The DeBroff DeBrief

“Home of the Free’: Fujifilm’s Honoring of our Veterans

As today marks Veteran’s Day in the United States, I found myself tuning into the morning news and absorbing the stories of both past veterans as well as all those troops currently in the field. What struck me was the deep level of sacrifice made them all in defense of our country and the values that we want to hold strong.

There was the story last week of President Obama going at midnight last week in sadness to meet the returning coffins of service men and women. There was an unbelievably touching story in yesterday’s USA Today about senior citizens in Maine who stand by on call to meet all the returning flights of servicemen which all tend to come into their town first as the touch down back to America, and to offer up free cell phones, snacks, big hugs and handshakes. Plus, Veteran’s Day hits closer to home than ever before, with most of us personally knowing families with a member recently serving overseas.   

In honor of Veteran’s Day, I want to help get word out on a great initiative by Fujifilm to honor our American veterans. Fujifilm has come on as a sponsor for Homes For Our Troops, a national non-profit organization that builds specially adapted homes to help severely injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. These homes, given to veterans at no cost, have enabled injured service members to gain back their independence while providing a home for their families.  

As part of their sponsorship, Fujifilm SeeHere.com, the company’s photo sharing website, has made a commitment through their “Home of the Free” campaign to generate awareness for the cause and provide a way for the general public to help. Fujifilm will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of select items to the organization. Their website offers some cool advanced photo sharing, printing, storage and gift options. It also features a unique design-tool allowing you to enhance photos with special backgrounds, effects and decorations. Lastly, you can easily set up a personal web page for sharing favorite photos.

Fujifilm will also actively participate in home builds by providing veterans and their families with professional family portraits for their new homes, as well as new digital cameras and select photo gifts to chronicle the first year in their new homes, which can be shared through SeeHere.com.  Now how great is that- jumping in to help create holiday memories of their reunited lives with their families. I love when corporations embrace meaningful social causes related to their expertise- giving back by paying it forward.  

For more information about helping Homes For Our Troops and Fujifilm SeeHere.com, please join me in visiting: www.seehere.com/homesforourtroops  

Mom Central received a gift certificate from Fujfilm SeeHere.com in connection with this post.

Over-Scheduling Our Children

The over-scheduling of children in America has increased dramatically over the past two decades. The rise has led to a decrease in free time for unstructured activities and playtime. While Parents have developed the habit of rushing their children from one activity to the next, they have created a culture for their children very different from the one they grew up in. Check out my interview on Good Morning America for the rest of the story.

What do you think about the over-scheduling of children today?

7 grains and 1 mom on a mission: Mom Central visits Kashi day two

Today’s guest post is from Mom Central team member, Anne-Marie Nichols, who edits Mom Central Food and runs Mom Central Blogger University.

On the second day of the Kashi Mom Blogger event, we went for a hike in Torrey Pines State Reserve with people from Kashi and FormulaPR. After we climbed a big hill with me bringing up the rear (I’m a slow hiker, what can I say?) we walked along the beach, and watched the military jets fly overhead on their way out to sea.

After we stretched, we were driven to Great News, a fabulous cookware store and cooking school with a very professional set up including cameras over the stoves. If you live in the area, you must visit their store or take a class.

More Kashi people joined us and we broke up into teams to cook two dishes each. We made a large, delicious lunch using Kashi products and shopped while it was cooking. The most popular kitchen gadget was the onion goggles, special goggles you wear that stop you crying when you cut up onions. I bought a pair of Corvette red ones and they really do work.

Lunch was delicious and cooking it was fun. It also gave us mom bloggers time to socialize with the folks from Kashi while we were cooking delicious dishes. One of my favorites was this recipe, even though it didn’t feature a Kashi product:

Corn, Tomato and Basil Salad
Serves 6

If corn isn’t in season, use canned corn instead.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons of grapeseed oil
• 6 large ears of white corn, husks and silk removed, kernels cut off the cob
• 1 Tablespoon of minced garlic
• juice of 3 to 4 limes
• 1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup chiffonade fresh basil
• 1 pint tear drop or grape tomatoes, washed, drained and sliced in half.

