Nutrition Bars

[livingdeb]

I got to do some of my own work at work. It's very satisfying to get more training modules online even though I still have some questions, and to gather those questions in a single document.

However, my snacking habit has gotten worse. And it wasn't that great to begin with, which became abundantly clear when I made some cookies last weekend for a birthday party. I made no-bake chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookies (once dubbed Calvinesque chocolate-frosted sugar bombs by the birthday boy). The ingredients list is uncomfortably similar to the ingredients list of the snack bars I've been eating.

Harvest Whole Grain Toffee Chocolate Chip flavor Power Bar

Grain: whole oats, rice flour, milled rice, and oat fiber
Other fiber: "inulin (fiber)"
Sugar: brown rice syrup, evaporated cane juice syrup, barley malt, sugar, and honey
Protein: soy protein isolate, roasted soy beans, almond butter, and peanut butter
Dairy: whey, nonfat milk, milk fat, and milk
Other fat: fractionated palm kernel oil and cocoa butter
Other flavorings: salt, cocoa, vanilla, and chocolate
Other vitamins and minerals: many
I don't know what category this belongs in: soy lecithin and glycerin

Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs

Grain: oats, wheat bran
Other fiber: none
Sugar: evaporated cane juice (brownish crystallized sugar)
Protein: peanut butter
Dairy: nonfat milk
Other fat: butter
Other flavorings: cocoa, vanilla
Other vitamins and minerals: none
I don't know what category this belongs in: none

The version where I don't substitute wheat bran for some of the oats and where I don't leave out 1/3 of the sugar in the recipe gets about 39% of its calories from fat, 11% from protein, and 57% from carbs whereas the "nutrition bar" is about 18% fat, 16% protein, and 67% carbs.

Alright, the bar has a bit more protein and less fat than my cookies. Still, the difference is hardly overwhelming.

Hm, the Power Bar is the only one I had at home, because I saved it for R. to bring to his co-workers as a yummier semi-healthy bar than the ones they're eating. (Hey, it has actual fiber in it.)

Well, let me look up a better but comparable one online:

Chocolate Chip Peanut Odwalla

Grain: organic rolled oats, rice flour, rice bran, and organic oat flour
Other fiber: none
Sugar: brown rice syrup, grape juice concentrate, organic evaporated cane juice, date puree, and plum puree
Protein: peanut butter, peanuts, peanut flour, and organic soy nuts
Dairy: none
Other fat: cocoa butter, organic sunflower oil
Other flavorings: chocolate liquor, ground vanilla beans, rosemary extract, natural flavors, salt
Other vitamins and minerals: calcium carbonate, vitamin C, vitamin E, folic acid
I don't know what category this belongs in: soy lecithin, vegetable glycerin, baking soda

Calories: about 25% from fat, 13% from protein, and 61% carbs. The ingredients sound better than those in the Power Bar, but the ratios are similar. Still, it's just another large reduced-fat cookie.

This should mean that I should quit eating these things.

But it might mean that I should try substituting more peanut butter for some of the butter in my recipe and see if that's just as good and then bring those to work instead.

Anyone know a quick way to get nutrition information on your own recipes?

Comments

Nutrition Info

[tamaraster.livejournal.com]

nutritiondata.com is pretty good and there is some feature for evaluating a recipe. Or you can look up the individual ingredients and make a spreadsheet in Excel, which is handier for tinkering, if you're a tinkerer.