Delicious & Healthy: Snack Product Finds

I have been wanting to try the Kodiak pancake mix. My grocery store actually carries it. I should pick up a box! :) Thank you for sharing!

Jennifer @ Peanut Butter and Peppers on July 25, 2013

WAY too much sugar and not enough protein for Figamajigs or Medjool Dates to be worth it for me :-(

Helene on July 25, 2013

Figamajigs I'm assuming the sugar is so high because of the natural fruit. I'm just not willing to pay almost $3/bag for less then 2oz.

Would try the pancake mix but that would be a splurge as well.

Niosha on July 25, 2013

Why are the lower prices displayed with strikethrough?

Mark on July 25, 2013

To answer mark; I think it works like this, the higher price is for 3 boxes. One box cost $17.99 and the three pack costs $39.99. That is how amazon.com sells things sometimes.

Fran Steidel on July 25, 2013

I love the Medjool dates, and have a box right here, at my desk and one at home. They are my 'special treat,' and like Lisa, I think of them as nature's caramels. Locally, they sell for $4.99 for a one-pound box and it's really full.

A treat with these good quality dates is to remove the seed and fill with a bit of peanut butter and roll in finely crushed nuts. Delicious!

Marlene on July 25, 2013

The Kodiak mix is a staple in my cupboard. I usually make with an egg /milk combo that equals the amount of mix, but they are great made with water as well.

Robin on July 25, 2013

I picked up a box of Kodiak Cakes on a recent trip to Target but still haven't gotten around to making them since we've got some home-frozen pancakes waiting for us. Hopefully tonight we can chow our way through them so I can crack open the Kodiak Cakes! I love that there's no preservatives or other gross/scary stuff.

Jessica @ Blog-Inspired Cooking on July 25, 2013

These sound great! I'll have to watch out for them. Speaking of snacking, I've fallen in love with a new product from Simply called Simply Protein Chips. I have a wicked sweet tooth but sometimes I also crave salty/crispy things too. These really hit the spot and they are a healthy and tasty alternative to regular chips. 1 x 33g bag is 140 calories, 2g sugar and a whopping 15g protein! They are pricey at $2.29 (even $2.69 at some places) per 33g bag, so they really are an extra special treat.

Sandra on July 25, 2013

Sodium aluminum phosphate? (Present in some baking powders). I don't think alarming anyone is productive, however, I think this additive deserves a second look. Only a small amount is used in baking powder, however, aluminum is present in water and other processed foods and is cumulative but apparently can be removed from the body by certain means.

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/choosing-a-healthy-b…

http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@te…

http://www.jigsawhealth.com/resources/toxic-heavy-metals

"High-doses of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) can be used as a chelating agent for removing aluminum."

There is baking powder available that has no aluminum.

Has anyone made the connection between aluminum in baking powder and the recent diagnosis of Cake Boss's mom with ALS after decades of consuming baked goods containing it?

http://www.tvernonlac.com/aluminum.html

"No matter how aluminum enters the body, it is dangerous for the brain. Patients who died of Alzheimers, Lou Gerhigs disease (ALS) and Parkinsonism with dementia have high aluminum and mercury levels. It readily enters into cross-linkage within the body's proteins and acts to immobilize reactive molecules within the brain cells. It causes free-radical pathology inside neurons. Free radical damage of brain cells brings on molecular cross-linkage throughout the brains tissues."

I don't know how true some of these statements on these websites are but ingesting aluminum in any form cannot be good.

One of the websites I link here states that baking powder can also be made at home with baking soda and cream of tartar, no aluminum needed.

I_Fortuna on July 25, 2013

I've been using the Kodiak Cake product for several months now and it's probably the best, most real tasting pancake mix out there. YUM!!!

It's worth the little extra without a doubt.

Barbara H on July 25, 2013

I_Fortuna: you said alarming people isn't productive.

Your post is alarming!

One could make a very long list of ingredients that might potentially be harmful or ingredients that just don't "sound like" good things to put in our bodies.

