October 10, 2006 on Random Thoughts
The Betrayal of the Breakfast Bar
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As a faithful fan of breakfast bars, I bought some this weekend on my massive grocery trip. I decided to try something new (I usually go with Nutri-Grain Muffin Bars, Banana Nut- delish), and I picked out Smart Start Healthy Heart Bars, in Strawberry Vanilla.
DO NOT GO THERE.
This morning, I innocently took a bite at my desk. On first bite, I was a bit disgusted, as I don’t like overly sweet things.
My criteria for a delicious breakfast bar:
-moist, but not sticky
-yummy
-doesn’t taste like candy
-doesn’t cause tooth decay
-goes well with yogurt
Now, that list may seem simple to satisfy. Unfortunately, after a few bites of my Heart Smart bar, I realized that it just wasn’t up to par. And so, I decided to check the label.
Iron: Check
Calcium: Check
Vitamin A: Check
Well the problem didn’t seem to lie in the nutritional facts table. So I moved on to ingredients, where I discovered THE PROBLEM.
Ingredients: Oat bran, rice, corn syrup, sugar, fructose…
Now, in a breakfast bar–which by definition must be good for you and a nice “heart healthy” way to start your day– should not have THREE of its top five ingredients be sugar variants. Big Problem.
Since when does Heart Healthy mean “Kill your Pancreas!”?