Grains, fruit and nuts are good for you, right? So cram them all into a bar and you get a powerful snack that's packed with wholesome fibre, carbohydrate, protein, essential oils and more, and you get a natural energy boost.
But sometimes the modern food industry doesn’t leave things as nature intended them. Here are a few tips on what to look out for…
Carbohydrates
A good mix of energy-giving carbohydrates can be found in oats, rice flakes and other cereals, dried fruit and honey — a good variety will give you a more steady energy release.
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On the label: Any mention of ‘sugar’ in the ingredients is just sucrose — the refined, less healthy stuff, which has been stripped of all its vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes and other body-friendly nutrients. Along with the fruit sugar fructose, it will give you instant energy, but needs to be backed up with the slower starchy sugars in the cereals for a sustained energy delivery. If there has to be straight sugar, raw cane sugar is best.
On the nutritional information table, look at the quantity in grams of carbohydrate per 100g serving — and then the ‘of which sugars’ quantity. The sugars figure should be much less than half of the total carb content.
Fats
There are good and bad fats, and then there are very bad fats. The worst are known as ‘trans fats’ which are a byproduct of hydrogenation — the process by which fats are saturated.
Preservatives, colours and sweeteners
General rules
- Generally speaking, the fewer the ingredients, plus the better and the more familiar they are to you, the healthier the bar.
- Whole is wholesome. If you can see whole raisins, nuts and cereal flakes then the chances are they’re less processed, less degraded and better for you. The downside is that you’ll have to chew more and digest a bit longer, but if it tastes good what’s the problem?
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