Why I Quit Eating Processed Foods
It’s hard to believe, but about five years ago I officially “broke-up” with processed foods. Yes, I had left General Mills two years earlier, but I consider the break-up official when I purchased my first summer share at a local, organic farm in 2010. The break-up was a long time coming. After leading General Mills’ Honey […]
Nine Reasons Why the Imminent Demise of Big Food May Be Wishful Thinking
I’ve recently read several articles that suggest we’re witnessing the demise of Big Food. But is Big Food really on life support? Or have the reports of its death been overly optimistic? Don’t get me wrong—I’d love nothing more than to see the mass consumption of highly processed junk food come to an end! While […]
Red Velvet: The Latest Fashion Trend in Food
I discovered red velvet cake many years ago when I lived in the South. As a displaced yankee living in North Carolina I looked on with horror when it was served and couldn’t help but ask, “what makes this cake so red?” … only to be further stunned by the nonchalant reply, “a bottle of red food coloring.” Even […]
Kick the Can … Swanson Vegetable Broth
So many delicious foods begin with a flavorful broth. But are all broths created equal? Not really, and this is especially true in the world of vegetable broths. Swanson, a brand owned by the Campbell Soup Company, is the market leader when in comes to all different kinds of soup broths including vegetable. But if you haven’t looked […]
The Evolution of Cheese: Real Progress or Profits At All Cost?
“What is cheese?” Seems like a pretty easy question, right? Unfortunately it may be much more difficult to answer than you might think since over the years a lot of changes have happened to what’s called cheese. Although the exact origins of cheese are unknown, the process is believed to date back more than 4,000 years ago. Like […]
Frozen Sauced Vegetables: Friend or Foe?
When I worked at General Mills I had the chance to do some channel marketing for the Green Giant brand. This involved coming up with retailer-specific plans for how to grow the brand at customers like Wal-Mart or Costco. What always amazed me, though, was how the ingredient label of even vegetables could be so complicated! Although […]
Eating Vegetables: The One Healthy Eating Habit Big Food Never Talks About And Why
What’s the one healthy habit you never hear food companies talk about? It’s the power of vegetables and other plants in our diets. Don’t believe me? To help illustrate this point I took a quick look at advertising spending for the past several years, and do you want to guess what percent of spending supported healthy, […]
The Top 17 Health Claims Big Food Uses To Keep You Buying More and More
It’s Weight Loss Season (again)! If you’ve watched any TV the past couple weeks you’ve seen it happen before your eyes! The ads for diet plans and diet aids are streaming before us. And after months of pushing indulgence the food industry is now promoting health … or at least its version of health. As […]
Recipe: Rosemary & Herb Whole Wheat Stuffing
If there’s anything that brings back my childhood memories of preparing Thanksgiving it’s stuffing. When I was a little kid I’d help my mom put together our family’s homemade stuffing. As a child of the 70’s, though, our stuffing recipe was filled with white bread and then later bags of Pepperidge Farm Stuffing mix. Unfortunately these […]
Recipe: A Healthier Green Bean Casserole
One of Big Food’s tried-and-true strategies to drive sales is to create recipes that call for use of their products. Most larger food companies have a team of home economists designing these recipes. Sometimes contests like The Pillsbury Bake-Off ask consumers to share recipes. These days even bloggers are getting in on the action by designing “sponsored” recipes. But every so often one […]
Recipe: Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup for cooking with or eating!
If you venture into a grocery store this time of year you can start to see them stacked high. Like red and white mountains towering from the supermarket shelves, these cans adorn end-of-aisle displays and pop up across the store. Yes, it’s the American processed food classic—Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Condensed Soup. Founded in 1869 the […]
Recipe: Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Canned cranberry sauce was a mainstay on my mom’s Thanksgiving table. Refrigerated and cut into slices, it was exceptionally easy and popular—even us picky kids ate it up! But somewhere along the line a good friend of my mom’s introduced us to REAL cranberry sauce. Over the years hearing the “pop” of cranberries on the […]