Why Kraft Mac N’ Cheese “Veggie Pasta Dinner” Isn’t Really That Healthy

I don’t know a lot of adult women who savor Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, but I do know a lot of them who eat it. Whether it’s just been a long day, and throwing some pasta and powder in a pot is about all we can handle in the kitchen, or we just don’t have the time and money for a more elaborate meal, a lot of us get stuck eating processed food for dinner, and a lot of us are trying to do that less. But Kraft doesn’t want you to feel guilty about it; that’s why they’re adding cauliflower to their cheddar cheese sauce to help you get more veggies! Not to be a downer, but: I’m less than thrilled.

Here’s Kraft’s pitch for their newest blue box product:

Every busy mother understands the difficulties involved with getting their kids to eat enough vegetables. Now there is a simple way to incorporate some of the daily recommended veggies into your family’s diet without tasting them! By serving NEW KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese Dinner Veggie Pasta, available now at your local Target or Walmart, your family will get a half serving of cauliflower per cup of product while still taking pleasure in the creamy, cheesy flavor of the original blue box dinner. The cauliflower is baked right into the macaroni, so your kids won’t fuss over eating their veggies and instead will smile!

I’d bet my lunch money that the inspiration for their product comes from a study early this year showing that “stealth vegetables” can help you lose weight, in which researchers slipped pureed vegetables into subjects’ otherwise-normal cafeteria meals, and found that they help them feel fuller on fewer calories. When the study initially came out, we didn’t really see how this could help anyone — who would go to such extents to hide vegetables in their foods, we wondered. Leave it to Kraft.

While this is for sure a step up from their normal variety of mac n’ cheese — in addition to pureed veggies, it contains 50% whole grains and organic cheeses — this is by no means something I’d call a health food. For one, it’s still processed; I don’t have the nutrition facts or ingredients list yet (it’s hitting shelves this month, but it hasn’t hit the ones at my local grocer yet), but last time I checked, anytime you put vegetables and cheese in a box with a faraway expiration date, they required a lot of processing and preservatives. And that “creamy, cheesy flavor of the original blue box dinner” doesn’t happen without the help of added fat, salt, and sugars, with or without the added veggies.

But alas, when most of us binge on Kraft mac n’ cheese, we’re throwing out our usual nutrition smarts out the door for the sake of time, money, cravings, or some combination of the three. But without much extra money or care, we could probably throw in some frozen peas or broccoli — it may not be as virtuous as a meal from your farmer’s market, but it’s a whole vegetable, no powdered or preserved. And if you see the new veggie pasta dinners from Kraft, then maybe you should give them a shot, but just don’t go thinking you’ll be eating health food.