Better than an ordinary candy bar, that's Luna?


Luna Bars. Chocolate Dipped Coconut, Chocolate Chunk, Mint Chocolate Chip Protein, and Chocolate Protein. $1.39 per 1.6- to 1.69-ounce bar.

Bonnie: Luna just added four new flavors to its line of bars containing "women-specific" nutrients. The company's press materials make them sound like a vitamin pill, proclaiming that the bars "provide women more options to get the nutrients they need, like vitamin D, calcium, folic acid and iron."

Get real, Luna. Energy bars are no substitute for real food. But they are an alternative to candy bars -- especially the tasty Chocolate Dipped Coconut -- that women might keep in their car, gym bag or pocketbook for a time when they're hungry and have no time or ability to get anything else. (Like when on a plane!)

But which would you prefer: a turkey, lettuce and tomato sandwich on whole-grain bread, or a blend of protein isolate, inulin and cane juice? Enough said.

Carolyn: Luna is taking a page from Kellogg's FiberPlus Bar playbook with this new Chocolate Dipped Coconut Bar. Like that 2009 Supermarket Sampler Golden Shopping Cart award-winner and several other Luna Bars (Nutz Over Chocolate and Chocolate Peppermint Stick, among them), this bar features a soft crisped grain sitting on a dark-chocolate candy base. It's wonderful, if messy, and if Kellogg's was smart, it would come out with its own coconut flavor.

The Luna Chocolate Chunk Bar closely resembles a chocolate chip soft granola bar, which is to say, fine. I just wonder why they introduced 15 others before this standard one.

I like both of these new regular Luna Bars a lot better than the new Luna Protein bars, which are similar in taste and consistency to Tootsie Rolls -- if Tootsie Rolls were made with soy (and if they had been, believe me, they never would have lasted their 115 years). The mint in the Mint Chocolate Chip bar disguises the soy slightly better than the chocolate chips in the Chocolate flavor, but not enough to make me buy it or (if these flavors are at all representative) any Luna Protein variety.

Chef Boyardee Whole Grain Pasta. Lasagna, Beefaroni, and Mini ABC's & 123's. $1.19 to $1.99 per 15-ounce can.

Bonnie: Does it matter that Chef Boyardee has gone whole grain? After sampling the Chef's new whole-grain options and comparing the nutrition facts with his regular canned counterparts, I say emphatically, no. Nutritionally, each of these is almost identical to the non-whole-grain version and is more expensive.

Whole grains generally have more fiber, zinc, vitamin E, vitamin B6 and magnesium than refined grains. But not one of those gains is seen in Chef Boyardee Whole Grain Pasta's Nutrition Facts. There's apparently just not enough whole-grain flour in any of these. Plus these whole-grain versions contain additives that the originals don't, including the flavor enhancers disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate.

If you want to increase your children's consumption of whole grains, serve them brown rice or quinoa, or whole-grain breakfast cereals and breads. Some choices include Fiber One Original, Kashi GoLean and Post Raisin Bran cereals; Arnold Stone Ground 100 Percent Whole Wheat, Freihofer's Hearty 12 Grain and French Meadow Bakery's Sprouted Grain breads, or any cereal or bread bearing the Whole Grain Stamp (preferably indicating at least 16 grams whole grains, or one whole-grain serving).

This is just another example of a company unjustifiably hyping a nutrition trend to try to get consumers to buy their product.

Carolyn: Chef Boyardee says the pasta in its new Whole Grain canned meals contain 51 percent whole grains. That's the same percentage as Barilla Whole Wheat Pasta, which tastes a lot more wheaty.

This could be because Chef Boyardee's canned pasta meals actually contain more tomatoes and beef than pasta, and these better-tasting things camouflage the wheat-pasta taste. In fact, these taste almost exactly the same as regular Chef Boyardee.

As long as that's the case, I'm good with spending a little more money for a little more nutrition.

Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian. Carolyn Wyman is a junk-food fanatic and author of "The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book," Running Press. Each week, they critique new food items. &Copy; 2011, Universal Uclick.

Organicville Ice Cream. Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry and Mint Chocolate Chip. $4.99 per pint container.

Bonnie: There's nothing not to like about Organicville's new line of organic ice creams. With these frozen desserts, this company supports family farms by using their organic milk and cream and combining them with either organic strawberries, mint, chocolate chip, cocoa and/or vanilla.

I found the flavor of the vanilla too mild, but then, I'm generally not a vanilla fan. I do like the strawberry, the chocolaty chocolate and the refreshing mint (though the chocolate chips in it are unpleasantly hard).

That said, Organicville is surprisingly creamy and tasty for ice creams this low in fat -- only 7-9 grams per 160-calorie, half-cup serving.

Carolyn: These new organic ice creams are fine, but no better nutritionally or taste- and texture-wise than nonpremium Breyers All Natural that costs a quarter the price. And Organicville comes only in prosaic flavors.

Considering that, and that the only proven benefit to organic food is to the health of the land, the people who should buy these new ice creams are ones who have lots of money and concern about the environment.

Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian with an interactive site,, about products she recommends. Follow her on Twitter: BonnieBOTB. Carolyn Wyman is a junk-food fanatic and author of "The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book," Running Press. Each week, they critique new food items. &Copy; 2011, Universal Uclick.