CEREAL BARS: Grabbing a cereal bar as you race out of the house in the morning or putting one into your child's lunchbox is a healthy option, isn't it? Not always - because some cereal or breakfast bars are more than one-third sugar and high in fat.
Surprisingly, a Special K bar contains more sugar than a Cheerios bar, while Fruit 'n Fibre contains less fibre than a Nutri-Grain. A comparison of five randomly selected cereal bars shows that it pays to read the labels (see table below).
"Cereal bars are not a health food or a healthy alternative to other snacks such as muffins," says Nuala Collins, nutritionist and author of a recent study on obesity in children. "They are not a particularly good idea for kids. Although they're a useful stand-by if you're late getting the kids off to summer camp for example, ordinary foods such as sandwiches, yoghurt and fruit are much better."
Collins doesn't recommend cereal bars as a breakfast for adults either. "Because cereal bars are high in sugar and fat, they aren't a good substitute for a healthy breakfast. Breakfasts should be made up of a wide range of food groups: cereal, milk, orange juice and toast."
According to the UK Food Standards Agency, 10 per cent of sugar in a product is "a lot" - and all these bars have more than 26 grammes of sugar per 100 grammes with the prizes going to Frusli (43.6 g) and Fruit 'n Fibre (39g).
Collins' advice is to read the labels carefully, especially if you have been advised to follow a low-fat, low-calorie diet. "Some bars might say 'low in fat', but they have extra carbohydrates so they are high in calories." Most of us should try to keep our overall fat consumption at a moderate level, she says, but people with health conditions such as heart disease or diabetes should also be aware of levels of saturated fat. The FSA guidelines state five grammes of saturated fat per 100 grammes is "a lot" - and Cheerios contains 8.9 per cent.
However, it makes more sense to look at the amount of fat, sugar and fibre in each bar rather than in 100 grammes. "The percentage of fat or sugar doesn't relate to the portion you eat," says Collins. A smaller bar is often lower in calories, sugar and fat than a larger one. For example, Special K and Nutri-Grain contain similar amounts of fat and sugar per 100 grammes, but Special K works out lower in fat, sugar and calories because it's a smaller bar.