A Pile of Nuts, Chewy Caramel, and a Slab of Nougat, Covered in Chocolate
Sounds delicious — and it is.
These nutty bars were often my mid-morning snack before I decided to lose weight and cut down on sugar. Now after reducing my sugar palate over the years I find them too sweet! The parent company, MARS, has marketed Snickers as a healthy filling snack.
The thinking is that the peanuts in the bar make it a high protein snack. With 4g of protein in the bar it does offer protein but if you look at the ingredient list you will see ‘sweet whey protein’ and ‘milk protein’ as well. So peanuts are not the only item providing protein.
Snickers is made locally so the ingredient list has slight variations depending on where you buy it. I found that Indian Snickers has less peanuts. If you compare the ingredient list of an Indian Snickers to one bought at a store where you get imported foods you will see this difference. The nutrition info on the website also differs — corn syrup is an ingredient as is egg white. In June of 2013 Snickers began making their bars without eggs just for the Indian vegetarian consumer.
What you need to remember is that Snickers is a candy bar, not a healthy filling snack as they the company would like you to believe. Yes, it has peanuts but sugar, fat and salt, and calorie content are just too high. There are 26.4g of sugar, 15g of fat, 120mg of salt and 276 calories in the bar. (If you are watching your weight then a snack should not be more that 150-200 calories.) And the ingredients are full of various powders, syrups and fats.
Here are the ingredients of the Indian bar:
Milk chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, skimmed milk powder, lactose, milk fat, sweet whey powder(from milk), emulsifier, (soya lecithin), natural vanilla extract. Centre Filling: Peanuts, glucose syrup, sugar, palm fat, water, skim milk powder, salt, lactose, sweet whey powder(from milk), natural vanilla extract, milk protein Bottom Line: Eat sparingly. It is a candy bar which is classified as junk food and you will gain weight if you eat it regularly. Remember that when you grab it as a snack. Eating some peanuts with some chocolate instead.
Bottom Line: Eat sparingly. It is a candy bar which is classified as junk food and you will gain weight if you eat it regularly. Remember that when you grab it as a snack. Eating a few peanuts with some chocolate is a better option.
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