I can focus on getting my requisite nutrition every day (few people do this). I can exercise regularly and avoid common toxins like smoke, nicotine, and alcohol. I can focus on my lipid profile, blood pressure, and get regular physicals to make sure I am living right. If I do all these things then I am likely to live a long, healthy life that I can enjoy.

If I keep tabs on every single chemical ingredient that might cause a modicum of harm then I put myself in a great position to die too soon of stress-related complications.

Mark on July 25, 2013

Mark - well said.

Sue K on July 25, 2013

I love the kodiak mix!! It's awesome, my kids love the way their waffles and pancakes taste when I use it and the ingredients are way cleaner then most other mixes. And I pick it up on sale at target for 3.99 when I get it. Not a bad price to feed my family breakfast.

Brandi on July 25, 2013

Thanks, Sue.

Mark on July 25, 2013

Hi Mark, I certainly did mean to alarm you or Sue and I understand your frustration. My goal is to educate myself and others as to what is in our food. Clearly, enough people were concerned by the aluminum in baking powder that most of it is now made without sodium aluminum phosphate. There are certain products on the market that still use ingredients with SAP. As time goes on certain chemicals and additives are being revealed to us as unhealthy. Foods that we did not give a second thought to are being reconsidered. If you have read all my posts, you can see that I don't let some of these things deter me either. I think it is only fair to give info that helps people make educated decisions. It is certainly your choice what you put in your body and I think that is the purpose of this site and Snack Girl who herself has revealed several products that are unhealthy. Isn't that what we are here for? Check out Snack Girl's long list of foods to avoid so that one person is not singled out for offering information that may state other points of view that may be unpopular or disagreeable. Certain foods or certain ingredients need a second look as to their benefit or lack of benefit.

I hope that people check the links I provided. As it turns out, there are alternatives for this additive and ways to remove it from the body. If there are two sides to an issue I try to give both but in this case I did not find information that claims SAP is good for anyone and in fact may be harmful. I want to know what processed foods have in them and how they affect me and maybe others want to know too.

For instance, hubby is a 21 year Army Vet and was in Vietnam and is a cancer survivor and sensitive to MSG (I'm not), nitrates and nitrites as well as some other additives. This is why I am so vigilant in reading labels and checking for food additives. I want to make sure that hubby is not exposed to certain things as he already was exposed to massive amounts of Agent Orange an herbicide used in Vietnam. Not all processed foods are bad but I am careful. Imagine the stress of someone who is doing everything possible so that their loved one's life can be extended as long as possible. We can't change the past but we can move forward with better choices.

I hope we can all work together to educate ourselves and others in order that we are not putting unhealthy things on our plates or our children's.

Don't hate me, hate the processed foods and/or chemicals that make people sick.

I_Fortuna on July 28, 2013

I_Fortuna, I'm sorry if I offended you, that was not my attention. I think it is sad that we have to be so scared of everything that we put in our mouths or on our bodies because someone has decided to put chemicals in just about EVERYTHING. I think our government should do a better job at controlling what goes in products and not just think of the money it will make for these big companies. Because it seems it's all about making a buck and not about what is healthy. One of the things I love about this site is the reading the opinions of other people.

Sue on July 29, 2013

I_Fortuna: I Googled "most dangerous food additives" and looked at the first 10 links. Those articles covered at least 30 food additives. Sodium aluminum phosphate is not included (nor is "SAP," which is Serum Amyloid P). Perhaps this is because sodium aluminum phosphate has not been definitively linked to harm in humans. While some researchers think it may be linked to dementia, I stand by what I said before with regard to quality of life. It's bad enough being forced to avoid additives known to be dangerous (yes: hate the food industry for that). That list is in the tens. Should I also avoid chemicals suspected of being dangerous? That list would probably be in the hundreds or thousands. If I had to carry around or memorize a list that long to screen my foods then I would truly be miserable.

Mark on July 30, 2013

I'm planning to try the Figamajigs because I love figs and chocolate. As you said….it's a treat. I wouldn't eat one every day for for splurge, that's really got some nutritional value, I think this might be wonderful. Love your blog!

Kerry on November 14, 2013