Minute Maid Orange Juice With Calcium and Vitamin D. $3.49 per half-gallon container.
Bonnie: The FDA approved the addition of vitamin D to calcium-fortified juices just this past winter. Kudos to Minute Maid for petitioning for this change and adding vitamin D to its calcium-enriched juice, thereby making a good juice even better.
Vitamin D helps your body absorb and use calcium to build and maintain strong bones. That makes it an important weapon in the fight against osteoporosis. Natural sources of vitamin D include salmon and other fatty fish, fish oils, egg yolks and sunlight (our body makes it after about 20 minutes of sun exposure).
Most milk is also fortified with vitamin D. But that source is not an option for the 80 percent of blacks and Hispanics, and almost 100 percent of Asians, who are lactose intolerant. This could make Minute Maid with calcium and vitamin D a great option for them as well as for other people who simply don't like milk. (P.S. Don't forget that weight-bearing activities and exercise also help keep bones healthy.)
Carolyn: Calcium-enriched orange juice doesn't taste as good as orange juice without calcium. It's not horrible, but it's not anything I would recommend to anyone who drinks a lot of milk. The good news for people who don't is that adding vitamin D doesn't make calcium-enriched orange juice taste any worse. And if you believe Bonnie, it makes calcium-enriched orange juice even better for you.
Kellogg's Cinnamon Krunchers. $4.19 per 16.3-ounce box.
Bonnie: Tony the Tiger's now touting Kellogg's new Cinnamon Krunchers. He says they're crunchy, they're cinnamon and they're g-r-r-reat! They are crunchy, they are full of cinnamon, but I disagree with that adorable feline on the last point: I wouldn't call them great.
Cinnamon Krunchers do contain less sugar than Tony's first love, Frosted Flakes. But they also contain 3.5 grams more fat. Both cereals fail in the fiber arena, with 1 or fewer grams. Because I did like the flavor of this new cereal, I would consider using it as a cinnamon topping to my higher-fiber, lower-fat bran flakes.
Carolyn: The success of General Mills Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal has awakened a sleeping tiger at Kellogg's. I refer, of course, to Tony the Tiger, who is stalking cinnamon lovers with Tony's Cinnamon Krunchers. Tony would seem to be the right cat for the job, given his experience with sugary flakes. These are rice rather than corn flakes, and the sugar is combined with cinnamon and appears as granules rather than frosting.
If only half the people who like Frosted Flakes like cinnamon, Tony could make toast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
Hungry Jack Four Cheese Potatoes. $1.99 per 7.8-ounce box.
Bonnie: I added these Hungry Jack Four Cheese Potatoes to some from-scratch dishes I made for a potluck I recently hosted. Like me, my guests were also from-scratch cooks. We were all surprised that these packaged potatoes didn't taste that bad. I'm sure the fresh milk and butter I added and the four cheeses in the sauce had something to do with it.
These also contained things you wouldn't find in our homemade potatoes, such as flavor enhancers and artificial colorings. But in a pinch, these wouldn't be too bad.
Carolyn: Here's a cheesy new offering from Hungry Jack — and I mean this in the good sense. Hungry Jack Four Cheese has more cheese than most boxed au gratin potatoes. Even more important, unlike the typical box of sliced dehydrated potatoes, Hungry Jack's cooks up soft after the cooking time specified on the package (in this case, 40 minutes).
Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian and professional speaker. Carolyn Wyman is a junk-food fanatic and author of "Jell-O: A Biography" (Harvest/Harcourt). Each week they critique three new food items. © Universal Press Syndicate