Wendyl Wants To Know: Little snack packed with big sweet hit

Healtheries Real Food Bar, LSA & Cranberry. $2.20 for 30g. Photo / Wendyl Nissen

One of the secrets to healthy eating is keeping good snacks on hand so that you aren't tempted to buy a packet of chips or a bar of chocolate to satisfy hunger on the run.

This little bar is the size of a match-box and looks like a piece of fudge cake.

You will get 494kj or 118 calories when you eat this snack but 209kj or 50 calories will be from sugar, because there are three teaspoons of the stuff in each tiny bar.

Healtheries Real Food Bar, LSA & Cranberry. $2.20 for 30g.

Ingredients (in order of greatest quantity first)

Dates

These are the main ingredient in this bar and they lend a nice taste to it. Dates are a great snack because they are low in fat and rich in vitamins, fibre, iron and potassium as well as other minerals. But, they are 65.9 per cent sugar, according to Food Standards NZ, and that sugar is made up of about half fructose and half glucose. So they will increase blood sugar levels. This bar contains 12.8g of sugar, which is just over three teaspoons, or 42.7 per cent of this bar.

Almonds

These are also a great snack as they are rich in nutrients but quite high in fat at 55.5 per cent.

LSA (8 per cent: linseeds, sunflower seeds, almonds)

If you've visited a nutritionist or dietitian they will have you putting this combo on your cereal and in your smoothies. This is because the combination of these three ingredients is high in Omega 3 fatty acids.

Cacao liquor

This is basically liquid chocolate and the bar has a slight chocolate taste.

Cranberry pieces (5 per cent) (cranberry, sugar, sunflower oil)

Dried cranberries which have sugar and sunflower oil used in the drying process. You can see little pieces of cranberry in the bar and they lend a strong, tart flavour.

My recommendations

On one hand it's great to snack on dates, nuts and LSA rather than a bar of chocolate. But if you're trying to cut down on sugar you are getting a lot in here at three teaspoons. Yes, it is mostly the sugar from the dates, but it's still sugar and nearly half this bar is made up of it.

Instead, search for other bars on the market which have less than 2g saturated fat, less than 10g sugar, more than 1.5g fibre and less than 600kj per bar. They do exist and they will sit quite happily in your desk drawer, handbag or backpack, ready to satisfy your hunger.

Highlights

• Three teaspoons of sugar in a bar the size of a matchbox.

• Mostly made of dates, which are 65.9 per cent sugar.

• 484kj or 118 calories per bar.