Wendyl wants to know: Aunty's coconut chunks delicious, healthy winner

Aunt Betty's Creamy Rice with Coconut - $2.49 for 2 x 120g.

Opinion

Everyone wants to eat coconut at the moment. I haven't reviewed coconut water because it's basically coconut and water, so not much to say there. If your coconut water has sugar added then find one that doesn't.

These little pudding snacks caught my attention because they use large coconut pieces in them, and when combined with milk and rice add up to a great snack for kids.

Ingredients

• Reconstituted reduced-fat milk (64%) - This is low-fat milk which has been dried then reconstituted with water. The reason for this is probably that dried milk is easier and cheaper to ship around than liquid milk.

As far as I know the process has little effect on the nutritional value.

• Diced young coconut (20%) - At 20% this means you get 24g of coconut meat, which is great. Coconut is a good food because you get protein, fibre, vitamins C, B6, calcium, iron and magnesium. The coconut in here tastes fresh and firm.

• White rice (6%) - Brown rice would be better for nutritional reasons but white rice is traditional for a pudding such as this. Rice is a complex carbohydrate which means it takes longer to break down in the body, therefore it releases energy slower. So you're better off eating rice like this than, say, a couple of slices of white bread.

• Sugar - This isn't too bad - 12.6g or three teaspoons of sugar per serve. That's 10.5% of the food.

• Vanilla flavour - This will probably be artificial flavour.

• Stabilisers (339, 407) - These are sodium phosphate (339) and carrageenan (407) which is obtained from seaweed.

They will both be in here to keep the texture of the rice pudding correct.

My recommendations

These little rice puddings pack quite a nutritious punch.

There's complex carbohydrates for energy spread out over time, rather than a short, sharp hit from refined carbohydrates. There's also calcium and protein for growing kids, and they're low in fat.

Yes, there is sugar, but it's far less than you'd find in some yoghurts and I appreciated that the makers of this food didn't go overboard with the coconut flavouring. They've just let the pieces of raw coconut speak for themselves.

I think this is a great afternoon snack for starving kids after school. I'm not sure if they'd eat it unheated on the side of a sports field but you could always try.

Highlights

• 20% raw coconut chunks.

• 3 teaspoons of sugar per serve.

• Low in fat with complex carbohydrates.

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