Would Amanda Eat It? – Double Dose Edition

Oh yes, my friends – even on a short holiday week, we here (ok, me here) at TFB know you have to get your weekly dose of Would Amanda Eat It?  And in honor of Thanksgiving, I want to give you a second helping of information – two foods for thought!

First up: KIND bars.  I feel like these things are ubiquitous these days; I get them in every race goodie bag, I see them in the hands of kids at the mall; I watch yogis pop them open after class.  So what’s the appeal?

There are a plethora of KIND bars/products out there, so for the purpose of this entry, I’m going to focus only on the one I see the most – the bar – in the flavor Dark Chocolate Mocha Almond.

The good:

• I can pronounce every ingredient in the bar, and sugar doesn’t come in until #3
• Fiber is sky-high (7g)
• Protein is decent (6g, though for 200 calories you could get nearly 50g, to put it in perspective)

The bad:

• The ingredients include three (!) types of sugar – sugar, honey, and non-GMO glucose
• The bar contains palm kernel oil, which is basically condensed saturated fat, in addition to cocoa butter, which is another form of saturated fat
• 5g sugar doesn’t seem like a lot compared to, say, a Snickers bar – but consider that you’re only supposed to have 40g (MAX) added sugar in a day, and 5g isn’t fabulous

The verdict:

• Sorry, KIND.  I have yet to find a processed food bar (i.e. one I didn’t make myself) that I would eat or recommend to clients.  The calories, sugar and saturated fat are too high to provide such a low amount of protein, and let’s be honest – you’ll be hungry 2 hours later (if that).  Try making your own bars for a whole food alternative – and save some money to boot!

Up next – round two – one my clients claims her daughter loves this product but was wondering about my take on its contents.  Consider next Dr. Praeger’s Spinach Cake:

You may have seen them in Whole Foods or Sprouts and wondered hmmm – are these really a decent alternative to potato pancakes and/or grain sides?  Here’s my take.

The good:

• The first three ingredients are all actual whole foods (spinach, potatoes, onion)
• There’s no saturated fat and only 80 calories in the whole cake
• 3g of protein is actually not bad for something primarily made of vegetables

The bad:

• A little higher in sodium than I’d prefer – 160mg for one cake (though not terrible)
• A cup of actual spinach has 56% of your daily Vitamin A; this little cake only has 20% – so it makes you wonder how much spinach is actually in it
• It contains canola oil, which isn’t the healthiest oil (by a long shot)

The verdict:

• Heck yes I’d eat these – and I’d recommend them to moms struggling to sneak veggies into their kids’ diets.  They come in other varieties (though, beware – not all as awesomely healthy as the Spinach Cakes) and are made with whole, clean ingredients and minimal additives.  A definite win in the “creative veggies” department – though they’ll never replace a good old-fashioned spinach salad. 😉

That’s it for this week folks – leave a comment or visit my Facebook page to make your request for next week’s Would Amanda Eat It?