Crackers
The quick answer: Supermarkets are full of new products, most of them unhealthy. But the cracker aisle is little changed since your parents' time. A few even pass our healthy test.
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Lost in Time
The grocery store spice aisle has a timeless feel. Spices easily pass the century test (don’t eat processed foods that haven’t been around for a century). Actually, they could pass a millennium test. Pause for a moment and I swear you can hear the sounds of camel caravans treading the ancient Silk Roads. I love the spice aisle.
Crackers
This post is about crackers. After spices, is there another grocery aisle so unchanged by time? The cracker aisle is full of century-old products like:
- Saltines (or soda cracker, first commercialized in 1800),
- Graham crackers (1829, though the current products are a pale version),
- Ry Krisps (1899),
- Triscuits (1900),
- Cheez-Its (1921, not quite a century), and
- Ritz Crackers (1934, a relative newcomer).
The cracker aisle is a veritable museum—it’s like exploring the abandoned shed behind your grandmother’s house. Even the Goldfish cracker (a sort of K ration for toddlers) is 50 years old. Ditto for the cleverly named Wheat Thin.
Crackers aren’t cheap (you pay 5-10 $/Lb for baked grains) but they’re convenient and they’ve stood the test of time. So here’s today’s question: Are any of those crackers healthy?
The Last Aisle Visit
To answer that question, we took our last aisle visit of the year and looked for crackers that featured:
- Whole grains,
- Healthy fats (no refined vegetable oils), with
- More fiber than sugar.
We also looked for short ingredient lists. The loser in this category was a store brand: Ralph’s Baked Cheddar Cheese Bits, a knock-off of the Cheese-It. The ingredient list was convoluted and hard to read but I counted 86 ingredients, including bad actors like hydrogenated soybean oil, refined grains, MSG, artificial colors and flavors, and the preservative TBHQ. Isn’t it strange how the store brands, though cheap, are often the least nutritious? Just another sign of how the supermarkets—the principle source of food—don’t get nutrition.
What cracker had the shortest ingredient list? The honor went to Triscuits with just three ingredients: whole wheat, soybean/palm oil, and salt. Though I’m not a fan of the new high-oleic soybean oils, or any solvent refined oil, this seemed a fairly healthy cracker.
Best Crackers
Triscuits with just three ingredients (noted above) starting with whole wheat. Kind of like a crushed shredded wheat biscuit.
Ry-Krisps wheat-free, with whole rye and corn bran, oil (sunflower or safflower), salt, and caraway. Try them with cheese.
Wasa crackers, from Sweden, the best of the imported crackers, come in rye, wheat, or multi-grain. The first grain listed is whole and though refined flour is included they do pass the fiber>sugar test.
The beautiful wife likes Wheat Thins. I do too. But the grains aren’t all whole and sugar is added so they fail the fiber>sugar test. Did you notce that the “best crackers” list doesn’t include Kashi, famous for their 7-grain mix? They were once a health pioneer but are now owned by Kellogg’s and have a long ingredient list of refined stuff.
Cracker Recipes
If you want really healthy crackers at a good value, make your own. Martha Rose Shulman offers some recipes here.
I tried the Whole Grain Cracker recipe from Nourishing Traditions and will share it in the next post.
Healthy Change
So here’s Healthy Change #49: Crackers must be whole grain with healthy oil and more fiber than sugar.
Comments
Don’t crackers go best with cheese? Hummus is a healthy choice. Do you have a recipe for homemade crackers? Please share your favorites.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at 8:25AM | by Skip Hellewell | 9 Comments | 1 Reference | Share Article | Email Article
Reader Comments (9)
I've made these goldfish: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2011/03/whole-wheat-goldfish-crackers/
Very tasty and quite easy! I fashioned my own goldfish cutter out of an old, cheap cookie cutter and the crackers look like they came out of the box! Fun to make with kids, too.
I have made graham crackers before but they didn't have the graham taste I was hoping for. I heard Trader Joes grahams are excellent and make the standard honey made taste waxy! I don't know the ingredient list on those, though.
fyi- rye is not gluten free
I have to say that I love Ryvita crackers. I'm not sure if you can get them in the US, but they are readily available in the UK and Australia. The company may not pass your century test, but the crackers seem to pass your other nutrition hurdles. Their website even has loads of healthy ideas for toppings and recipes. http://www.ryvita.co.uk/recipes
One of the simplest cracker recipes I know is to take whole wheat torillas, lightly brush them with oil, add your choice of herbs and spices, cut into wedges and bake for a few minutes until crispy. Voila! Perfect for dipping!
Thanks for another great post, Skip!
Lewy, thanks for reminding that the rye crackers, though usually wheat-free, are not gluten free.
My favorite is Ak-Mak. It has organic whole wheat stone ground flour, clover honey, sesame oil, dairy butter, sesame seeds, yeast and salt. Delish! Good with Hummus, too. Trader Joe's carries them and I always stock up. Hard to find in other places. Five crackers equals 110 calories and 225 mg of sodium. Not too bad for a crispy treat!
I have bought Ak-Mak at Macey's on 800 N in Orem before. An employee showed them to me.
costco carries several varieties of crackers by Milton's that we love, which I think pass the fiber test and look to have good ingredient lists. It's been a while though, so I'll have to check.
My favorite crackers are homemade veggie-flax crackers. They do take a bit of time, but so worth it. When you eat them, you really enjoy them. A friend made me a bag for a birthday gift, and I've been hooked ever since.
http://greensmoothiegirl.com/2008/12/15/dehydrator-recipe-part-3-of-3/
ulmorstep e3d3fd1842 https://facenock.com/reccosemne