Beware the Pseudo Protein Bar!

Food labelling, isn’t it great? If you know how to read and interpret food labels they are very useful. Some food producers get a bit carried away with the claims they put on certain products and you need to make sure you keep an eye out and don’t get sucked in. I’ve noticed some odd things recently are being labelled as ‘protein bars’ when I don’t particularly agree that they are. I thought I’d talk about what I call pseudo protein bars today.

Protein and protein bars seem to one of the buzz terms around food at the moment. I’ve seen things like quinoa have claims on the packet that it’s packed full of protein and they aren’t kidding. A quick Google search tells me that there’s about 8 grams of protein per cup of cooked quinoa (a good vegan protein source) which is high for a grain, I will concede, but in broader terms is not that high in protein.

What is really bugging me at the moment is the amount of cereal and nut bars that are being labelled as protein bars. In my opinion a nut bar, which is probably held together by a nice range of sugars (yes honey is basically pure sugar) is not a protein bar. Again nuts are a food item that people love to talk about being high in protein but again that’s relative!

For me to think about eating a protein bar it needs to have at least 15 grams of protein and many of these nut bars (that I’ve looked at their nutrition information panels) only have about 10 grams of protein if you’re lucky.

I realise nutrition is not all about pure calories because nuts do have some great nutrients that are good for our bodies but if you’re trying to watch your weight and do the right thing you can be getting off-track without even realising it.

Read the full article at: https://melissalosesit.co.nz/2017/03/07/beware-pseudo-protein-bar/