In Search Of Healthier Couch Chow

The gray days of February are a perfect time to plop in front of the tube with some snacks popcorn or pizza, perhaps.

But in a time when you may not be getting a lot of exercise either, such treats can take their toll on your tummy (and surrounding regions).

In hopes of helping to cultivate a healthier couch potato, we fed The Spokesman-Review’s reader food panel samples of some slimmer munchies: reduced-fat microwave popcorns, and prepared pizza crusts, the kind you could use to make more nutritious pies with less cheese and meat and more veggies (“could,” of course, is the operative word).

Among the popcorns, the plainer Pop Secret was a slight taste favorite over the artificially butter-flavored Orville Redenbacher’s Smart Pop, although Orville’s slightly lower price gave it the nod for value.

Meanwhile, the Healthy Choice offering extended the label’s recent string of sad scores in panel tastings. If you have a choice, it seems, just say “no.”

The pizza crust competition produced a clearer winner, with well-known national brand Boboli besting a similar, but less flavorful, product in the usually reliable Safeway Select line (both were topped with the same jarred sauce and a little cheese). The biggest difference was in price, with the Safeway brand costing a full dollar more, despite a display sign that read, “Compare to national brand and save.”

(By the way, whichever crust you choose, you’re better off topping it with Safeway’s fresh-tasting, fat-free Verdi Diced Plum Tomato & Italian Herb Sauce rather than Boboli’s heavy-on-the-tomato-paste pizza sauce.)

Unable to find the third cheese bread we thought was on the market, we instead substituted the thin, plain pizza crusts from Mama Mary’s, which more than one panelist compared to crackers (not to mention cardboard). Pass the pepperoni, please.

Betty Crocker Pop Secret 94 Percent Fat Free Premium Microwave Popcorn

Price: $3.69 for 6 (3-ounce) packages.

Nutrition: 120 calories (14 percent fat calories); 380 milligrams sodium in 3 tablespoons unpopped popcorn (makes 6 cups popped).

Taste: ***

Value: **

Comments: “Crispy and dry, must be low-cal. It’s OK if you’re in the mood for the healthy stuff. I like a tad more butter, though.” - Jan Robison

“Good flavor, perfect saltiness, didn’t taste low-fat.” - Karen Buck

Orville Redenbacher’s Smart Pop! Low Fat Popping Corn

Price: $3.39 for 6 (3-ounce) packages.

Nutrition: 90 calories (22 percent fat calories); 280 milligrams sodium in 2 tablespoons unpopped popcorn (makes 5 cups popped).

Taste: ***

Value: ***

Comments: “Mmmmm! Buttery, salty, makes you thirsty. Great taste for number of calories.” - Christie Coleman

“Definitely butter-flavored - it’s too bad butter-flavored can’t taste like the real thing.” - Madilyn Hutchison Foco

Healthy Choice Microwave Popcorn

Price: $2.99 for 6 (2.85-ounce) packages.

Nutrition: 130 calories (15 percent fat calories); 340 milligrams sodium in 3 tablespoons unpopped popcorn (makes 6 cups popped).

Taste: **

Value: **

Comments: “Tastes like soap flakes, smells like burnt cardboard.” - Helen Span

“Needs real butter, needs more salt. A good reason to not eat healthy.” - Bob Bates

Boboli Original Italian Bread Shell

Price: $3.49 for 1 (16-ounce) shell.

Nutrition: 150 calories (17 percent fat calories); 290 milligrams sodium in 1/8 shell.

Taste: ****

Value: ***

Comments: “Good crispness on outside and chewy on the inside; some actual flavor to it.” - Meagan Coffey

“Very good. Nice fresh bakery flavor, just yeasty enough. Soft, yet chewy, but expensive for bread.” - Sandy Davidson

Safeway Select Verdi Two-Cheese Italian-Style Flatbread

Price: $4.49 for 1 (15-ounce) shell.

Nutrition: 140 calories (11 percent fat calories); 310 milligrams sodium in 1/8 flatbread.

Taste: ***

Value: *

Comments: “This will work. Nice texture.” - Larry Kelly

“Puffy and tender, but more like bread than pizza crust. Substance, but no flavor.” - Beverly Smick

Mama Mary’s Gourmet Pizza Crusts

Price: $3.49 for 2 (12-ounce) crusts.

Nutrition: 200 calories (23 percent fat calories); 135 milligrams sodium in 1/6 crust.

Taste: *

Value: *

Comments: “Shoe leather may be a better choice.” - Ken Peters

“Not good! Maybe Mama was in the wine when she made this.” - Bob Bates

, DataTimes MEMO: Products sampled by The Spokesman-Review’s reader food panel are prepared according to package directions. Panelists are not aware of a product’s brand name or price until after they have tasted it. Products are rated from one to five stars for taste and for value, based on quality compared to price.

This sidebar appeared with the story: OUR NEW MEMBERS A warm welcome to the following new members of The Spokesman-Review’s reader food panel for 1997: Beverly Smick, a former restaurant owner and food broker from Coulee Dam who assured us that “Hormel chili, Hamburger Helper and Cheez Whiz are as much a part of my kitchen as coconut milk, anchovy paste and balsamic vinegar.” Christie Coleman, a 13-year-old Mead Junior High School student, who simply stated that “I am a teen-ager and we eat three times more food than most people, so I most likely have good taste in food” - not to mention that “all of my friends would be utterly jealous if my name actually got to be in the newspaper.” Emily Bush, a Post Falls dietitian whose qualifications include being able to eat and drive at the same time: “From the time I started driving to today, I’ve had the uncanny ability to manage a steering wheel and some sloppy food without spilling a drop.” Karen Buck, a Spokane Valley nurse and writer whose application letter, in the form of a poem, ended with: “So please can I come and blend with your team? I hope I can help taste-test some ice cream!”