Best Life Resource

Now that I carefully look over nutrition labels at the grocery store, I've noticed an increasing frequency of the "Best Life" label on various canned and boxed items. I got curious and looked it up the other night after a trip to the store, and I found out it's all part of the Queendom of Oprah. Of course it is.

I admit to a little eyebrow raising on realizing this. I have no significant problem with Oprah, but I always feel like she's just inundating our lives with her Awesome Answeryness. And when it comes to health and food, I can't decide whether she's a great role model (she's struggled with weight just like we have, so she knows what it's like) or less great (she can't seem to keep it off). I do admire her for making herself such a success, but I also get the sense that she Knows She's Successful. All caps.

Anyway. Digression over, I dug a little deeper and found out that Best Life is a subscription diet program by Oprah's Current Favorite, Bob Greene. (See? Everything about her seems to require All Caps. It just happens that way. It's weird. Scary.) It seems like a decent program, encouraging healthy eating and exercise. I don't think an all-online thing would work for me in the social support sense, but more power to people who can make that work.

What I found most useful was a list of the products that have the Best Life label on them. They are all foods that are considered high in various nutrients like fiber, vitamins, minerals and low in nasty saturated fats and sugars. This is a nice, easy way of being sure you're getting something good when you're in a hurry.

However, I have gripes. Of course I do. Some of the products I see on the list are ones I've noticed have hydrogenated oils (i.e., trans fats) in them and chemical ingredient lists. I'm not sure how those are really consistent with a "Best Life." I mean, obviously, I don't 100% avoid those things myself, but it does seem inconsistent to me at a programmatic level. And, honestly, Weight Watchers does the same thing, so I can't claim superiority of my method or anything. But I would like to see a program that's a little more careful about that.

The other gripe is one that has no real fix, but I have my suspicions that there might be a connection of brands on the list and a little under-the-table support for Mr. Bob Greene. I can't prove it, but I'm enough of a cynic to wonder what kind of ties there are. One way around this is to compare other brands at the store to the brands listed as Best Life to see if there's anything different or cheaper that has the same nutritional stats. Barilla pasta makes the list, but that doesn't mean other whole-wheat pastas won't be as good. Same for the soups and yogurts.

In the end, I just thought the label was worth mentioning as a decent shortcut when you're at the store looking for something fairly nutritious. Nothing replaces careful consideration and label reading, but when time doesn't allow, go for quick and easy, right?