Are NutriGrain Bars Good For You?
April 29, 2017 11 Comments
Are NutriGrain Bars Good For You? These bars by Kellogg’s can be found in the breakfast aisle next to the cereal.
The idea of a bar that could solve all of your hunger problems is a good one. I have been looking at a bunch of bars lately in the hopes that I could find a few that I like. I checked out LUNA Bars in Are LUNA BARs good for you? and thinkThin High Protein Bars Review: Are They a Healthy Choice?.
It is remarkably difficult to find a great bar. I love the concept of a breakfast bar for the “grab and go” crowd that never has time to sit down and eat.
My ideal bar would have:
1. Five grams of sugar per bar.
2. About 150 calories (the right size for a snack).
3. Have a delicious flavor and texture.
For breakfast, I would eat about 300 calories (or two bars) to keep me going. This is the ingredient list from the Nutrigrain soft baked bar:
Whenever a box says “NOW MORE REAL FRUIT” – that scares me. The fruit here is “strawberry puree concentrate” and it is way down in the ingredient list (which means that there isn’t a lot of it).
The nutritional facts for the strawberry bar are:
120 calories, 3 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 24.0 g carbohydrates, 11 g sugar, 2 g protein, 3 g fiber, 125 mg sodium, 5 SmartPts
This is below 150 calories but with 11 grams of sugar – that is more than twice my limit. But the worst thing here is the taste. I don’t know why but these fail for me in so many ways. They are chewy and sickly sweet. They don’t remind me of food at all.
If you gave me a choice between this and a donut – I would choose the donut every day of the week. I wouldn’t even care about health. These taste terrible.
You know what? These soft baked NutriGrain bars taste like the ingredient list - a mixture of weird extracts of food and NOT LIKE ACTUAL FOOD!
Kellogg’s puts out another Nutrigrain bar that I thought might be great. It is called “Fruit & Nut”.
As you can see, peanuts is the first ingredient which is a great choice for breakfast. There is actual fruit here with raisins, blueberries, and dates.
It has 150 calories but there are 11 grams of sugar. I was willing to let that slide because raisins and dates are high in natural sugar. My concern is added sugar which I can’t figure out from the packaging.
At any rate, these were the worst bars I have ever tasted in my life. I am not exaggerating. There was a metallic aftertaste that destroyed any hope that I could take another bite.
The concept is great – like a KIND bar – nuts and dried fruit packed together – but the execution makes me wonder if they have any taste testers.
I wouldn’t buy or eat these bars. Go for a LARABAR or a KIND bar if you need a quick breakfast. I know they cost more but they are so much better.
Other posts you might like:
Are LUNA Bars Healthy? An Unbiased Review
LUNA BAR is marketed exclusively to women as a healthy choice. Can a flavor like chocolate cupcake be healthy?
thinkThin High Protein Bars Review: Are They a Healthy Choice?
There are so many bars on the market and a reader asked me if I thought thinkThin high protein bars are a healthy choice.....
11 Comments:
JuneBug
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