Joe's Diner Mac 'n Cheese — TREAT

Munch or Dump rates Joe's Diner Mac 'n Cheese by Joe's Diner TREAT — score 43/90.

Real-cheese comfort food: simple ingredients but fat- and sodium-heavy, with one modified starch doing the engineering.

Why this verdict

• Heavy on saturated fat and sodium for the calories
• Three real cheeses plus butter and cream stack the fat
• Modified rice starch is the one engineered thickener
• Refined enriched-semolina pasta, low fiber
• Indulgent comfort food, fine occasionally, not an everyday meal

Ingredients (10)

• Cooked elbow macaroni (enriched semolina) (moderate) — Refined durum wheat pasta, enriched with B vitamins and iron but low in fiber; the carb base of the dish.
• Milk (safe) — Real dairy base.
• CHEDDAR CHEESE (safe) — Real cheddar, but a small fraction of the mix.
• Imported gouda cheese (moderate) — Real cheese colored only with carotene; flavorful but adds saturated fat and sodium.
• Imported swiss cheese (moderate) — Real part-skim cheese, decent protein but still a fat and salt source.
• UNBLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR (moderate) — Refined flour; the fast-starch leg of the hyper-palatable triad.
• Butter (cream, salt, annatto) (moderate) — Real butter colored with annatto; pure saturated fat that piles onto the cheese.
• Modified rice starch (moderate) — Industrially altered starch used for texture, a NOVA processing marker.
• Salt (moderate) — Used in moderation, might exceed necessary amount.
• Spices (safe) — Real seasoning — the flavor comes from spices, not additive flavor systems.