And as we're seeing in the US and the world around, authoritarians seek to poison the discourse and the way we relate to each other because they can't stand people coming together around a shared sense of the truth-it's a huge threat to them. An unwavering commitment to it is probably what draws you to Mother Jones' journalism. You can watch our taste test in the video at the top of this post.Д¬orrection: An earlier version of this article misstated some of the values for Cheez-ItsвЂ™ nutritional information.Д«y signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners. Which is, well, comforting in its own way. But IвЂ™m willing to guess that AdlerвЂ™s concoction is a few more steps removed from a bowl of Cheez-Its. ThatвЂ™s not to say that boxed mac and cheese tastes bad itвЂ™s hard to go wrong with cheesy, starchy comfort food. (ItвЂ™s slightly higher in saturated fat because of the real parmesan.) Add it to a pound of pasta with a little of the pastaвЂ™s cooking water, and you have a creamy, cheesy dish that Jones-Smith says is also more nutritious than both boxed versions: ItвЂ™s lower in sodium, fat, and calories, and slightly higher in protein. Basically you mash up two cups of boiled cauliflower with a cup of parmesan, a little olive oil, and salt and pepper. She suggested a simple cheese, pasta, and cauliflower dish. So whatвЂ™s a healthier alternative? I asked Tamar Adler, author of An Everlasting Meal: Cooking With Economy and Grace, for a recommendation. But that got me wondering: What about AnnieвЂ™s Homegrown, the supposedly healthier brand of packaged mac and cheese? When Jones-Smith compared AnnieвЂ™s and KraftвЂ™s nutritional information labels and ingredients lists, she found that their dry pasta and sauce packets werenвЂ™t too different: * вЂњIt is a non-starter on my list because it violates at least three of my semi-facetious rules: never eat anything artificial never eat anything with more than five ingredients and never eat anything with an ingredient you canвЂ™t pronounce.вЂќ вЂњKraft Mac & Cheese is a delivery vehicle for salt and artificial colors and flavors,вЂќ Nestle wrote in an email. Nutritionist Marion Nestle isnвЂ™t a fan of the stuff in the blue-and-yellow box, either. Otherwise, the two meals are pretty nutritionally equivalent.вЂќ Indeed, agreed Jesse Jones-Smith, a nutritionist at Johns HopkinsвЂ™ Bloomberg School of Public Health,В вЂњKraft actually has a few extra additives, even compared to Cheez-its.вЂќ She added, вЂњIf you gave a kid two servings of Cheez-its and a glass of milk, you would actually have more sodium in Kraft Mac & Cheese. Yes, you read that right: Cheez-Its uses natural coloring, while Kraft Macaroni & Cheese uses artificial. To me, the list looked pretty similar-except for one thing: Instead of yellows 5 and 6, Cheez-Its uses annato extract and paprika for color. Now compare that to the ingredients list for KellogвЂ™s Reduced Fat Cheez-Its:Д®nriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, roboflavin, folic acid) soybean and palm oil with TBHQ for freshness, skim milk cheese (skim milk, whey protein, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes, annatto extract for color), salt, containst two percent or less of paprika, yeast, paprika oleoresin for color, soy lecithin Well, letвЂ™s consider the ingredients list for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese:Д®nriched Macaroni product (wheat flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid) cheese sauce mix (whey, milkfat, milk protein concentrate, salt, sodium tripolyphosphate, contains less than 2% of citric acid, lactic acid, sodium phosphate, calcium phosphate, yellow 5, yellow 6, enzymes, cheese culture)

So just for fun, letвЂ™s pretend that the petitioners succeed, and Kraft replaces its artificial dyes with natural coloring-or (gasp!) no coloring at all. (I subsisted on a strict diet of it and Eggo waffles until about age 10.) That isnвЂ™t surprising, since KraftвЂ™s cheesy, gooey dish is a childhood staple. The petition has already racked up more than 250,000 signatures.

A couple of food bloggers have petitioned the food giant to ditch the artificial colors, calling them вЂњunnecessaryвЂќ and вЂњpotentially harmful.вЂќ Perhaps youвЂ™ve heard about the recent outcry over the use of yellow dyes 5 and 6 in KraftвЂ™s popular Macaroni &В Cheese. Watch the video to see how they stacked up. We taste-tested Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, AnnieвЂ™s Homegrown Macaroni & Cheese, Cheez-Its, and a simple, homemade pasta-and-cheese dish.

Why is kraft mac and cheese bad for you