Shoppers are becoming more mindful of their health and less impulsive with what they buy. Legacy food companies notice a drop in sales. Kraft Heinz Company, maker of iconic household staples like Velveeta (Philadelphia), Grey Poupon, Jell-O or Oscar Mayer, is one example. The company's fourth quarter sales plunged 1.1 percent in the U.S., which is its largest market, and 0.6 percent worldwide. Sales overall decreased by 0.3 percent last year.
Although this is unfortunate news for large food companies, it opens the way for small, emerging companies to become the leaders in home depot health check. This list is a tribute to these rising stars. It features healthy brands with transparent labels, clean ingredients and sustainable practices. Check out the list below to see if your favorite brands are getting more attention. Many of these brands were even voted our favorite snacks for weight loss.
Spindrift
One 12-ounce bottle of Coke contains 39 grams of sugar. One 12-ounce Spindrift Raspberry Lime can contains one gram of sugar. You will be astonished to see how Spindrift tastes. It contains real fruit juice and has no artificial or natural flavorings.
Spindrift sparkling waters are delicately flavored and a must-have for anyone who values quality food and less processed foods. Spindrift also participates in "1% for the Planet", a program that allows companies to pledge to donate 1% of their annual sales, not just profits, to environmental causes. Spindrift is a great way to cut down on calories. You can also make these food swaps to double your weight loss.
Siggi's
Siggi's yogurts are true to their slogan "simple ingredients, no sugar added" Siggi Hilmarsson (founder of siggi) was living in New York when he long for the thicker yogurt that he grew up eating in Iceland. After selling homemade skyr in a small market, Siggi Hilmarsson transformed what Americans want from yogurt today. He used real ingredients and lower sugar to make yogurt. Their excellent nutritional content earned them the top spot in our list ranking yogurt brands by nutrition.
Dave's Killer Bread
Think of ultra-processed foods and you will think of chips, chicken nuggets, and soda. You might not know that store-bought bread can be classified in the same group. Traditional store-bought breads contain high fructose syrup, refined white flour with low fiber, high fructose corn sugar, trans-fat-like oils such as mono-, diglycerides, and bleaching agents, like calcium peroxide. Dave's Killer Bread does not contain any of these additives. They produce real whole grain, organic, and high-fiber bread without any of the highly processed additives.
Banza
A major revamp was done to one of America's most problematic carbs. One ingredient can be changed to make pasta that tastes similar to the original in bottled and jarred packaged goods. You can also swap out wheat flour or highly-refined semolina for high-fiber, low-protein chickpeas. Banza's chickpea noodles have four times as much protein, nearly half the carbs, and twice the fiber than regular pasta.
Banza was the first to create better pasta. Many other companies soon followed his lead and created bean-based pastas. Modern Table's blend of red lentil flour and white rice tastes most like real pasta. We also love Ancient Harvest's POW! There are three types of pasta: black beans, green lentils and red lentils.
Applegate
Applegate was among the first companies to concentrate on how livestock was raised as well as how it is processed. They only source meat from humanely raised animals and do not use any fillers or antibiotics. This is our Eat This! Our Eat This! selection is made from pork, water cane sugar, salt and spices. Competitors pork sausages like Banquet’s Brown ‘N Serve are made using pork, mechanically separated Turkey, water, soy protein concentrate and salt.
Hope Hummus
Hummus is generally considered to be a health food. Therefore, the ingredients of hummus are often glazed. The problem is mildly disturbing. The worst brands of hummus are those that use high amounts of sodium, inflammatory vegetable oils, and sketchy preservations such as potassiumsorbate. There is hope. Their organic Hummus is as close to a store-bought product as you can get for making it at home. You'll be tempted to buy their tubs once you taste their delicious flavors such as zesty Sriracha and earthy Black Garlic. Their tubs contain organic garbanzo bean, organic extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice and spices. A touch of citric Acid is added as a safe preservative.
Kashi
Gayle Tauber and Phil Tauber were husband and wife and founded Kashi Company to make ready-to-eat, healthy cereals accessible to all Americans in 1984. Kashi, a company founded by Gayle and Phil Tauber in 1984, was a pioneer in providing whole grains with low sugar in the 80s. But, Kashi's latest endeavor is to revolutionize agriculture in America in 2016.
Kashi teamed with Quality Assurance International (a USDA accredited organic product certifying agent) to create a new type certified: Certified Transitional. Three years is required to make the transition from conventional to organic farming. Many farmers are struggling or unable to afford organic production, but can still sell their products at traditional prices. Kashi's organic certification helps to solve this problem. "Transitional crops" are those grown on land that is currently converting from organic to conventional practices. These crops are organic in essence, but they have yet to be officially certified USDA Organic.