Directions:

1. In a large saute pan, over medium heat, heat the oil and saute the corn. Stir occasionally until the corn just begins to brown.
2. Add the garlic and continue to saute for 1 minute more.
3. Transfer to a sheet tray and cool.
4. In a large bowl combine lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.
5. Add the corn mixture, basil and tomatoes.
6. Combine and adjust the seasonings if necessary.
7. Chill covered for 3 to 8 hours.
8. Serve.

Baby Einstein: It Doesn't Take a Genius

With all the recent flap about Baby Einstein- it has me wondering if the parents rushing into the fray on this topic, or those rushing to return used videos, either spotted an opportunity for a quick buck in a down economy or truly turn off their own "reasonableness meter" when making choices about toys, games, puppets or videos to engage with their kids.

This issue hit particular home to me, as I have been a long time fan of Baby Einstein products and have and continue to serve as a (paid) spokesperson for them because I really believed in their offering us as parents ways to creatively engage in hands-on play with our kids. So this gives me a definite built-in bias, but I just had to share with you my perspective. So I set up my video camera, curled up on a chair in my Mom Central office, and just went for it with this perspective check:

7 grains and 1 mom on a mission: Mom Central visits Kashi (Day One)

Today’s guest post is from Mom Central team member, Anne-Marie Nichols, who edits Mom Central Food and runs Mom Central Blogger University.

When I found out that I’d be representing Mom Central at the Kashi Mom Blogger event last month in San Diego, I was thrilled. Not only had I spent half my life in San Diego, but I had been eating Kashi for as long as I could remember. My dad was a health food nut and used to buy Kashi at a small, funky health food store in the Hillcrest section of San Diego. In more ways than one, with this trip I was returning home… and bringing the kids with me. (Yes, Nathan and Lucie were invited, too, and stayed with caregivers at the hotel while I was at the event.)

Yoga at the beach and more

We stayed at the La Jolla Shores, right on the Pacific Ocean. The hotel was another trip down memory lane for me. My family and I used to stay there while my parents looked to buy a home in San Diego. (We eventually moved from New Jersey to El Cajon, about 30 minutes inland from La Jolla.)

The first morning, I got to meet all the bloggers in the lobby:

• 5 Minutes For Mom and Say It Face to Face  – Susan Carraretto
• Alpha Mom – Isabel Kallman
• BabyCenter’s “MOMformation”/ Mrs. Mogul  / Mogul Baby – Lisa Estall
• Hot Moms Club – Michelle Fryer
• Mommy Tracked and lizziebtv.com – Lizzie Bermudez

After handing over my kids to the caregivers (Lisa brought her family, too), the people from FormulaPR (Kashi’s PR firm) and several employees of Kashi met us for yoga on the beach, including David DeSouza, General Manager of Kashi. (If you ever get the chance to do yoga in the sand, do it. It’s a much more forgiving surface than wood, since you can really dig your toes in.) What a great way to start the day!

Afterwards we had breakfast back at the hotel and noshed on Kashi cereals, bars and waffles. While we ate, we watched a presentation about Kashi’s history (there original office used to be practically down the street from the hotel), the background behind the name, and the story behind the 7 grains.

Most importantly they touched on their philosophy (“Kashiness”) and corporate culture:

• They want everyone to live a healthy lifestyle.
• Do good first. Doing well will come later.
• Consumer needs come first. People fuel their mission.
• They love healthy, enjoyable, natural food.
• They’re guided by their roots.
• Measures of their success are holistic.
• They connect people to their company by using stories from their employees.

You can read more about Kashi’s mantra here.

Then they gave a brief overview of all their brands. We’d be covering this more when we got to their headquarters.

• Kashi U – organic, sustainable packaging
• TLC – taking care of yourself while you’re snacking
• GoLean – first company to use protein in a cereal. Great initial response from people doing the Weight Watchers plan.
• Heart to Heart – heart health
• Vive – digestive health
• Good Friends – for older people
• Mighty Bites – for kids
• Organic Promise cereals – not all the seven grains, but totally organic

We found out who is eating Kashi:

• Those who are on a journey to better health. Either the people who are very aware of health issues and shop at health food stores (“Disciples”). Or the “Managers and Investors” who are more mainstream and buy Kashi at regular grocery stores and club stores. Kashi has been aimed towards both groups as neither has to be convinced to eat healthier.
• Traditionally Kashi has been marketing to women and those in their 20s and 30s. Now they want to expand more to families and kids and are starting campaigns aimed at moms. This is the main reason they had us out and asked for our feedback on advertising copy and packaging.
• Kashi is not about what they don’t put in their cereals (fat, additives, salt) but what they add to their cereals (fiber, protein, 7 grains, plant sterols, antioxidants, etc.) They believe that their products provide a physical and emotional sense of fulfillment. They want to be seen as good stuff to eat that’s more mainstream. However, they don’t believe in making healthy versions of Oreos or Pop Tarts – that’s not Kashiness.

