! Check out the Today I Ate A Rainbow!^TM website for details.

Disclaimer – The Today I Ate My Rainbow!^TM kit was sent as a gift to us for this review. Our opinions are based on our personal experience.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

We found these fig bars in a local allergy-free food store called Chase Foods. If you live in the Jacksonville, FL area, you got to check out this store!

The twins loved the free samples of these fig bars we received at an event so we decided to buy a whole box of 12 packs. Each packet contains 2 pieces which makes a nice built-in portion control feature. In the whole wheat type we are trying right now, the dough is made up of whole wheat flour, organic evaporated cane juice, canola oil, brown rice syrup, caramel color, apple fiber, sea salt, citric acid, baking soda, lecithin and baking powder. The filling contains fig paste, brown rice syrup, organic evaporated cane juice, rolled oats, molasses, citric acid and sea salt.

Here is what we like about this product -

1. A dairy-free option for people with dairy allergy
2. Simple, natural ingredients
3. Tastes good
4. Only 110 calories per bar
5. No saturated fat or trans fat
6. No cholesterol
7. Provides fiber, calcium and iron

Here is what we don’t like about this product -

1. Not organic
2. Label says it is made on equipment shared with peanut and dairy products. Can’t claim true “dairy free”
3. It could use a little less sugar – for a small 28 g bar, it has 11 g of sugar.

Overall, we like these fig bars a lot. Give them a try!

Disclaimer – Although we were introduced to this product through a free sample, I have not received any sponsorship or free product for writing this review.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

We have been getting this new snack from Gerber for the last couple of weeks. Much like the Fruit Twists, it has been a great hit with my son who enjoys it on the way back from daycare.

Here is what we like about this product -

1. Contains real fruits and made with yogurt
2. Tastes good
3. Only 80 calories per twist
4. No saturated fat or trans fat
5. No cholesterol
6. Added vitamins and minerals

Here is what we don’t like about this product -

1. No fiber although a label on the front shows made with whole grains
2. Added sugar, also contains sodium
3. It is not organic
4. High cost – a pack of 6 twists costs over 3 dollars

Overall, I think not a bad alternative if you are on-the-go and need to offer a snack. But I would not rely on it to skip real fruits!

Disclaimer – I have not received any sponsorship or free samples of product from Gerber for writing this review. For complete nutritional information and other products, visit Gerber’s website.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Can you imagine a breakfast cereal which you can customize based on your own unique tastes? Not happy with the amount of sugar in your favorite cereal? Would like to have more of your favorite yogurt covered raisins and less of the freeze-dried strawberries or blueberries? How about other exotic nuts, fruits and seeds not usually available in standard brands?

Well, now you can! If you live in Germany, UK, Netherlands check out mymuseli custom-mixed cereals! I just returned from a symposium on mass customization, a recent trend of producing custom-made products, where I heard this success story. I wanted to share it with you because cereal is such a common breakfast item everywhere.

You can select your personal favorite museli base, enhance it by adding a variety of flakes, and then choose from a very broad range of fruits, nuts and seeds. Over 75 ingredients are available, which can offer you 566 quadrillion mixes of museli -the question is, which one is yours! They claim certified organic quality ingredients, although the nutritional information about the mixed cereal seems to be missing.

The cereal aisle in a typical grocery supermarket is long and filled with a variety of brands and types of cereals. That is why the idea of custom mix cereal may sound strange, but it seems to have caught on in Europe. What do you think of this idea? Answer the quick poll question below.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

This giveaway is now closed. Comments #5 and #17 are the winners of this book.

Teaching good behavior and manners to toddlers is not easy! That is why I am so excited to introduce you to this delightful, and surprisingly effective, illustrated book by Leslie McGuirk and co-author Alex von Bidder!

The main character of this book is Wiggens, a chocolate Labrador puppy, who is such a handful for his parents that they don’t know what to do with him anymore! They do, however, manage to find a special and elegant place where puppies of all kinds can learn refinement and good manners. This special place turns out to be the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York city where Wiggens finally manage to learn 10 useful manners with the help of the Saint Bernard!

I loved the illustrations in this book. I am glad that Leslie chose a chocolate Labrador puppy for her story because my son loves anything brown! He was so attracted to the puppy that he sat down patiently with me as I read the story to him and his twin sister. We have been doing this for the last couple of days and I am pleased to report that they are now beginning to memorize the good manners from the book. I am amazed by the effect it has had on them and recommend it highly to all toddler parents!

