Monday, May 22, 2006

Morning Star Veggie Bites--Spinach Artichoke

First of all, these taste great. They crisp up perfectly in the oven and contain a staggering amount of vitamins and minerals: 25% vitamin A, 6% calcium, 30% thiamin, 20% niacin, 50% vitamin B12, 8% iron, and 10% vitamin B6 (all based on a 2,000 calorie diet). The ingredients start out promising--the first two are spinach and artichoke hearts, but it's semi-disappointing from there. Further down the list (in the "contains two percent or less" section) we find salt, artificial flavors, hydrogenated soybean oil, and a host of other unpronounceables. It seems if you have less than 2% of this garbage you could omit it altogether, but perhaps I'm missing something here...

Anyway, the miniscule addition of "horrors" is not really the downfall of these veggie bites. The problem is that the serving size is only 3 pieces (3 TINY LITTLE PIECES) that will cost you 190 calories, 9 grams of fat (2.5 saturated), 10 mg of cholesterol, and 680 mg of sodium! YIKES! The box claims 3 servings total, but I'll be darned if you can stop yourself from eating the whole box!