Mission Foods Teams Up With Nutrition Advocate

Online, March 23, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Mission Foods, one of the nation's largest tortilla manufacturers, has joined forces with Elizabeth Somer in the hopes of making eating healthier easier and cheaper for families. Ms. Somer, a renowned nutritionist and award winning writer, has developed a healthy and cost effective menu using Mission Food's tortillas as a basis.

"It's easy to develop recipes around tortillas, because you can do breakfast burritos, you can do lunch burritos, you can do dinner burritos, you can do lunch wraps, you can do lasagnas, and you can do quesadillas. There are so many things you can do with them ... It's an easy way to wrap, in a cheap and quick way, lots of vegetables in to peoples diets," Ms. Somer told Jacksonville Fresh Foods.

Mission Foods started in 1949 when its visionary Don Roberto Gonzalez created a more effect grinding process for corn flour. This process has led them to be "the world's largest producer of Maseca corn flour and tortilla products." They now have production in five different countries, and they offer a wide variety of products, ranging from life balanced tortillas to sweet snacks. Aside from Ms. Somer's recipes, they also offer an on-line cook book and feature other daily recipes.

"The nice thing about the life balanced tortillas is that they have a whole serving of calcium, so the amount of calcium you get in a glass of milk you can also get in one tortilla. For the kids not drinking enough milk these days, it is an easy way to get calcium in their diets," Ms. Somer added.

There is no doubt that there is a problem with the current eating habits of American children. Parents will often substitute easier purchases over healthier ones, which studies have shown can lead to long term and negative effects.

So what should parents do?

Ms. Somer says, "Don't bring the junk in the house. If there is no cheese whiz, pop tarts and soda pop in the house and all you have in the house is healthy stuff, your kids will automatically make healthier food choices. This means stocking the kitchen with quick fix items like canned beans, low fat cheeses, lots of fresh fruits, baby carrots, non fat yogurt, lettuce and Mission light balanced tortillas. Then it's easy, even your first grader could make them selves a healthy burrito if all the fixings are in the house."

Ms. Somer also said that she may be working further with Mission Foods to develop children's lunch menus, so keep an eye out for more easy nutritional options to come.