Check out this video for why there is such a buzz about this book!

And now the good news!

The folks at Candlewick Press were kind enough to donate 3 copies of this book to me. This book is so good that I am keeping one copy for myself, but the other two are up for grabs!

Here is what you need to do to be a lucky winner:

4 simple ways to win (choose one or more if you like in a separate comment)

1. Leave a comment with an answer to this question: What is your most difficult restaurant manners problem with your toddler (2-5 years old)?
   
2. Leave a comment with an answer to the second question: Share a difficult dining out experience with your toddler where you had to manage a “bad manners” situation and how you handled it
   
3. Become a fan of the Littlestomaks Facebook page for tips and updates on toddler nutrition
4. Tell a friend to sign up for the Littlestomaks Facebook page. Look for the “Suggest to Friends” link under the Littlestomaks logo on the Facebook page

Note: to maximize your chances of winning, a separate comment for the above 4 ways to win is required

Full Disclosure (a.k.a. the fine print)

1. You must be a parent of at least one toddler 2-5 years old
2. Open to individuals only, no commercial outfits
3. I will select a winner by drawing a random number using random.org. This number will correspond to the number assigned to your comment on this post. So, if you want all your chances to be counted, leave a separate comment for each; not all in one comment
4. Make sure to leave a valid email address when you fill the comment box
5. If you win, you will need to send me your mailing address within 48 h of receiving notification or I will draw another winner
6. Allow up to 2 weeks to receive your book
7. This giveaway will end at midnight EST on Sunday April 25, 2010
   

Let’s play!

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

It seems like there has been an increase in new quinoa products, or maybe it is because we now pay more attention to them on our shopping trips! We call it the unrecognized superfood. It does take a little getting used to and develop a taste for it. But there is no doubt about its exceptional nutritional value.

That is why we are glad to have stumbled upon yet another quinoa product from Ancient Harvest, this time in the form of flakes. You can use them as a hot breakfast cereal, which I have already tried twice this week. I added a few raisins and a spoon of honey to improve its taste. Quinoa flakes can also be used in pancakes or waffles, or as a coating for cooking fish or chicken.

Here is what we like about this product -

1. Made with 100% organic quinoa
2. Very easy to make a hot breakfast cereal, just like oatmeal
3. Rich in iron, phosphorus, thiamin (vitmain B1) and riboflavin (vitamin B2)
4. Gluten free, non GMO
5. No saturated fat or trans fat, no cholesterol, no added sugar
6. 2.4 g fiber, 4.3 g protein per serving
7. Quinoa is a low glycemic index grain and it contains many amino acids (building blocks of proteins)

Here is what we don’t like about this product -

1. Although easy to use, you really need to improve its taste as a hot breakfast cereal.

Overall, we are giving it a thumbs up. I think this is a great idea and we plan to make other recipes using this product!

Disclaimer – I have not received any sponsorship or free samples of product from Ancient Harvest Quinoa for writing this review. For complete nutritional information and other products, visit Quinoa Corporation.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Greetings! There is no doubt that popular food brands have enormous appeal and influence, especially on children who are exposed to heavy marketing. Not a surprise therefore that even 3 year olds can recognize these brands. The bad news is that most of these brands offer sugary, salty and fatty junk foods, to which kids get hooked on early! Parents have to face this challenge as they try to encourage their children to develop healthy eating habits. Sounds familiar?

I started this week by suggesting that we need to have an offensive-defensive strategy for dealing with the attack of popular food brands. The idea is to create your family’s brand of food and nutrition by applying common branding techniques of identifying core values, developing a main message with a logo/slogan, promoting with friends and family and aggressively defending it with a few rules.

Another approach is to identify a few brands and products that resonate with your core values to support your battle against the not-so-healthy-but-otherwise-popular food brands. Association with these brands then becomes an extension of your personal brand.

This week, instead of the usual Five for Fridays, I want to share with you 5 of our favorite brands and why we like them. And no, I have not been paid to highlight them here; the idea here is to offer you a few suggestions as you try to discover what is important to you.

I would love to hear your comments! Feel free to share your favorite food brands and products.

Earth’s Best Organic

Earth’s Best, by far, is our most favorite brand! Our twins grew up on Earth’s Best fruit and vegetable purees, and they continue to love their organic toddler snacks such as Letter of the Day Cookies, Yogurt Rice Crisp Bars and Instant Oatmeal.

