Grapes of Wrath
1996 California grape prices rose a whopping 25% due to increased demand and lower yields, continuing the trend from the previous year. Consumers felt it with wine prices raised an average 11%, and the LA Times reports that some wineries are going as high as 20%. Experts agree that the price of grapes will continue to increase, from $1500 per ton last year to $1700 per ton this fall. Yikes! Time to switch to beer?!
Mares Eat Oats, and Does Eat Oats and the CSPI Eats...
It's official: Eating oats is good for you. In case anyone missed it, the FDA ruled in January that oat products can now make heart-healthy claims, with certain qualifications. Ads and packaging can go only so far as to say that oat fiber "may" reduce the risk of heart disease as part of a low-fat, low cholesterol diet. The FDA specifically does not want people thinking that oats are a miracle cure. Still, this opens the door to other food manufacturers being able to make health claims provided clinical studies support them. Quaker and General Mills Cheerios are already feeling the positive effects of the ruling. On the other hand, the Center for Science in the Public Interest challenges the claims, saying that you would need to eat 4 servings per day, everyday, to benefit. Furthermore, the Center says the ruling resulted from big-industry lobbying efforts since the drop in sales after the 1980's oat-fad, rather than the true health benefits of oats.
CR's Guilt-Free Chocolate Picks
I just love Consumer Reports. Unlike the CSPI which berates people for eating just about anything they don't approve of, Consumer Reports provides the data and lets us determine what we want to make of it. How refreshing! They also take in the organoleptic qualities (i.e., those attributes judged by the senses of smell, sight, taste, etc.) which are, imho, so important to body and soul. March's Consumer Report tests chocolate low-fat cookies and brownies. The top three cookie results all came in around the same rating and include: Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Creme Chantilly, Snackwell's Chocolate Sandwich and Peek Freans Chocolate Creme Sandwich. The No. 1 brownie: Entenmann's Fudge that "tastes as if it contains a little fat—a compliment, for a no- fat product."