Minute Maid Premium Heart Wise Orange Juice. $3.49 per half-gallon carton.
Bonnie: Minute Maid Heart Wise orange juice contains plant sterols, a natural component of plants professed to have cholesterol-lowering properties. Sterols do that by blocking the absorption of cholesterol in the small intestine. They've previously been added to margarine and salad dressings, but this is plant sterols' first appearance in juice.
Purportedly, foods containing at least 0.4 grams per serving of plant sterols, consumed twice a day as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. Each 4-ounce glass of Heart Wise contains 0.5 grams of plants sterols. Researchers say you'd need to drink two glassfuls each day for the benefit.
I found that the juice has a different mouth feel, having a thicker texture than regular OJ. That might not be a big deal, though, for people who want its cholesterol-lowering effect.
Carolyn: Orange juice has a lot in common with the ace student who is always being pushed to achieve more. Not content with making one of the most healthful and delicious drinks known to humankind, orange juice manufacturers in recent years have introduced a dizzying number of "improvements."
I think that kind of blanket "improvement" is wrong. But it's hard to argue with Minute Maid's Heart Wise when all that the added plant sterol does (besides possibly lower cholesterol) is lend a yellowish hue and a thicker texture (imagine orange-banana juice without the banana taste). What's more, Minute Maid continues to offer all those other orange juice variations for anyone who doesn't need or like Heart Wise.
Musco Burgundy Pearl Olives. Roasted Pepper, Caesar Parmesan and Classic Italian. $1.29 to $1.39 per 6-ounce drained weight.
Bonnie: Burgundy black olives are an invention of the food scientists at Musco, made by combining olives with Burgundy wine and seasonings. The Roasted Pepper is the only one I enjoyed on its own. I didn't mind the Caesar Parmesan and Classic Italian in salads but otherwise found them too overpowering.
I prefer Musco's tastier Jalapeno Stuffed Olives or Mediterranean Pearls Kalamata. But if you've yet to find an olive you really enjoy, you might want to give these new flavored ones a try. Olives, after all, are an excellent source of the good (monounsaturated) fats.
Carolyn: It took me almost 20 years to like olives. Even then, the only olives I liked were the blander, ripe black kind.
It's too bad Musco's new Burgundy Pearl Olives weren't around in the 1980s. These are black olives made much more appealing thanks to their Burgundy wine vinegar and/or cheese, vegetables and spice flavorings. (Right now, these olives are easiest to get in Wisconsin, New England and New York state supermarkets, or directly from Musco. Call 1-866-9-OLIVES toll-free.)
Even after I began eating black olives, it was usually only on salads or pizza, or in recipes. But these additions make the olives interesting enough to eat alone — with toothpicks or stuck on fingers, as in the Musco Family Olive Company's amusing logo.
Gorton's Crispy Popcorn Fish. $4.49 per 16-ounce box of about 44 frozen pieces.
Bonnie: Popcorn fish? How odd, I thought, as I put the tiny cubes of battered, minced fish on a baking sheet and into the oven to crisp. These new bite-size pieces of fish are not bad. They're just oily and loaded with fat. One serving of 11 tiny cubes packs 20 grams of fat. That's more fat than in a scoop of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. They're also higher in fat and calories than fish sticks from either Van de Kamps or Mrs. Paul's.
Carolyn: The drawing of the red-and-white-striped bucket and the words "seasoned with 9 herbs & spices" on Gorton's new Crispy Popcorn Fish is obviously designed to make you equate it with Kentucky Fried Chicken's Popcorn Chicken. Why, I'm not sure, because the word "popcorn" is about the only thing these two foods have in common.
Gorton's batter isn't spicy — a disappointment, but hardly a surprise considering it contains two fewer herbs and spices than the Colonel's recipe (I'm betting they were both zesty spices). On the positive side, Gorton's Popcorn Fish contains quite a bit of fish, whereas KFC's Popcorn Chicken is mainly batter.
Gorton's Popcorn Fish are pop-able pieces of fish-and-chips-like fried fish. They're so crunchy and delicious, I found it almost hard to believe they came out of my oven rather than directly out of some fish-and-chip joint's fryer.
Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a registered dietitian and professional speaker. Carolyn Wyman is a junk-food fanatic and author of "Jell-O: A Biography" (Harvest/Harcourt). © Universal Press Syndicate