Sugar secrets of ‘health’ bars

More shocking facts about the food we eat

By Sandra Roycroft-Davis, founder of Thinking Slimmer

One thing I have always looked out for is the healthier option, it’s just a habit I’ve always had; but it’s a habit that sometimes means you come across shocking information.

The fact is, a lot of the foods marketed to us as healthy nowadays aren’t so healthy at all, in some cases it seems just as bad as the foods we’re trying to avoid.

They often very have very high sugar content, sometimes in a healthy form, but very often in a form which leads to a short burst of energy for about 30 minutes.

If you often feel that you feel you need sugar regularly to keep yourself going throughout the day, then perhaps you should have a look at our habit-breaker Slimpod: Beat that Sweet Tooth.

One food I’ve been looking at lately is healthy snacks we can eat on the go, especially cereal and health bars; I’ve put together a few of some of the best and worst to go for, all contain sugar but some are much healthier than others.

Not so great
due to
sugar content!
The Food Doctor
GET SET BAR 40g (of which 15g is sugars)
This bar does contain a lot of fibre, so it does help you to feel fuller for longer, and it contains seeds, oats and spiralina which is supposed to help per up your energy levels.

However, the bars also contain 15g of sugar, the equivalent to a whopping three teaspoons – this is less than in 40g of for example custard creams biscuits!

 

Good as its full
of slow-release
energy and is
filling!
Trek
MIXED BERRY BAR 68g (of which 30g is sugars)

This snack has a lot going for it despite looking very high in sugar, its the type of sugar that’s important!
It’s really high in protein and so will make you feel fuller for longer.

The sugar content is quite high but this is probably largely because it is full of dates and therefore it also makes up one of your five a day.

The ingredients make this bar high in fibre and therefore very good for the digestive system; it’s a really good filling snack if you’re one the go and going to be needing a good amount of energy!

 

Not really
any good
nutritional
value!
Kellogg’s
SPECIAL K RED BERRY BAR 23g (of which 9g is sugars)

This cereal bar really does not have much going for it at all; it’s packed with about two teaspoons of sugar and to be honest, very little else!

You’d get some rapid energy followed by a crash about 30 minutes later; nuts or fruit would be a much better quick food option. There is very little fibre or anything else included in this bar.

 

Less sugar
than similar
products.
Comvita
MANUKA HONEY BAR 40g (of which 4.7g is sugar)

This bar has lots of healthy benefits; firstly the sugar content which is just over a teaspoon is in the form of fructose which means it will give you a slow release of energy.
There is also evidence that there are great antiviral and antibacterial benefits to Manuka honey!

On the other hand the bar does have more fat than a Flake, however, this is made up of fruit, seeds and nuts and not saturates so it’s a better snack option then something chocolaty.

 

High in
saturated fat
and sugar!
Eat Natural
HAZELNUTS, APRICOTS AND VANILLA BAR 45g (of which 10.8g is sugar)

These are just full of sugar, in fact there is more in an Eat Natural bar than in a two-finger Kit Kat; and there are more calories than a standard bag of Maltesers!

Its high in fat at 11g and a third of that is very unhealthy saturated fat; you’d be much better having a small packet of dried fruit, this is not at all a good option if you’re watching your weight.

 

 

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