Top 10 New Food Products of 2006

WebMD Weight Loss Clinic -- Expert Column

Every year, plenty of new food products make their way onto supermarket shelves. And as with most things, some are better than others. Did we really need more soft drinks, microwave popcorns, or Lunchables options? Was a pepper Jack flavor of Velveeta really necessary?

But there are plenty of new food products that can help us eat more healthfully. Some lowered sugar, others lightened up on fat, while several more added something nutritionally beneficial, like fiber or whole grains, omega-3s, or phytochemicals.

New items can even be found in the produce department of your supermarket! One specialty produce company, Melissa's, introduces about 25 new items every year. The trend for 2006 success seemed to involve two themes: convenience, and organic foods, says Robert Schueller, director of public relations with Melissa's.

With so many new items out there every year, it's not always easy deciding what's worth trying. Here are my picks for the top 10 new (or relatively new) healthy food products on supermarket shelves:

1. More 100% Whole Wheat Bread Choices

This year, various brands of whole wheat hot dog and hamburger buns hit the shelves, along with new whole grain rolls like Whole Grain French Sandwich Rolls (Francisco International). The first ingredient in this product is whole wheat flour. One long sandwich roll (80 grams) contains 210 calories, 7 grams of fiber, 3 grams fat, 0.5 grams saturated fat, 9 grams protein, 39 grams carbohydrate, and 460 milligrams of sodium. The rolls work well for sandwiches, pizza bread, appetizers that call for toasted bread, and any recipe that uses bread cubes.

2. A Better Multigrain Pasta

The Barilla Plus brand now has several pasta products that offer a more appealing alternative to the darker brown, chewier whole wheat pastas of years past. To make this multigrain pasta, they use semolina and add a "grain and legume flour blend" that includes most every healthy plant food you could think of (including lentils, chickpeas, spelt, barley, flaxseed, oat fiber, and oats). The result is pasta that almost passes as regular pasta, but that contains 4 grams of fiber, 10 grams of protein, and 200 milligrams of healthy plant omega-3 fatty acids per 2-ounce serving.

3. Whole Grain Lasagna Noodles

I love lasagna, and have long been waiting for someone to make a higher-fiber lasagna noodle. I just found one at Whole Foods Markets! Westbrae Natural makes its Organic Whole Wheat Lasagna noodles with organic whole durum wheat flour. A 2-ounce serving contains 210 calories, 6 grams fiber, and 8 grams protein.

4. Healthier Instant Oatmeal

Most people prefer some sweetness in their oatmeal. But the amount of sugar in all those fun-flavored instant oatmeal packets is more than we need, that's for sure. How do I know? I've tried the new, less-sugar options from Quaker and they taste great! There's an Apples & Cinnamon and a Maple & Brown Sugar flavor, and my personal favorite, Take Heart Blueberry. A packet (34 grams) of Quaker's 50% Less Sugar Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal contains 4 grams of sugar (13% calories from sugar), along with 3 grams of fiber (1 gram of which is soluble fiber). The Take Heart Blueberry packet (a larger, 45-gram packet), with added oat bran and flaxseed, has 6 grams of fiber (4 grams of which is soluble fiber), and 9 grams of sugar (with 22.5% of the total calories coming from sugar), and 130 milligrams of plant omega-3s.