After seeing a million kids screaming for their 'fluff' marshmellow spread i nthe  supermarket every week, and their mums giving in and buying it cause it ws fat free, i decided to give it ago and make up my own mind about this stuff. after all, doesnt the prospect of

OKay, so it costs about $5.00 fora 213 gram jar, but it isa large jar, the low weight is because the product is light and fluffy. (hence the name i guess)

now i dont know if anyone here has used a product called 'powertack' - a version of blue tac, but is soooo damn sticky. ok. if you have use dthis in summer, you will know the 'goop' i refer to. to those who dont, the goop is something like tar consistency, but white. well, thats the first thing i thought when i opened the jar. but when i stuck my knife in, it was well what you would expect a melted marshmellow to be. kind of light fluffy and sticky with bubbles in it. it sort of looked like dough that is still a bit too wet, with the stringy sort of look to it.

after smearing it on the bread (this is slightly harer to spread than a chunky peanut butter) i was amazed to see it took on that 'melted tar goop' appearance again. a look back in the jar informs me that the hole i made with the knife had been filled in as it too on that goopy apperance again.

it tasted quite nice, even though i only put on a smidgen, less than i would use margarine! (in fact, i recommend you dont use margarine iwth this product. i cant even begin to explain why!)

GOOD THING: after my first i went back for a second, but after the first bite found it too sweet to eat anymore- and im sure the kids will be the same! i have the biggest sweet tooth... and this was only a tiny spreading,

Now the jar claimed on its label to be fat-free. so i thought i would invesitigate for myself.

This is the list of ingredients on the label

glucose syrup, sugar, dried egg white and artificial flavour.

that is exactly how it read. no number brackets or anything. i thought it was illegal to say artificial flavour and not say which one? although it is a convincing marshmellow flavour. Sugar. how much sugar? lets investigate.

Here is the nutritional information table

Servings per package- 23

servin size- 1Tblsp. (9grams)

                                                            Quantity per serve                    per 100g

energey                                              124 kj (30 calaouries)             1380 kj (330 calouries)                  

protein                                                 less than 1 gram                     1 gram

fat - total                                              0grams                                      0grams

  saturated fat                                    0grams                                       0grams

Carbohydrates                                   7 grams                                    78grams

        -sugars                                        7 grams                                    78 grams

Sodium                                                6mg                                            64mg

okay, the first thing wrong with this, is that i doubt it would be 9 grams per serve. anyone who knows there math can tell you that 9 times 23 equals 207. and, the 9 grams ( i measured out) was about double the amount i used. so you will prbably get more than 23 out of it.

the next thing is the energy. 30 calouries of energy isnt alot. this product hasa high glycemic index. a high glycemic index (GI) will give you or your child an immediate burst of energy and then it will drop very quickly and leave you with a cranky child. this is also known as a sugar rush ora sugar high. not fun to deal with. but as there isnt a lot of energy, it shouldnt be as bad (say for instance- coke)

now looking at protein. well. what protein? less than one gram? well thats going to do wonders for your child. he or he would get about as much protein frmo eating an ant. and that is NOT an exxageration.

Well. they look liked they lived up to their claim of fat free. but can it still be fattening?

Oh yes. The carbs. the sugar part of the carbohydrates  is called complex carbohydrates. this is where GI really comes into it. It is the complex carbohydrate that breaks down giving the peak of energy. a high GI food with a slow metabolism is a factor in weightgain.

the complex carbs for one serve is 7 grams. but hang on, isnt one serve suppposed to be 9 grams?!?  well look at that. its a BAD THING: if folowing the recomended serving sizes, 77.2888888888 recurring number % of that is sugar. which means that 22.2222% of the product is sodium energy and protein. and the rest is sugar. considering there is less than 1 gram protein, and 6milligrams of sodium, that doesnt give me the confidence to give it to my children.

The sodium level is fine, and withing a normal range.

the only time i could reccomend someone give this product to a child is maybe a teaspoon about 10 minutes vefore a soccor game or something for an added energy boost at the beginning of the game, where as if they have also eaten something good (like toast) before hand, it will also give them energy throughout the game, and more than likely would be all spent by the time it is over. but other than tha i wouldnt use it.

oh, and dont bother putting the knife in the dishwasher afterwards. it doesnt do a lot, just gets gooing and sticky. although it isnt as sticky as it appears if dripped on the hands, not ike honey sticky. so thats a good thing i guess.

In short. my son will only ever encounter this product if he buys it himself and he isnt going to be in my home while or immediately after he is consuming it.

I also tried the recipe on the label- and it tasted vile.  i wouldnt feed that to my sons worst enemy. or their parents.