What’s actually IN a Kind bar?

Now, we don’t eat much packaged food in our family, but sometimes life happens, and you’re out and can’t wait for dinner. One option that I find less objectionable than most of the things available at convenience or grocery stores is Kind bars. Out of all of the “granola-type” bars out there, they have a list of ingredients that is quite similar to what I’d use if making a snack at home for my kids.

We really like the Almond and Apricot bar. It contains:

Almonds, coconut, honey, non GMO glucose, apricots, apple juice, crisp rice, vegetable glycerine, chicory root fiber, soy lecithin, citrus pectin, natural apricot flavor.

Now, I’m not crazy about the inclusion of soy lecithin, but when you compare this to a Nutri-Grain Apple Cinnaon cereal bar, you’ll probably agree that the KIND bar is a better choice. Here’s what’s in the Nutri-Grain product:

crust: whole grain oats, enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, vitamin b1 [thiamin mononitrate], vitamin b2 [riboflavin], folic acid), whole wheat flour, soybean oil, soluble corn fiber, sugar, calcium carbonate, whey, wheat bran, salt, cellulose, potassium bicarbonate, cinnamon, mono - and diglycerides, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavor, wheat gluten, niacinamide, vitamin a palmitate, carrageenan, zinc oxide, reduced iron, guar gum, vitamin b6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin b1 (thiamin hydrochloride), vitamin b2 (riboflavin), folic acid, filling: high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, apple puree concentrate, glycerin, sugar, sodium alginate, modified corn starch, malic acid, methylcellulose, calcium phosphate, cinnamon, citric acid, caramel color.

Mmm….nothing like some HFCS, grains, GMO corn, and artificial ingredients to assuage your hunger. One can nearly always tell the quality of the ingredients by how much the product needs to be fortified, and this one looks like it was in need of some serious help.

However, the FDA disagrees. The Kind bar is not allowed to have health claims on the label, but the Nutri-grain bar IS allowed to tout it’s alleged benefits. Here’s what a box of Nutri-grain bars looks like: