Last night was the perfect mac & cheese night - it was cold outside, I had been working all day and was in need of some good TV, relaxation and comfort food. I’ve been buying the Annie’s “creamy deluxe shells and cheddar” lately. But after further examining the box and Annie’s promise, I started to wonder what actually makes Annie’s Mac & Cheese good for me?
Mac & cheese is one of my all-time favorite foods - I could pretty much eat it all day everyday and not g
et sick of it. I’ve literally eaten it twice in one night after I’d had a little too much to drink (ok, a lot too much). I’ve always known that my mac and cheese addiction is probably not the healthiest thing in the world but it could be worse - at least its not a pizza sandwich (don’t ask) or a greasy taco from Jack in the Crack. And I’ve always thought that at least when I do eat it, its one of the the “good” out of the box kinds, like Annie’s http://www.annies.com. But is Annie’s or any out of the box brand ever really healthy or natural?
The front of the Annie’s box says “no artificial anything, 0g trans fat and naturally good source of calcium” - weird thing is, when I read the label, I’m left to wonder, WTF is sodium alginate or annatto extract ? Both of those ingredients sounds pretty lab rat to me and I’m left to wonder how can those things (whatever they are) not be artificial? Hmmm.
After further investigation on the Annie’s website, I discovered that annato is a natural plant extract used to color foods such as cheese, butter and mustard (phew) - at least it comes from a plant. But what about sodium alginate? Since I couldn’t find a description on Annie’s homepage, I went to Wikipedia for an answer and here’s what I found out: “sodium alignate is the sodium salt of alginic acid and its form is a gum when its extracted from the cell walls of brown algae and is used by food industry as an emulsifier. It is often used in indigestion tablets, the preparation of dental impressions and for reactive dye printing…” While it comes from algae and its origin is natural - it is still a food additive and a chemical. And while it may not be hazardous to our health, its at least good to know what we’re putting in our mouth.
Does this mean I’m giving up on mac & cheese out of the box or Annie’s entirely? Definitely not. Annie’s is delicious and so far one of the most natural mac & cheese out of the box brands I’ve been able to find. But this may mean that I’ll be a little more motivated to make mac & cheese from scratch (I’ll let you know when this happens) - that way I know I won’t be using any additives or preservatives, whether they’re naturally occurring or not.
If anyone knows of any other good, natural, or healthy out of the box versions of mac & cheese, I’m all ears. :) I’d love to continue the reviews!
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It’s hard when you no longer have babysitting as an excuse to eat Mac’n'Cheese - I’m glad you still eat it anyway! And annie’s is so much tastier than that easy mac crap in college. . .
yes, I still eat it. I don’t need to babysit or have kids around to have an excuse! Usually, more mac & cheese happens post tequila. I tend to love anything with cheese after drinking (um, pizza sandwich?)