Some Kashi stats:

• More new customers are reached through PR than via other marketing efforts.
• 400,00+ people involved in Kashi.com community
• 3.7 million people have heard about Kashi and were convinced to purchase through a viral Kashi consumer.

We also met with their natural lifestyle and food expert, Keegan Sheridan, DN. She’s currently featured in Kashi’s “Do What Comes Naturally – Easy Ways to Live Naturally at Work” ad. (Kashi mostly uses employees in their ads.) Keegan is a licensed doctor of Naturopathic Medicine and Kashi’s Natural Food and Lifestyle Expert. (You can learn more about her at health.com/kashi.) Keegan explained her mission was to define what natural means at Kashi.

Keegan was a great source of information. For example, she told us that just because a product says it’s made from a whole grain, doesn’t mean that it is made with a whole wheat, soy or oatmeal grain. It could have the endosperm from barley the bran from wheat. This is called reconstituting grains. I had no idea that this was done by food companies. However, Kashi doesn’t do this.

She also told us that Kashi:

• uses evaporated cane juice when the product isn’t sweet enough naturally from fruit or grains and add just enough to make the product palatable to consumers.
• uses expeller pressed oils.
• cannot go completely organic – though they’d love to – because all their grains aren’t available organically in quantities and qualities needed.
• only fortifies their cereals with extras like phytonutrients, antioxidants and heart healthy additives like folic acid. They aren’t replacing nutrients that were removed during manufacturing and replacing them like traditionally fortified cereals.

Maximize Your Child’s Learning Potential with BrainFuel

As the holidays and school vacations inch closer, kids tend to spend more time watching TV and fueling up on cookies and left-over Halloween candy. And while we all deserve some R&R, too much can make for slow moving when it comes time to head back into the classroom.

Finding ways to keep your kids engaged and sharp no matter what the season can challenge any Mom. But giving your kids an extra edge may prove easier than you think thanks to a new web-based program called BrainFuel – designed to maximize our children’s learning potential. BrainFuel4Kids.com aims to help take your child’s learning to the next level. Research suggests key changes in diet, exercise, and sleep can enhance cognitive abilities, and BrainFuel thus offers sections like ‘Brain Food,’ ‘Healthy Brain,’ and ‘Brain Games,’ aimed at engaging kids and Moms alike. The site provides us Moms as much benefit as our kids, featuring a forum to give parents a chance to discuss what works and what doesn’t with our kids this school year. Some of my favorite features include:

• Explanations for our kids in answer to their complaints, “Why vitamins?!”: “The brain is the greediest organ in your body – greedier than the spleen or stomach, even greedier than the heart” and other “why!?” questions.

• Challenging games for kids (and parents!) from Lumosity.com, designed to promote quicker thinking, better concentration, and improved memory.

• Recipes that give your kids the right balance of carbs and protein, and help understanding those complicated nutritional labels.

 

Head to the BrainFuel site to check it out for yourself!

Kellogg's Fiber Webinar

Products touting fiber benefits remain mysterious to most Moms. We question whether our families get too much or too little , and wonder about the correct daily amount and which foods have it. Kellogg’s recently sponsored a Fiber webinar featuring Leslie Bonci, author of Better Digestion and an accomplished dietician, to demonstrate how the brand knows good fiber and to educate us all on the importance of including fiber in our diets.

Leslie explained how 9 out of 10 Americans don’t eat the recommended amount of fiber, making worries of getting too much unfounded. I could hardly believe the laundry list of benefits Leslie discussed such as helping with weight management, digestion, and absorbing nutrients from other foods. The weight benefits come into play since it takes longer to chew food with fiber, which helps make you feel full, and, foods with fiber often contain fewer calories and lots of nutrients. With digestive health just as important as bone or heart health, the advantages fiber provides are crucial. Fiber also remains an especially important part of a child’s diet, as kids who consume a high fiber diet have a less likely chance of being overweight. 

