Death by Cereal Bars

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Death by Cereal Bars
More and more we are seeing cereal bars being
marketed as healthy options, but are they really
as good for you as they claim? Hmmm- I suspect
NOT! With most of the population being busy and
grabbing food on the go, cereal bars are rapidly
becoming a more popular choice for breakfast, a
snack and even a meal replacement. But are you
sacrificing your health or weight loss for the
sake of convenience?
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So, what do some of the macronutrients in these
cereal bars look like PGPT London
Nutrition per 100g Calories Fat Carbs Sugar
Alpen strawberry yogurt bar 415 10 75 35
Nature Valley crunchy granola bar 456 17.2 64.5 28.3
Kelloggs Nutri-grain elevenses raisin bar 372 9 67 40
Mars Bar 452 16.9 70.3 57.1
Nakd Bar Cookie Cashew 410 23.4 46 39.2
Green and Blacks 70 Cocoa 580 42 36.5 28.5
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When picking your food choices, it is important
to look not only at the calories, but also the
carbs, fats (remember to also break fats down
between saturated and unsaturated. As a general
rule of thumb if the saturated fat content is
more than a third of the total fats than dont
buy it) and sugars, especially when purchasing
things like cereal bars. Some cereal bars have
more calories in them than a Mars bar (and a
pretty close to the mark with sugar and carbs!)
Dont kid yourself. If you want sugar and
something sweet take a chocolate. Leave the
cereal bars out of it completely. The only cereal
bar that in my opinion can be put into the health
range because of its natural products are the
Nakd Bars. The one above is one of the highest
in calories out of the range.
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Although some muesli and cereal bars can be low
in calories, there is a lot of added (not
natural) sugar in them. Let me give you the
following example.  A meal of chicken,
accompanied by a cup of broccoli, a cup of
asparagus and a cup of baby spinach would be
approximately 18g of carbs. Now compare that to a
nature valley granola bar which is 15g of carbs.
Option one is so much more nutritious, filling
and wholesome yet the general public are sitting
down to a cereal bar for supper because of
laziness. Crazy right?!!
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So next time you reach for a cereal healthy bar
as your snack or meal and youre trying to lose
weightstop right there! Often prepacked,
processed or food with a long shelf life have
many added ingredients, added sugars and are not
fresh and natural. Here are my top 5 snacks for
on the go.. 2x Celery sticks with a tablespoon
of cashew butter 1x small pot of total Greek
yogurt with a handful of blueberries 2x Carrot
stick with a tablespoon of hummus Small pot of
mixed olives, feta and sun dried tomatoes 15
almonds and 15 chickpeas mixed together
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Contact Details
 peter_at_pgpt.co.uk 020 8203 8657