Breakfast Bar Breakfast

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

I've written about this "breakfast bar" called "BeneFit" previously, questioning the 48 grams of carbohydrates it contains, including 23 grams of sugar, or only slightly less than a carton of chocolate milk. Presumably, this represents an improvement over the Pop-Tarts, Giant Goldfish Grahams and Otis Spunkmeyer muffins the D.C. schools served previously. And now the kitchen crew has taken to removing the breakfast bars from their individual packaging before serving, so you can't accuse to the schools of helping companies imprint their brands on a captive, school-age audience.

The fruit mix comes out of a can, but since I have not seen the can I cannot tell you how much sugar if any is in the syrup. The Healthy Schools Act approved earlier this year by the D.C. Council requires the schools to post the ingredients for all food being served in a place where the public can see them. The schools have said they plan to introduce an interactive website where ingredients and other information would be available, possibly in November.

There's still more sugar in the small carton of apple juice. My personal favorite, of course, is the cottage cheese. Perhaps the kids will learn to like it as an alternative to sugary milk as a source of the calcium that seems to cause so much concern.