Even though consumers understand the benefits that come from a high fiber/whole grain diet, most don’t know the differences between the two. Fiber actually exists as a nutrient IN whole grain, a part of the bigger picture. Products touting whole grain content don't always get you the right amount of the fiber you need, so it's important to confirm that the product contains a higher source of fiber on the Nutritional Facts Panel, rather than assuming it provides a good source.

While cereal boxes claim to have “whole grain” or “a healthy amount of fiber,” nearly half of all cereals with whole grain claims provide less than a significant source of fiber. Once you start consciously choosing the right type of cereal for your family, you can increase fiber intake by at least 144%! Kellogg’s cereal choices always had a solid amount of fiber, but now that they’ve added more to Apple Jacks and Fruit Loops, Kellogg’s has the most fiber content out of any brand.

Bottom line, women should get about 25 grams of fiber per day and men should try for 38 grams. You can accomplishing this feat easily by looking at nutritional facts and the nutritional label of the product. A “good source” has 3 grams of fiber (10% of daily value) and an “excellent source” contains 5 grams (20% of daily value). Visit www.kelloggsnutrition.com to find articles about fiber and important nutritional tools such as The Fiber Tracker, to help you maintain your intake, and the Size It Up Quiz to test your snack portion IQ. With this information, we can make fiber less of a mystery and more of a regular addition to our family’s diet.

Nissan Sedans Media Preview in Nashville, Tennessee

The Company

As I headed down to Nashville to preview Nissan’s new line of sedans for 2010, I felt apprehensive as to whether I could keep up with the veteran automobile bloggers. I do not consider myself a car aficionado, just a Mom who practically lives in her car. But my time spent scouring dealerships during my most recent car purchase gave me added confidence.

I came out of Nashville’s new, ultra-chic and modern Hutton Hotel to a lined-up fleet of a dozen new Nissan cars awaiting us for a test drive to Nissan’s brand new flagship headquarters rising in modern shiny vertical lines. In attendance were 20 of the top auto veterans (all men except for one woman who’s been writing in this space for decades) – and me. As we picked cars, we got handed instructions for the 15-minute drive to headquarters. No one to accompany me? Just like that- off on a road test!

After arriving and parking our cars in the semi-circle driveway, we entered Nissan’s brand new, state-of-the-art facility. Built in 2008 and designed along with Nissan’s themes of efficiency this building proves an optical illusion as its curvy appearing exterior hides it’s rectangular lines. Each floor has its own town center complete with all central gathering places for employees. The whole building comes complete with wireless technology and plenty of wide staircases for Nissan’s idea of “2 minute meetings” with colleagues as you pass them. Informal workspaces provide the landscape for quick questions and get-togethers, while the state-of-the-art video conferencing system has enabled Nissan to virtually shut down travel between offices and lost productivity. Plus, the building sits on wetlands that got cleaned and restored as part of construction.

We moved into a large amphitheater, equipped with microphones as each seat and started with a Nissan Business update from Bill Kruger, Senior VP, who emphasized a dramatically changed Nissan mindset over the past 10 years: moving from crisis and survival mode, to profitability and finally most trusted in class. Bill showed by comparing 2008 to 2009 sales exactly how hard the economic recession has hit the car industry. To do this, Nissan’s team retooled products, plants, and the whole organization to be more competitive in their industry: and have raised a quality flag as the centerpiece of their brand essence. They have an ongoing commitment to safety, having received the highest 5 star ratings.

So onto The Cars

Sedans have lead global sales for Nissan, with a focus for 2010 on value, technology and entertainment changes, from extensive exterior and interior feature enhancements and sportier looks. We got to test drive four different new sedan models:

Altima

 

This was the car that ultimately impressed me the most, and no wonder. This sedan stands on the Nissan pedestal a it’s #1 profit driver and story for company, which has sold 3.2 million of these models worldwide. So the Altima, now in it’s fourth generation of a model, gets Nissan’s intense focus for keeping things fresh. It’s their highest customer loyalty car. Moreover, the Altima ranked #1 in quality; a very competitive mid-size car survey from J.D. Powers.

