Blog for all health-conscious: Fooducate Blog - Kellogg’s Nutty Delights Chewy Bars

Friday, 22 June 2012

Fooducate Blog - Kellogg’s Nutty Delights Chewy Bars – Less than Delightful Ingredients

Kellogg’s Nutty Delights Chewy Bars – Less than Delightful Ingredients

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 07:50 AM PDT

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On a recent visit to my aunt, I found this Nutty Delights Bar on her kitchen counter. Looked yummy and seemed like a decent choice for auntie, a known junk food addict. It has fiber, it has antioxidants . . . did she finally choose a healthy snack? A quick scan with the Fooducate app and I was shocked to see that it gets a D, the lowest score possible for bars! Sorry dear auntie . . .

I decided to hold back praise and advised my aunt that this product has trans fats and lots of other additives that make it not such a good choice. I showed her the alternatives on the app and convinced her to try cocoa dusted almonds instead of this highly processed bar. There is so much junk in this, I had to show her Fooducate’s extended list of commentary:

Here are the ingredients (red for bad ingredients, orange for fortifications) :

Roasted Peanuts, Chicory Root Fiber, Rolled Oats, Sugar, Whole Grain Barley, Vegetable Oil (Hydrogenated and/or Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel, Canola, Palm and/or Coconut Oil), Semisweet Chocolate (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Dextrose, Milk Fat, Soy Lecithin, Confectioner’s Glaze [Shellac, Hydrogenated Coconut Oil]), Soluble Corn Fiber, Crisp Rice (Rice Flour, Sugar, Malt Extract, Salt, Mixed Tocopherols for freshness), Fructose, Dextrose, contains 2% or less of Coconut, Cocoa (processed with Alkali), Glycerin, Whey, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Soy Lecithin, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Polysorbate 60, Sorbitan Monostearate, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol Acetate), Xanthan Gum, BHT (for freshness), Zinc Oxide, Soy Protein Isolate, Almond Flour, Wheat Starch.

What you need to know:

When there are trans fats in a food, any “health benefits” the product offers are irrelevant. In the case of this bar, most of the benefits (fiber, antioxidants) are from fortifications, not real ingredients. For someone like my aunt who probably consumes more than one processed food item a day, the 0.49 grams of trans fats in each ones can quickly add up!

What to do for family and friends that love these bars too:

My aunt isn’t the kind of lady who is going to start eating kale chips and homemade vegan granola bars. But she can eat a bit better . . .