In researching Earth’s Best for this article, I found out – much to my surprise – that the company’s founders Ron and Arnie Koss are twins! Their vision of nurturing children with purest foods and growing those foods responsibly to promote a healthier earth resonates with our core values completely.

Earth’s Best brand now belongs to the Hain Celestial Group, Inc. who is responsible for bringing their toddler products to market, and of course, we are very thankful! Their product lineup ranges from infant formulas to baby’s first foods to toddler snacks and meals. They seem to be big on using Seasame Street characters as a marketing tool on their products. Honestly we are not too crazy about it! For us, the appeal is in their promise of organic quality and commitment to the environment.

For a complete list of their products and to learn about their history, visit Earth’s Best website.

Horizon Organic

We are a big fan of Horizon’s organic milk with DHA. We have had our twins on this milk ever since they started cow’s milk. At first, we were looking for an organic milk brand, but when we found Horizon’s milk with added DHA in our local supermarket, it was a no-brainer! DHA is known to support healthy brain and eye development in infants and toddlers. The source of DHA is from algae branded as life’s DHA from Martek Bioscience Corporation.

We believe that milk is an important source of nutrition for a growing child, unless there is the unfortunate situation of milk allergy. Selecting certified organic milk is better because it does not contain any antibiotics or growth hormones.

We are impressed by Horizon’s commitment to organic principles, compassion for their livestock and passion for the land. In my research, I found Horizon’s Standard of Care, which goes in great detail about their beliefs and management practices to support these beliefs. The integrity of this brand is impressive.

For a complete list of their products and company facts, visit Horizon Dairy website and Horizon Organic Facts.

Campbell’s Kids Soups

Campbell’s soups are a household name, no doubt, as you can tell by the prominent place they occupy in any grocery store. Our daughter enjoys Campbell’s kids soups with her favorite characters like Dora and Disney Princess. She loves to help Mom open a can and pour its contents in a saucepan for a quick meal. On a busy day, these ready-to-eat soups come in very handy! We are careful to read the labels because these soups can be high in salt, although Campbell’s is ahead of the curve in reducing the sodium content from its products.

We like Campbell’s as a brand, because they seem to really listen to their consumers while being sensitive to the economic difficulties. Clearly, their brand is positioned for the masses. Although their approach to healthful nutrition and environmental sustainability is incremental in our opinion, we do like their focus on affordable nutrition and continuous improvement. They have also figured out a great way to encourage consumers to prepare home cooked meals using their soups and recipes on the label. From that point of view,  we believe that Campbell’s has the potential to enable a move away from fast food and restaurant food toward home cooking at a very large scale.

Here is an interesting piece of trivia I found while researching their brand – they also produce their own seeds for tomato and peppers!

For a complete list of their products, visit Campbell’s Condensed Soups.

Cheerios

Although our twins are no longer that crazy about Cheerios, this cereal is a family favorite and occupies almost a permanent place on our cereal shelf. When they were younger, it was one of their favorite finger foods, especially when they needed to munch on something in the car!

Although there are many different types of products in the Cheerios family, we go for the plain standard Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios. We like the whole grain oats, low sugar and vitamins (particularly vitamin D) in this cereal. Recently, there has been some recent controversy about their claims around cholesterol and heart health, but we think it is more of a legal issue for them rather than a real concern with the product.

For a complete list of their products, visit Cheerios.

Green Giant Frozen Vegetables

We usually keep our freezer stocked with several packages of Green Giant frozen vegetables. Although fresh produce is the best choice, the convenience of packaged frozen vegetable -  some ready to serve with a sauce – makes it easy to add veggies in your daily diet. We like the affordable diversity of different frozen vegetables from Green Giant. But we also try to limit our selection to some of their simpler products like peas, cauliflower, broccoli and mixed vegetables. Their rice pilaf is also one of our favorites.

As a brand, which is now a part of the giant General Mills, they seem to be able to retain their identity and maintain a connection with their roots in the Minnesota River Valley. We are also impressed by their commitment to sustainability. They are sponsoring an innovative project with The Nature Conservancy. It involves using a combination of native vegetation in infiltration ponds to collect the water runoff from the fields. It is then diverted to a bioreactor (trenches filled with woodchips) where the excess nitrogen is removed and land erosion controlled. This system will also create a habitat for wildlife. Sounds like an interesting idea; although it may take up to 10 years to see the results.

For a complete list of their products, visit The Green Giant.

Enjoy and share with us your favorite brands and products.

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Disclaimer: We have not received any sponsorship or free products from these brands and companies for our review. Our opinions are based on personal use and publicly available information.