ZAR - Buyer Beware!

I was chatting to one of my customers the other morning, she is a reader of the blog, works in a local gym and is interested in diet and fitness. She showed me the printout of the nutritional information for a new product in a well known chain of bakeries over here.

It is a bar called Fit2Go. From this name you would be imagining that you were making a good choice about what you were eating. Looking through the list of ingredients there are lots of oats, rye, poppyseeds, linseed, barley, sesame seeds etc. However the 7th ingredient on the list is partially hydrogenated oils. From my blog in August on transfats, you may or not remember that hydrogenised oils are really what we need to try to avoid. They increase cholesterol and clog up the arteries. They're used to prolong the life of the product.

The other thing that shocked me was that there is 13.6g of sugar in the bar. There is no recommended daily intake for sugar, although if you google it, 40g is the number that pops up. However, many experts believe we do not need sugar in our diet, we are simply addicted to it. Sugar not burnt simply turns into fat. I am really avoiding sugar at the moment, and after the initial few day of cravings, I really don't miss it. I do eat natural sugars in the form of fruit.

What I'm trying to say is that you need to be really aware of what you're buying. I bought 3 snack bars today to see how they stacked up. A 42g apple crisp muesli bar, had 11.7g of sugar. A 45g whole grain trail bar, had 9.2g and a 30g mixed nut bar with a chocolate base, 9.2g of sugar. Astonishingly 2 of these bars claimed that the sugar within them was only 10% of the recommended daily intake.

Information is the key here and let me tell you that it is hard work. Once you know how much crap is in the stuff that we routinely buy and feed ourselves and our families. I know I'm really lecturing today but if you're trying to lose or maintain weight or even live a healthy lifestyle, you need to know that some items that are claimed to be healthy may not be that good for you.