The Not So Sweet Truth About Your Favourite ‘Healthy’ Snack Bars

I've done a few posts now on the whopping amount of sugar in our favourite fizzy drinks, ice creams etc. To be honest while the amount did shock us, we should expect these things to be laced with sugar. Our favourite 'healthy snacks' however are a different kettle of fish. I wanted to know how much benefit there was in forgoing chocolate in favour of a 'healthy' alternative snack bar. Read on to see what I found out...

The guideline daily amounts of sugar consumption are 85g for a child, 90g for a woman and 120g for a man. If you're trying to cut back on sugar maybe you're plumping for one of these healthy bars instead, but are you really saving yourself that much sugar? Well check out some facts on how they all weigh up:

• The one that I thought would be the worst offender, the dubiously named KetaSlim bar, had the least amount of sugar at only 2g, it had 20g protein and 8g fat per bar. On the flip side is had a zillion ingredients, most of which I couldn't pronounce. It's packed with protein so probably good if you're working out a lot, I'd be worried about the indecipherable ingredients though.
• If you're a fan of the Eat Natural bars then you should probably know it is 25% fat with 12.8g of fat per bar! Maybe you'd be better off eating and actual apricot and pot of yoghurt. However with 8.8g sugar it's high but not the worst of the bunch.
• My favourite Nakd Cocoa Orange bars are unfortunately very high in sugar with 14g per 35g bar. To be fair to them though the bars are made from mostly raw dried fruit so it's not really a secret that they're sweet.
• If you're eating the Cliff bars I hope you are indeed planning to climb a Cliff, because these whopper 68g bars contain 21g sugar. To put it in context, a Dairymilk bar contains 29.5g sugar.
• Pretty much any kind of flapjack is laced with the sweet stuff. The Trek one contained 13.6g sugar and the Natures Valley one contained 11.7g sugar

Eat Natural -Apricot & Apricot Yoghurt Coated Fruit and Nut Bar - Per 50g Bar 

8.8g sugar

3.5g protein

12.8g fat

QuestBar - Banana Nut Muffin Flavour - Per 60g Bar 

2g sugar

20g protein per bar

5g fat per bar

Ultra Energy Bar - Chocolate Nut Crunch - Per 60g bar 

8g sugar

22g protein per bar

7g fat per bar

Keto Slim High Protein Bar - Chocolate Almond Crunch - Per 60g bar 

2g sugar (but uses artificial sweeteners like maltitol, xanthan gum,

21g protein per bar

8g fat per bar

Meridian Almond Bar - Per 40g bar:

9.3g sugar

12.2g fat

7g protein

Cliff Bar - Crunchy Peanut Butter - Per 68g

21g sugar

11g protein

6g fat

Trek Cocoa Coconut Protein Flapjack - Per 50g bar

13.6g sugar

12.7g fat

9g fat

9bar Original - Per 50g bar:

13.1g sugar

9.2g protein

20.3g fat

Natures Valley - Oats and Chocolate - Per 42g bar

11.7g sugar

3.2g protein

8.1g fat

Nakd Cocoa Orange - Per 35g bar

14g sugar

4g protein

7g fat

Now I know sugar isn't the only thing to consider when you're buying a snack. The flapjacks are very sugary but at least contain a bit of fibre, and a few of the other options at least contained a good bit of protein. But at least be wise to what you're eating. I used to horse through either a 9 bar or a Nakd bar each day and while they certainly have some redeeming features it's a hell of a lot of sugar to be not only mindlessly eating each day, but eating thinking I was making a super healthy choice. Sometimes it might be just as well to eat a piece of fruit, a yoghurt or some nuts, or at least eat them knowing they contain a lot of sugar.