In the Altima sedan line, 49% of coupe drivers are women, compared to 39% of their hybrid drivers, and 35% of the sedan drivers.  So why, I asked, do we women love the Altima coupe? According to my fellow media attendee Brian sitting next to me who’s been covering this industry for decades, “The Altima coupe is a jeans and high-heel car. It’s just plain sexy.” Mark from the Nissan team laughed, agreeing and saying, “I’m glad you said that and not me!”

Among Nissan’s changes to keep this best-selling car fresh: Sheet metal change on the hood (when they start “bending sheet metal” it’s a big commitment), also sportier grill, hood and front bumper. On the interior: Nissan focuses on “perceived quality”- what do the consumers think of the textures, color audio display, fabrics and materials, and font size of gauges. The biggest change is a larger and clearer audio display screen, with new technology from back-up cameras, and a Zagat restaurant guide finds for everything around them (not to mention the live weather updates).

Cell phone technology proves the biggest challenge for car manufacturers, as their technology cycles change every 90 days, which makes it’s difficult to have the new cell phone technology intersect with the car’s information technology. Their solution: live blue-tooth streaming- so you can upload all your contacts, listen to your ipod music, and see album art on the screen. Plus XM radio, and you can also load up movies for passengers to watch. A USB connection augments the streaming Bluetooth technology for connectivity of mobile devices to the car’s technology system.

Altima Coupe: From projector beam headlights to alloy wheels, gauge design to next-generation navigation system, the car’s latest 2010 model comes with even more sportiness. We even got to look at new colors and fabrics such as a model with a black exterior and red interior, which I loved.

 

Sentra

The Nissan team shared the technology and pricing story behind their #2 sales car. The Sentra’s main competitors are Honda’s civic and Toyota’s Corolla, and 57% of drivers of this car are women. This car proves popular for those of us stepping out of gas-guzzling SUV’s to more compact cars.  Nissan has done a $1,100 price decrease and at the same time brought low cost, high value technology to this economical car. This includes a new touch screen, with a navigation system, rear view monitor, premium audio with ipod connection, and moon roof. Most compelling in addition to all these feature enhancements: the low price from between $15,000 to $20,000. A bargain! This was the car I drove to headquarters- a great “Steady Eddy.”

 

Versa

The Nissan Versa now comes with an iKey (where car senses key in your purse or jeans) and Bluetooth technology. This car took off during cash for clunkers- as it offered incredible value at a small car price. Nissan sold 18,000 of these cars in August alone. Lowest price vehicle where you can get navigation system and technology integration and a sporty look. As Nissan’s lowest price vehicle, starting below $10,000, this car’s most popular with recent college grads and empty nesters. To achieve this price point- Nissan has gone retro, exploring what feature trade-offs people would go for such as crank windows and no air conditioner. With price and value, this would be a great starter car for your teens, college students & retirees. But too down to basics for me.  

 

Maxima

This time-tested car by Nissan, leans more to sportiness than comfort and all I can say is that it seemed fine. Just didn’t grab me.

Marketing To Moms

So as I stood among all the “car guys” I what stood between Nissan and a strong outreach program toward Moms and women. What I realized while participating in this Nissan event was that I found myself focused on completely different set of questions and features than the rest.

Instead of thinking about torque, I thought about how much I liked coffee holders and interior storage spaces. Instead of steerage, I focused on the ease of use of the navigation system. Rather than hood trim, I thought about how much I like the layout of the gauges. Engine’s horsepower’s great, but the main horsepower I need is for carpooling my kids. So I checked out leg room for my children in the back seat and the layout of the trunk for everything from sports bags to luggage traveling. I wondered how is this car going to handle in the snow, when I am trying to get out of my driveway and school has not been cancelled? What colors does it come in? Do I like the texture or look of the interior? Will it will easily connect to our family’s mobile phones or iPods. I want to know if it comes with satellite radio so we all can agree on a station. Ultimately I want to know if it is reliable and can fit my lifestyle needs. I don’t want to know how the car feels when I drive it, but how I feel when I’m driving it.

So how communicate this with us Mom car buyers?

Road testing multiple cars on 15-minute road tests really makes a difference, especially when driving them without a sales rep hovering in the passenger seat or only going about 8 blocks from the dealer’s lot and back again.  When you drive 6 cars in a row you really notice the difference between engines, specifications and more. I would approach car purchasing completely differently after having had this road test experience, and ask to have a chance to drive (alone!) different models.

