Fruit bar handy for people on the go
Staying active over winter is one thing, meeting nutritional demands at the same time is another. For those of us who love to get out and about, even in winter, it would be nice to think there are products available that are convenient, delicious, nutritious and effective at replacing the carbohydrate stores burnt during your event.
Annies is owned by a company called Kono which is located at the top of the South Island and proudly sports the tagline ‘love for the land, respect for the sea’.
Already a good start.
Their Apple and Raspberry
100% Fruit Bar sounds yum. The front of the label says there’s no added sugar or preservatives, and they’re not made from concentrate.
They’re also gluten-free and as they are 100 per cent fruit, should be dairy free and vegan friendly too.
The per 100g column allows the comparison of one product to another. The per serving column differs between products and needs to be interpreted with caution.
The Annies label says there are two serves per packet which is handy considering there are two separate straps.
But you’re likely to take the whole fruit bar with you, so let’s learn about the nutritional content of the entire 30g bar.
To do so, either multiply the per serving information by two or, as the net weight is 30g, calculate 30 per cent of the per 100g column.
Maths aside we’re interested in total carbohydrates, sugar and dietary fibre.
There is 10.5g of total carbohydrate per strap, so 21g if you eat them both – 16.8g of the total 21g of carbohydrates is highlighted as sugar.
The Annies fruit bar has
10.4g/100g of dietary fibre. Remember products with over
6g/100g of dietary fibre are considered high fibre products.
Let’s look at the ingredients they use. Annies has kept it simple by only using fruit puree, 90 per cent apple and 10 per cent raspberry.
No freaky sounding ingredients and unlike other fruit products, they don’t use fruit concentrate.
This means the nutritional information is reflective of what’s naturally occurring in fruit, it hasn’t been added.
So, the 16.8g of sugar is likely to contain fructose. If you are on a low FODMAP diet, note the apple content. If you are sensitive to fructose, note there is likely fructose present.
Annies Apple and Raspberry
100% Fruit Bars are flat so won’t take up much space in your pocket.
They are made entirely from fruit so contain natural sugars that would be effective at replacing carbohydrate stores during your sport of choice.
Just remember to rehydrate and as per Kono’s tagline ‘love for the land’, take your wrapper home with you.