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A few weeks ago you may recall my comparisons regarding the nutritional value of the new-to-market Whole Grain Fig Newtons and the legendary regular Fig Newtons and how the nutritional labels indicated no real difference between the two. I had written Nabisco and received a very unsatisfactory, templated response, so I ratcheted up my dialogue and sent another inquiry.

I must hand it to Nabisco - it took them a couple of weeks, but they responded with a detailed, well-written answer to my question, which appears to both address my questions and perhaps even support my theory that the way it is marketed (essentially as a "health food") is a dis-service to consumers. It is, however, interesting to learn a bit about whole grains and I should also remark that my wife was able to provide some color on this for me even before Nabisco's response. She's a smart.....cookie.

Anyway, their response. In full:

Thank you for your recent inquiry.

We are happy to share with you the thinking behind the launch of the 100% Whole Grain Fig Newtons cookie as part of the100% Whole Grain product line from Nabisco.

In line with the USDA's recommendation to make "half of your grains whole" as part of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid, the new Nabisco products made with 100% Whole Grain provide consumers an option to enjoy some of their favorite cookies and crackers as part of an overall balanced diet that aims to meet these new whole grain recommendations. We'd encourage you to visit MyPyramid.gov for more information on the whole grain recommendations.

Whole grains, as well as foods made from them, consist of the entire grain seed, usually called the kernel. When those grains are processed, however, certain key components of the kernel may be removed, resulting in a loss of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. The resulting refined grains are then enriched to add back some of the vitamins and minerals and, in some cases, dietary fiber (as bran) that is lost through the refinement process, before being further processed into foods.

In the case of Fig Newtons cookies, the regular version that you have enjoyed over the years (which we appreciate) does not contain any whole wheat, but is made from enriched wheat flour, as indicated in the product ingredient statement. In contrast, for the 100% Whole Grain variety of Fig Newtons, we replaced 100% of the enriched wheat flour with whole grain wheat flour, again as indicated on the ingredient statement. The resulting product is, therefore, different from regular Fig Newtons cookies, with a very distinctive taste and texture profile that is particular to whole grains.

While the overall nutrition profile of the two products may appear similar, whole grains provide important compounds in addition to vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber, such as phytoestrogen and phenolics, which may provide benefits beyond basic nutrition. And, although the whole grain wheat flour used in 100% Whole Grain Fig Newtons contributes fiber (indeed, the additional fiber in the product as compared to the regular version is coming from the whole grain), the amount delivered does not equate to a "good source" (or 10% of the Daily Value) for the simple reason that the product does not require a level of whole wheat flour (even with 100% replacement) that will in turn provide a good source of fiber given the serving size of the product and the overall product composition (a significant portion of the cookie is fig filling). That said, the product does deliver 8 grams of whole grain per serving, which is generally considered a "good source" of whole grain.

In some cases, whole grain wheat flour does have more total and saturated fat gram for gram than enriched all-purpose flour, as whole grains still contain the portion of the "kernel" that contains fat components. As a result, certain whole grain products may have differences in fat composition relative to their enriched flour counterparts, which may result in a slight increase of saturated and total fat on a per serving basis.

While the 100% Whole Grain Fig Newtons product you purchased may have contained slightly more saturated fat on a per serving basis than the regular Fig Newtons, please know that we recently changed slightly the formulation for the 100% Whole Grain Fig Newtons product, so that it now contains 0 grams of saturated fat per serving. As a result, moving forward, the labeled saturated fat content per serving is the same for both the 100% Whole Grain Fig Newtons and regular Fig Newtons cookies. The updated packaging reflecting the change in saturated fat content should be available in stores soon.

We are pleased that you enjoy our Fig Newtons cookies and hope that you will consider the 100% Whole Grain variety as a delicious snack that can help you meet your whole grain needs.

Christina Fellows
Executive Representative

Perhaps I can take credit for the reduction in saturated fat? Heh. Nevermind.