Taste Test Tuesday: Dreyer's No Sugar Added Fruit Bars

When you first view the box of Dreyer's No Sugar Added Fruit Bars (flavors in my box: black cherry, strawberry-kiwi, mixed berry), a few things hit you straight away:

• sweetened with Splenda


• made with real fruit


• 30 calories per bar


• excellent source of vitamin C

These are great when you want something sweet and refreshing. I find myself having two though, so I'm now talking about 60 calories (which is still really low for a nice, satisfying treat). If you have diabetes and you are counting grams of carbohydrate, even if you had two bars, it would total 16 grams of carbohydrate (8 grams per bar).

Per bar there are also 2 grams of sugar (from the fruit) and I also noticed (much to my intestinal chagrin as I am "sensitive" to them) 2 grams of sugar alcohol. On the plus side there is 1 gram of fiber per bar and 20% Daily Value for vitamin C.

The first nine ingredients for my favorite flavor (strawberry kiwi) are:

Water
Sorbitol (there's the sugar alcohols)
Glycerin (it's safe and is familiar to the body—it's sometimes added as a solvent for flavorings that aren't very soluble in water)
Kiwi puree
Polydextrose (similar to cellulose, it adds bulk to foods without adding calories)
Grape juice from concentrate
Maltodextrin (a moderately sweet polysaccharide used as a food additive and produced from starch)
Strawberry puree
Strawberries

How do they taste?
These are definitely a nice refreshing treat with no detectable aftertaste - according to my palate and the rest of my family. If you are sensitive to the "effects" of sugar alcohol (that would be diarrhea and cramping with a capital "D" and "C"), you may want to stick with a serving of 1 bar at a time!

Related Topics:

• No Excuses: Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables
• The Best of the New Frozen Desserts

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