VeganMofo Day 17 is a product review: Newtons Fruit Thins

This is Day 17 of Vegan Mofo, a month of vegan food blog posts, and this post is a product review. Since I am not a food blogger, most of my posts for Vegan Mofo will not be recipes, rather experiences I have with vegan food and sharing people, places and things that have brought me and continue to bring me amazing vegan food.

It happened by mistake. We were shopping at our local Safeway grocery store and came upon these cookies. The blueberry flavor attracted me so I looked at the ingredients and they were completely vegan!

I love having cookies as a snack during the day, right when I come home from work and later at night when watching a movie.

I realize that being vegan isn't enough for those really watching their calories and health and will post the nutrition facts at the end of this post.

If you're not a blueberry fan, they also have cherry vanilla, cranberry citrus oat, lemon crisp and chocolate raspberry. We have only tried the blueberry and cherry, which are both vegan. I haven't tried the other flavors so please check the ingredients if you decide to try them.

These fruit thins are delicious! It's difficult to eat just one. I wanted to write this post about them because if you're like me you might just pass them by thinking they wouldn't be vegan. The blueberry ones even have flax seeds in them!

If you like a little fruity and sweet snack, try Newtons Fruit Thins.

Thanks for reading!

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 31 g

Serving per container about 10

Amount Per Serving

• Calories 140
• Calories from Fat 50

% Daily Value*

• Total Fat 5g 8%
• Saturated Fat 1g 5%
• Trans Fat 0g 0%
• Monounsaturated Fat 1g 0%
• Cholesterol 0mg 0%
• Sodium 90mg 4%
• Potassium 60mg 2%
• Total Carbohydrate 22g 7%
• Dietary Fiber 2g 8%
• Sugars 7g  
• Protein 2g  

• Vitamin A 0%
• Calcium 0%
• Vitamin C 0%
• Iron 6% 

The Boy Scouts of America and equality

Being an openly gay man who believes in equality and fights every day for it, I have never really cared for or about the Boy Scouts. I have friends whose kids are involved in the Boy Scouts, and on that local level I think it can be great. The policies I have a problem with come from the top, the leadership of the BSA.

In some ways, I look at them as simply as an extension of the bigoted and discriminatory thought process of the Catholic and Mormon churches.

Their policy against gay men having anything to with the Boy Scouts has been hurtful to some, devastating to many more.

Before I continue please remember that I was raised Catholic and loved it. A lot of my family members and friends are Catholic, and I still believe that the work Catholic priests and nuns did in Central America in the '70s and '80s in regards to human rights was incredibly brave and part of what convinced me to be an activist. And what strengthened my faith. Social justice and human rights are still at the core for some in the Catholic church.

Back to the Boy Scouts. You might have heard that they are considering changing their policies around gay men. I haven't read all of the press reports yet but what I have read isn't that promising. This chapter over here could be safe for an openly gay man but this chapter over there, well no thank you. After years of telling chapters across the country who they can or cannot allow in, they suddenly feel that telling chapters who they can allow in is wrong. Seriously?

Yes, seriously.

On the other gender side of this you have the Girl Scouts. No policy against openly lesbian women participating on any level and they are thriving. By the way, I need to buy some Girl Scout cookies! Mike just told me that there are two vegan options this year. Those of you who know a girl scout, send them my way!

Bigotry is ugly. It harms more people than we know, and on more levels than we can even comprehend. And the biggest problem that I have with it is that is is absolutely unnecessary.

Bigotry is unnecessary.

We don't have to like everything about a person to honor their humanness. To respect them. To realize that they have the right to exist and to live in a world free of hatred or violence, whatever form that violence takes.

The Boy Scouts of America still don't get it.

Thank you for reading.