Are low calorie snack bars actually healthy?

As I said in my calorie counting post, counting calories doesn’t tell you about the nutritional make up of a food. So just because a product is low calorie it doesn’t mean it’s healthy. There is a surprising amount of sugar in a lot of popular low calorie bars.

How much sugar is too much? 

The recommended amount of added sugar (also called free sugars) is no more than 30g a day.

This includes all sugar added to foods like in processed foods like cake and sauces, the sugar in fruit juices or smoothies, and the sugar you add yourself like in a hot drink. A lot of low calorie snack bars have added sugar and so will contribute to your 30g daily limit.

You may also be surprised that the sugar in fruit juice counts also towards your daily total. This is because in fruit juice, the sugar is released from the fruits cells and so is readily available in the juice. This means it’ll be digested quicker and can lead to a sharp increase in your blood sugar levels.

How to spot sugar on a nutrition label: 

Looking at food labels can be really helpful to see how much sugar is in a product. Ingredients are listed in order of weight, so whatever is the first few ingredients is what’s the majority of the product.  If sugar is in top 3 ingredients it’s likely high in sugar.

Sugar can also appear on a food label as: honey, nectar, fruit juice concentrate, syrup, treacle, molasses, fructose, maltose, or sucrose so it’s worth keeping an eye out.

Another way to spot sugar on a label is with the traffic light labelling system. 

• Red – high: more than 22.5g of sugar per 100g or more than 27g per portion
• Amber – medium: more than 5g but less than or equal to 22.5g of sugar per 100g
• Green – low: less than or equal to 5g of sugar per 100g

Examples of low calorie but high sugar products: 

Here a few examples of foods I’ve found that are sold as low calorie and ‘healthy’ but are actually all high in sugar.

• Weight Watchers Chewy Caramel Wafers less than 75kcal have 43g of sugar per 100g and 6.9g per wafer.
• Fibre One Salted Caramel Drizzle Squares 90 calorie have 22.9g of sugar per 100g and 5.5g per square.
• Go Ahead Strawberry Yoghurt Breaks 71 kcal have 35.3g per 100g and 6.3g per slice but there’s 2 slices in a single serve pack so it’s 12.6g of sugar in total.
• Belvita Honey & Nut Breakfast Biscuits 50 calories per biscuit have 26g per 100g and 2.9g per biscuit but there are 4 biscuits in a pack so there's 11.6g sugar in total.
• Go Ahead Apple & Sultana Fruit Slices 55kcal have 30.1g per 100g and 4.4g per slice but there are 3 slices in a pack so there’s 13.2g of sugar in a serving.

Why should you be wary of high sugar snacks? 

While there’s nothing wrong with there’s wrong with the occasional sweet snack, these bars are marketed as healthy and so people may think that means they can be eaten more regularly. Excess sugar consumption can lead to tooth decay and can contribute to obesity.

Added sugar is also quickly digested in the body. This means it leads to a spike in your blood sugar levels. The hormone insulin is secreted to bring your blood sugar levels back down. This change in blood sugar levels can leave you feeling hungry again or craving something sweet. This means you could be eating more than you intend to.

So, your healthy snack soon turns into something not so ‘healthy’.

I’m not trying to demonise these low calorie snacks. They can be a quick and easy snack option. But it’s worth remembering they might not be the healthy option they’re marketed as. Having them in moderation as part of a balanced diet is important.

Key points: 

• Free sugars are sugars added to foods, and those in fruit juice and smoothies.
• We should have no more than 30g of free sugars a day.
• Looking at the nutrition label can help you see how much sugar is in a product.
• Sugar can also be called glucose, syrup, treacle, molasses, nectar, honey, caramel, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, or fructose in an ingredients list.
• Low calorie bars like Fibre One bars, Belvita breakfast biscuits, and Go Ahead bars are high in sugar.
• Consuming too much sugar can lead to tooth decay, obesity, and sharp rises in blood sugar levels which leave you feeling hungry.

 

I hope you enjoyed this blog post; I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Bye for now! 👋

References:

Free sugars: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/how-does-sugar-in-our-diet-affect-our-health/

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/445503/SACN_Carbohydrates_and_Health.pdf

Tooth decay: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30447790/

Obesity: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29772560/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26376619/