Are “grab and go” snack bars as healthy as they claim?

Did you know some of your favorite “go to” snacks or protein bars are actually glorified candy bars?

Some of these so called “healthy” bars pack as much sugars and fats as normal junk food.

Over the past decade, the health industry has been booming with such strong words as “gluten free”, “trans fat free”, “no artificial flavors/colors” or better yet, “fat free” snack foods. This is false advertising by the companies whose bottom line is to increase revenue.

I have compiled a few protein bars, breakfast bars and chocolate bars to take a closer look at their nutritional value.

** The bars & flavours are picked at random.

 ** click me to enlarge*

What does this all mean?  Take a look at the following recommended daily intake for the average Canadian adult:

Sugar: 19g daily

Fat: 20%-35% of your daily calories

Protein: 46g (female) – 56g (male)

Sodium: 1500g

Carbs: 225g-390g

 

As you can see, some of our favourite go-to snacks are in fact not as healthy as we thought.  For example, the Clif protein bar (black cranberry and almond flavour) has 22g of sugar.  This is the same amount of sugar in a Kit Kat bar.  Remember that we should only be consuming 19g of sugar per day.  Consuming this protein bar would max out your daily sugar intake in one go.  Another example is the Nature Valley (oats and honey flavoured) granola bar.  This handy snack has 160g of sodium.  Considering that our daily intake of sodium should be a total of 1,500g, 160g in a light “snack” is alot.

I hope that after reading this piece, you will make the better choice when selecting these types of products. Although these snacks are ready-to-go and convenient, better alternatives are sliced fresh fruit, a home-made trail mix, greek yoghurt, unbuttered popcorn, and fresh vegetable sticks.

Like, Share and as always please leave a comment regardless if we share the same views or not.

Thanks,

Dave