Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Yog?

so on friday night, i went shopping with sabrina and her parents. why? because they have a car, and i needed to go to places that are long bus rides and very long, uphill bike rides. places that they were going to anyway. places like walmart. so, i had lots of fun pushing the cart for sabrina's mum, who needed to go to way more sections of the store than i did, which of course resulted in a few impulse purchases on my part. one of which was this generic cereal called "YogActive". how could i resist a product that has yog in the title? i couldnt. also, it passed my ever-scrupulous ingredients check, albeit by a small margin. however, as i was assessing this cereal, i realised it was generic, and was most likely a knock off of some other brand name cereal, but i couldnt quite put my finger on it. but today, when i finally opened the box, it dawned on me... it is a knockoff of the new special K cereals, such as special K with strawberry, or vanilla special K with banana. YogActive comes in three flavours, strawberry, banana, and kiwi. i settled on the strawberry because strawberries are superior to blueberries, and i find that freeze dried kiwi is often sour. so anyway, YogActive has flakes, fruits, and "15% probiotic yoghurt pearls" which im going to assume means that the entire make up of the cereal by mass is 15% yoghurt pearls, not that the yoghurt pearls are 15% milk fat. anyway, so now that you have the backup story, allow me to give a review of this cereal. in obvious mimicry of special K (and so many other cereals like it) YogActive is trying to make itself seem super healthy to all of those would be skinny people by boasting low levels of satuarted fats, and having pictures of thin women in workout clothes eating it on the box. also, the use of the word "probiotic" is a definite attempt to grab all the wannabe health nuts out there with some meaningless, made up scientific jargon. this sort of thing really pisses me off. for a few reasons. first of all, it will never stop irritating me how the only association most people make with health is being thin. yes its true that excess fat is unhealthy, but there are a million other things that are unhealthy, and there are at least a million skinny people who engage in these unhealthy activities. low fat does not mean healthy. healthy foods are low in saturated and trans fats, refined sugars, preservatives, and bleached grains. healthy foods are also HIGH in fibre, WHOLE grain (which is NOT the same as multi grain!), omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, minerals, vitamins, and are generally less processed, hence the advent of movements such as the raw food phenomenon. anyway, so this whole thing with people trying to think that theyre so granola when they eat crap as far as im concerned bugs me. alot. but i guess i should be positive and remember that its good that peopla are TRYING to eat healthy, and they just need to educate themselves better. i guess i just feel like a lot of these people put themselves on the same level as eaters like myself, and im like, no, you are a poser. also, dont even get me started on the fact that i bought it at walmart, i was only there because knitting stuff is almost impossible to find in hamilton. anyway, so thats the negative side to the YogActive cereal. the positive side is that, although there is a little more refined sugar in it than i usually eat, and i dont usually eat processed yoghurt, and it isnt made with whole grains, it is, more or less, not too bad for you, and its a solid snack for the student/swimmer/cyclist/yoga student in you. the strawberries are delicious, just like the special K, and the yoghurt pearls are retty good too. theyre a little on the sweet side for me, and they sink to the bottom of the dish, which makes the last few bites a bit much for me, but on the whole, a good snack. i still like Good For You, the swedish muesli better, but its a nice treat. this has been your chloé consumer report, thank you for listening.

3 comments:

MistryZ said...

WHOA WHOA WHOA!!!!!!! Did u just say strawberries are superior to blueberries. Your Crazi! And what unhealthy habits were u hinting at that ppl had? Hmmm, I know it must be smoking!

Thats right!! I said it!

Anonymous said...

that's my daugther!!!in fact just yesterday i bought good for u cereal...no accounting for good taste...mother unit xo

Anonymous said...

My heavens, I'm glad we don't buy groceries together. I'd be all for the whole super health thing, but I wouldn't have the patience nor the finances for it, Chloé. Perhaps when I'm PM you can buy the groceries for the estate at Sussex Drive.