After my morning workout, I usually head to Starbucks for an iced coffee (aka my "reward" for a good sweat session). I'm always a little discouraged when I first see the size of the line (I counted 16 people in front of me this morning!), but I know it moves fast! The Starbucks employees are super efficient and get us in and out in no time! I tried to get a shot of this morning's line-- the cash register is on the left side of the photo and the line wraps around the front of the store. People love their Starbucks!
From start to finish, I waited about 10 minutes for my iced coffee with soy milk. Not a bad wait time considering the length of the line!
Breakfast
So, one packet of instant oatmeal doesn't fill me up, but 2 packets is usually too much. At the grocery store this weekend, I came across Nature's Path Instant Hot Oatmeal, which may have solved my problem. A typical package of instant oatmeal is 40 g, but the Nature's Path is 50 g (210 calories, 4g fat, 4g fiber), which might be just enough to satisfy, but not stuff me. So far the larger packet is holding me over quite well. My only gripe about this kind of oatmeal is the amount of sugar (11 g). It is still less than the Kashi instant oatmeal I was eating, but maybe I'll opt for plain oatmeal next time.
Breakfast: Instant oatmeal with 2 tbsp of peanut butter and a nectarine.
Mock-late?
I was watching the news this morning while elliptical-ing away at the gym, and a story came on about how Herhsey's has replaced the cocoa butter in some of their chocolate products with vegetable oil, and because of FDA regulations, they can no longer be legally labeled "milk chocolate."
Some of the Hershey's packages, while basically looking the same, have changed their labels to say "Chocolate Candy," instead of "Milk Chocolate" to comply with this regulation. I would have never noticed if I hadn't seen this news segment.
From the Candy Blog:
"The new version is called Chocolate Candy which is code for chocolate-flavored confection, or candy that contains chocolate but can’t be called chocolate because it has other stuff in it that’s not permitted by the FDA definitions (like more oil than actual chocolate).
The ingredients: Sugar, vegetable oil (palm, shea, sunflower and/or safflower oil), chocolate, nonfat milk, whey, cocoa butter, milk fat, gum arabic, soy lecithin, artificial colors (red 40, yellow 5, blue 2, blue 1, yellow 6), corn syrup, resinous glaze, salt, carnauba wax, pgpr and vanillin.
The old ingredients were:
Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, nonfat milk, milk fat, lactose, soy lecithin, PGPR & artificial flavors), sugar, red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6, blue 1 & carnauba wax."
The switch to vegetable oil is rooted in Hershey's desire to cut costs. The CandyBlog discusses this in more detail: Rising Cost of Candy - A Brief Study of Hershey's Prices.
I don't eat Hershey's chocolate all that much, but I'm still surprised and even feeling a little cheated by this change. What do you think about it?
10 Comments:
I never get full with one package of instant oats, but I hate the extra sugar too! My trick is to add 1/4 cup rolled oats in with the instant before I pop it in the microwave. It not only makes it more filling, but it also adds more texture! I just pack an extra little ziploc bag of oats for when I eat breakfast at work!
Meg,
GREAT idea! :)
I eat the Kashi GoLean oatmeal. It has 2 more grams of fiber and 5 more grams of protein but half the sugar, and the vanilla flavor is awesome :D But, I also usually have a yogurt on the side (vanilla Chobani these days - OMG YUM!) and general I slice in a whole banana and toss in about 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries. So I have lots of fiber and protein in this breakfast! More additions might be good, or just choosing a heartier oatmeal.
I actually had to leave this morning before the chocolate segment came on this morning, but I saw the Today show advertising the segment in the earlier part of the show. I am always intriqued by every company's ideas of how to cut costs. My Dad's compnay has even had to suffer by adding fuel charges to his deliveries and adding surcharges for items that used to be complimentary. I guess its just the world we're living in. It teaches us all to read all the fine print, even the fine print we try to avoid on the back of candy labels.
Ew, GROSS on the Hershey's. I'd rather pay a little more for the real thing! (And I do, with nice dark chocolate.)
Glad that you like that oatmeal pack!
I agree with what Beth said (above).
I saw that too, and I can't believe it. Gosh... I can't believe how sneak y some companies are.
You know, I recently bought some Hershey "Hugs," and they are just sitting in my house, not moving. After having good chocolate when my cravings call for it, I really dislike Hershey's. It tastes so fake. So now I guess Hershey's is getting even worse... yikes.
Why not just switch to quick oats or rolled oats all together? You could portion out servings in baggies and even add in cinnamon, raisins, etc. Add a little agave after microwaving and you control the amount of sugar. Oh, and it's cheaper!
P.S. I love reading your blog. I've picked up so many great ideas from you. Although, I do have a strange new obsession with peanut butter chocolate chips...
I'm glad they aren't labeling it as "milk chocolate". Hershey's isn't even good. Real chocolate tastes SO much better.
another oatmeal idea is to keep using the brand you like but use 1.5 packets. just put a little clip or rubber band around the leftovers and use it the next day. Since you eat this fairly regularly you don't have to worry about it going stale or anything.
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