In addition to product quality, Nissan has focused intensely on training and support for dealers as a key for customer satisfaction in both the hand-over from the dealer to you after you’ve purchased a car, and as well as service on the car. Yet when I paid a recent visit to my local Nissan dealer in Newton, MA, the lone sales rep on duty (grant it, it was 8:30 in the morning) simply informed me to have a look around on my own. So my impression is despite best efforts, much of the brand messaging does not get effectively communicated from the dealers to buyers, but rather lost in translation during the sales cycle.

Lastly, except for searching consumer reports as I get down to buying a specific new car, I mostly rely on word of mouth. Nissan’s team has found that quality resonates with all of us: how it makes you feel when you drive it, how it performs, and how long the car lasts. And here’s where I search for quality re-assurance: Do I know someone who’s driven the car and loved it? What’s the word online from people I trust? For me, shared first person experiences form a key to brand perception, with follow-up online to ensure no safety or performance flaws.

Nissan has built some great sedans- and here’s hoping to future inroads to social media to bring their brand messaging alive with us women!

In order for me to test drive these sedans and hear from their manufacturing team, Nissan covered my travel expenses to their global headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.

 

Online Tools from Microsoft Office Live

Every fall as my local grocery store’s shelves start filling up with Thanksgiving decorations and seasonal holiday items, I begin thinking about how quickly the winter holidays will arrive. And each and every year I vow to avoid the November through December chaos and stress by getting organized – from updating my holiday card mailing list, to gift shopping for our extended family (filled with nieces and nephews!), and coordinating winter travel plans – all while making sure my kids keep up with midterms and school projects and transition from fall to winter extracurricular activities. Thankfully this year, I learned about Microsoft Office Live, a set of free, easy-to-use online tools that help us busy Moms stay better organized and share information with the people that are important to us.  

One of these tools, Office Live Workspace, gives you a handy, online space to store, share, and remotely access your documents and files. When you log on to Office Live Workspace, you can create a workspace for a specific event or project, and choose among dozens of templates that can help get you started and stay on track along the way. For instance, if you volunteer to plan a winter carnival at your child’s school, you may need to create all kinds of documents to keep yourself on track—like a project plan, event agenda, or parent sign-up sheet—and share them with the other volunteers. With Office Live Workspace, you can upload your documents and allow others to access and update them, or post new versions to the workspace to ensure everyone stays on the same page.

Microsoft Office Live stores all the templates and documents online so you can update the document you started at work on your home computer, or vice versa. You can use Microsoft Office Live to manage extracurricular activities, work projects, travel schedules, and even job searches.  Also, you can upload virtually any file type and you get 5GB of online storage for free – enough to store thousands of documents!

The other Office Live service, Office Live Small Business, can help you easily create a simple but professional-looking website for a school event, sports team, or to help get your new business off the ground. Starting with one of the Office Live Small Business website templates, you can quickly build a website, even if you aren’t an expert in HTML or web design. Plus, web hosting and design tools are all free.

Mom Central wrote this post in connection with a campaign for Microsoft Office Live.

Truvia Blog Post and Giveaway

A few months ago, I shared my love of Truvia™ natural sweetener, a natural, zero-calorie alternative to artificial sweeteners, which has been on my shopping list for years. I was trilled in January when the company announced that Truvia, once only available at specialty and health food shops, would hit national grocery store shelves in 2009. This summer, Martha Stuart jumped on the Truvia bandwagon, giving this fantastic product an even bigger boost into the mainstream.

Harvested from stevia, a shrub in the chrysanthemum family that is native to northeastern Paraguay, native tribes in South America have used the plant to sweeten foods and beverages for more than 200 years. Over the past five years, Truvia’s growing following developed in the US because, 10 times sweeter than natural sugar, the sweetener provides the perfect low-calorie solution for baking or a morning cup of coffee.

It’s so exciting to see a fabulous natural brand go mainstream and to celebrate their big breakthrough, we’re giving away 10 Truvia gift packages, which include a garden tote, a pair of gardening gloves and a box of Truvia natural sweetener, so you can try some for yourself. To enter to win, leave a comment below letting us know why you love (or would love to try) Truvia.