Progresso High Fiber soup review

When I went to General Mills Eat and Greet blogger event earlier this year, I had a chance to try out their new Progresso High Fiber soups. These soups have 28% of the recommended Daily Value of fiber per serving (7 grams), no added MSG or artificial flavors. The high fiber soup varieties include Chicken Tuscany, Creamy Tomato Basil, Hearty Vegetable and Noodles, and Homestyle Minestrone.

Now I’m usually an Amy’s or Imagine organic soup consumer, and will occasionally eat Campbell’s noodle soups or tomato chicken rice as well. (Ah, the value of childhood nostalgia.) I also love to make soup, but keep canned soup on hand for convenience’s sake. However, I never buy Progresso, because I was under the impression that they used MSG and all kinds of yucky crap in their soups. (Must have been all those Campbell’s ads.)

There’s no MSG (yay) but the high fiber soups are full of questionable stuff like modified food starch (see my review of Ronzoni Smart Taste for a discussion of that substance), soluable corn fiber, soybean oil, yeast extract, corn syrup solids and soy protein isolates. (You can view the nutrition labels here.) Not exactly ingredients that you’d use to make homemade soup.

It’s really too bad because the High Fiber Creamy Tomato Basil is delicious. It’s a favorite of mine and I always keep a few cans in the house, even though I’m not too thrilled with its ingredients list. Since it’s only 2 Weight Watchers POINTS per serving, how can I resist? It’s one of those products where taste and low POINTS win out over natural goodness, much to my embarrassment.

I wonder if I should rethink this considering there are yummy and healthy alternatives like Amy’s Organic Chunky Tomato Bisque or Imagine’s Organic Creamy Tomato Basil (lower in fat and calories than Progresso’s version). Maybe I should stick to eating vegetables, fruits, and whole grain organic bread for my fiber needs instead, too.

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Disclosure: General Mills provided me with a can of soup,and two soup bowls with spoons through MyBlogSpark. I’ve donated the soup bowls to a fundraiser for a local writers’ association. The Chicken Tuscany soup will be donated to the food bank.