So I picked up some Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Nut - Almond bars today. I'm mowing it down and wondering what's in. Let's have a look at the ingredients on our Nature Valley so-natural-it's-like-eating-tree-bark Naturelicious nature bars.
Almonds, High Maltose Corn Syrup, Rolled Oats, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Crisp Rice (Rice Flour, Sugar, Malt, Salt), Palm Kernel Oil, Wheat Flakes (Whole Wheat, Sugar, Salt, Malt), Fructose, Canola Oil, Water, Yogurt Powder (Cultured Whey Protein Concentrate, Cultured Skim Milk, Yogurt Cultures), Maltodextrin, Salt, Nonfat Milk, Soy Lecithin, Color Added, Honey Natural Flavor, Baking Soda, Sunflower Meal, Peanut Flour. Mixed Tocopherols Added to Retain Freshness.
Almonds - that's good.
High Maltose Corn Syrup - yea, that's crap.
Rolled Oats - sounds healthy enough
Sugar - not great, but hopefully natural enough
High Fructose Corn Syrup - devil food. America would lose 20 pounds a person without this chemically concocted crap.
Crisp Rice - fair
Palm Kernel Oil - mmm...oil. crap.
Wheat Flakes (more sugar I see)
Fructose - unnatural sugar. crap.
Canola Oil - didn't we already have oil?
Water - why am I so thirsty after eating one of these bars?
Yogurt Powder - maybe this is what the water is for?
Maltodextrin - sounds like something that causes cancer...
Salt - yea, we don't get enough sodium in our diets
nonfat milk - nonfat is good right? I don't know, I've never seen a nonfat cow.
Soy Lecithin - per wikipedia "Commercial lecithin, as used by food manufacturers, is a mixture of phospholipids in oil." Yummy, fats swimming in oil.
Color added - why? because naturally it's blue?
Honey natural flavor - why not just honey? Do they put bees in this stuff?
Baking soda - I'm all out of negative opinions. You may pass.
Sunflower Meal - I guess Sunflowers have to eat too.
Peanut Flour - How hard do you have to squeeze a peanut to get flour out of it?
Mixed Tocopherols Added to Retain Freshness - Once again, wikipedia "Tocopherols are sometimes used as a food preservative to prevent oils from going rancid". So the oils you shouldn't have to put in there to begin with need a preservative?
Needless to say, I'm staying clear of Nature Valley "of Sin" products after this. Seriously, way to mislead the consumers.
I like Kind bars as an alternative. These truly are all natural, and you don't have to Wikipedia have the ingredients.
You should read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover. Although, reading it made me want to move to the country and raise chickens/turkeys and grow all the food I eat in my own garden. I wish there were more natural/local options for us suburbanites, and I wish all the giant industry food makers (and consumers) would realize that the price of "cheap" food is so much more than what you pay at the checkout stand. It's hard (even for me still) to reconcile that when looking at your grocery bill.
ReplyDeleteTry Kashi. They have all natural (I think) products
ReplyDeleteStop worrying about all that stuff--it just leads to sleepless nights which leads to fatigue which leads to stress because you're worried that you can't sleep which eventually leads to heart disease. Eat the darn bar and go enjoy your life.
ReplyDelete