March 10th, 2009, 6:00 am · Post a Comment · posted by Jennifer Muir

Ann Cooper is stomping past booths and booths of natural food products, waving a brochure for organic gummy bears. She’s fuming mad.

“This is the epitome of what’s wrong in America today,” says Cooper, a chef, author and the director of nutrition services for Berkeley Unified School District. “Just because we can make an organic gummy bear, doesn’t mean we should!”

It’s late Friday afternoon, and we’re at the Natural Products Expo West at the Anaheim Convention Center, where 1,900 vendors hawking natural and organic products gather to build business.

Cooper wrote the book, “Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children.” So I asked her to walk through the expo with me to point out some all-natural products she thinks parents should put in their kids’ school lunches (and no, she’s not paid by any of the vendors).

She also pointed out some products — think gummy bears — that she’d never recommend, no matter how natural or organic they are. Avoid giving your kids anything with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and trans fats, and refined sugars, she says.

On our way to one vendor she loves — Emeryville, California-based Revolution Foods — she finds another example of a bad product. QBs is a natural dessert that’s essentially cubes of rice crispy treat encased ice cream. Cooper checks out the label.

“This has crystaline fructose in it,” she says, explaining an ingredient that’s increasingly popping up on food labels. “It’s the same thing as high fructose corn syrup. They changed the name so you won’t know what’s in it.”

So what does make a good school lunch?

“Foods should have fruits, vegetables and whole grains,” she says.

Here are some of the food vendors she uses in the Berkley school district.

• FullBloom Baking Company: Favorites include artisan bars and kuko bites.
• Silk Soymilk & Horizon Organic: For soy milk products.
• Eden Foods
• Clif Bar: Cooper says the Z-bars are smaller and made for kids with whole grain and natural sweetener.
• Revolution Foods: Jammy Sammy sandwich snacks and Organic Mashups Squeezable Fruit are among her favorites. Plus, the packaging is fun.
• Bob’s Red Mill: For grains and hot cereals.
• Small Planet Foods: For canned tomatoes used in sauce making.
• Nature’s Path: For cereals.

Cooper also has tons of resources on her website to help parents evaluate the lunches they pack for their kids.

Or, if you’re in a hurry, check out Fast Food Maven’s post on the healthiest fast food joints.