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Healthy Recipe Doctor

From low fat recipes, to recipes designed for diabetics, Elaine Magee RD, MPH shares recipes and advice to create healthy meals that are guaranteed to please.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Taste Test Tuesday: Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars
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If you don't like chewy granola bars then you've probably already discovered the Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars. For years I've seen the "variety" box available with three different flavors. The times I've bought them for camping trips or marathon dance competition weekends, I always tried to grab one of the peanut butter packs before they were all gone - they are definitely my favorite flavor. I like that they aren't too sweet but have a wonderful peanut butter and toasted oat flavor.

Well, the other day at Target I actually came across a whole box of the peanut butter flavor! These crunchy granola bars have a nice peanut butter flavor and a crunchy (bordering on crumbly) texture. There are two granola bars in one pack (6 packs per box) and most people eat both in one serving.

This adds up to 180 calories and 11 grams of sugar, 30 grams of carbohydrate, 7 grams fat, 1-gram saturated fat, 5-gram protein, and 190 mg sodium. Both bars only contribute 2 grams of fiber, however, even though whole grain oats is the first ingredient.

The first four ingredients are:
Whole grain rolled oats
Sugar
Canola oil
Peanut butter

Nature Valley products are not impacted in any way by the recent peanut butter recall. Their website states, "Nature Valley does not source peanut butter from the plant that has been implicated."

If you have a favorite granola bar, tell us about it!

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Posted by: Elaine Magee, RD at 1:15 PM

4 Comments:

Anonymous jeanne said...

these are some of the best granola bars i have ever had. my husband is diabetic and he doesn't have to use a lot of insulin to eat these. we buy the 3-flavor variety pack (oats n honey, peanut butter, and maple brown sugar) at b.j's and it lasts us through a month of grab-and-go breakfasts!

Mar 9, 2009 7:44:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kashi's Pumpkin Spice Flax crunchy granola bars are my favorite. Same amount of calories, but only 8 sugars and twice as much fiber.

Mar 10, 2009 7:01:00 AM  
Anonymous workoutnut said...

Odwalla bars are great and come in a lot of flavors. Not too sweet and a great pick me up.
The only hard part is finding them. The local grocery store quit stocking them.
Try them - you may like 'em.

Mar 10, 2009 10:59:00 AM  
Blogger tesslouise said...

I like the Nature Valley bars but haven't bought them in a long time...don't know why. For a chewy bar, I like the Kashi TLC Dark Chocolate Coconut "Fruit and Grain" bars, with 21g carbs/4g fiber/4g protein per bar.

May 29, 2009 12:08:00 AM  

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