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July 27, 2006
I've Got Some Junk Food That's Better Than That
Shawn noted on his recent trip to the United States that sugary cereals like Kellog's Corn Pops® have 1/4 of the protein in the United States compared to the very same brand (Kellog's Corn Pops®) in Mexico. I noticed a while ago too that cookies (the really sweet kind that are like Oreos®, not the panadería kind that are more like homemade) also have considerably higher nutritional content in Mexico than their United States counterparts.
For example, Marinela is a brand of cookies here. They're owned by Grupo Bimbo, which is a vast bakery empire (think Wonder®) that started in 1945 in Mexico and has since gone worldwide. Their USA division owns brands you're sure to know: Oroweat®, Entenmann's®, Boboli®, among others. There are several types of Marinela cookies, including sandwich cremes and chocolate chip. But the Marinela cookies are quite different from the same types of things that you buy from Kraft-owned Nabisco in one detail: they have vitamins.
I'll grant you, they're not something that any nutritionist is going to include in a healthy diet regimen. However, compared to their American counterparts, they have a measurable amounts of vitamins. Check out Oreo® Cookies which have 4.7 calories per gram and do not meet any percentage levels for the RDA of Vitamin A, Vitamin C or Calcium. They do have 10% of the iron and 2g of protein per serving, so that's something.
In contrast, Marinela's "Principes" cookies (a chocolate wafer cookie with white chocolate filling) has 4.8 calories per gram and 3.1 grams of protein per serving. Yet a serving also gives you 15% of the vitamin A, 11% of the vitamin B1, 12% of the vitamin B2, 10% of the vitamin B3, 13% of the vitamin B6, 25% of the vitamin B9, 14% of the vitamin B12, 22% of the vitamin C, 15% of the vitamin E, 29% of the iodine, 15% of the iron, and 12% of the zinc that you're supposed to have daily.
What's up with that? Why doesn't the most powerful country in the world have junk food that's healthier for you than the junk food in Mexico? Granted, it's probably not all that important to most folks. But don't you find it a bit odd?
Posted by crispy at July 27, 2006 07:11 PM
Comments
I also wonder about the sugar/fat content - which is higher? I would bet America puts more of both of those in their cookies!
Posted by: carolco at July 30, 2006 09:16 AM
carolco: Sorry! I failed to include that. I threw the wrapper away for the Principes, but as I recall, the fat content is slightly higher per serving in the Mexican product. However, the serving size is also slightly higher for the Mexican cookies, so for this particular cookie comparison, the fat content is relatively similar in both products.
Posted by: Chris Coen at July 31, 2006 10:11 AM
without the sugar and fat all you can taste are the rat droppings
Posted by: akira at August 1, 2006 04:54 PM
Could there be such a vast difference in the RDA that even cookies have contributory qualities? Or maybe Mexican food companies don't strip the very goodness out of all natural products in an attempt to make them more palatable to consumer appetites, only to find they need to add in a bunch of chemicals so they have shelf life and flavor... BTW - know Bimbo, love Bimbo - they have a bread outlet close to my mother in law's house with super bargains on my fav breads and snack cakes. And they have a bunch of mexican products too. And Bob's Red Mill grain products of all things.
Posted by: Gim at August 7, 2006 02:47 PM