belVita Breakfast biscuits

They taste awesome!!!!!

To me, they're too sweet and too high in carbs. But my husband loves them (he's another "can't be bothered with breakfast" type)

They're wonderful! I have the brown sugar and cinnamon now...taste like cookies.

They are lovely, too high in fat for me to eat these days though:~)

Love 'em!!!

The ones with the yoghurty bit in the middle are so good...they're really 'thick' though and take quite a lot of chomping to get through them, do leave you satisfied though!

My 3 year old and i both love them I'm usually a slacker when it comes to breakfast so they are sometimes i grab a pack I have become obsessed with these. http://www.emilybites.com/2012/01/banana-chocolate-chip-baked-oatmeal.html. I've also made them with canned pumpkin and walnuts which lowers the calorie count. soo good!!

I had never heard of these, and they sounded wonderful, so I did a quick search. I have no idea who the person(s) is who wrote this, so take it for what you will. They really do seem very high in sugar though, especiallly with yogurt and fruit added for your "healthy" breakfast.

http://www.comforteatingcoach.com/food-offence-2-belvita-breakfast-biscuits-or-how-to-overdose-on-sugar/


Food Offence # 2: Belvita Breakfast Biscuits or how to overdose on sugar

by Comfort Eating Coach on June 6, 2011


There’s another product on the market that claims to be a suitable part of your breakfast, and that is Kraft’s Belvita Breakfast Biscuits.

Advertised on TV using a couple of well-liked celebs these ‘biscuits for breakfast’ are seductive. I mean, who doesn’t sometimes fancy something sweet for breakfast and if the famous, slim and attractive woman on the telly eats them then they must be ok. Right?

Ok, the TV ad got my attention. A biscuit ‘designed for breakfast’ that releases its carbs over 4 hours. Sounds good. I’m all for slow release carbs – they help keep your energy levels up and reduce cravings – but could this benefit really be found in a biscuit?

So I bought a packet to check out their credentials and give them a try.

Clever Packaging and Marketing

The first thing I noticed was that they were on offer in small packs in the supermarket – a clever incentive to get you to try them.

The second thing I noticed was the packaging. I bought the ‘fruit and fibre’ biscuits which are decorated with an illustration of wheat swaying in the wind and coloured yellow as though basking in the sunshine (don’t you just feel a warm and healthy glow already?). In the bottom left is a photograph of more wholegrains and ears of grain along with fresh figs – just to let you know, if you hadn’t already realised that this product is full of good healthy stuff!

To give the impression of scientific authority a graph sits to the top left, presumably to signify how the carbs are released slowly in the body.

Below this comes a call-to-action, ‘Why not take a little time to enjoy a balanced, yet absolutely delicious Belvita Breakfast’.

According to the box, a balanced breakfast is:
■4 Belvita Breakfast biscuits
■a low fat yoghurt
■a piece of fruit
■a cup of tea or coffee

So, is this really a balanced breakfast?

Let’s check it out and take a look at the nutritional information on the packaging.

The main claim made by the manufacturer is that the wholegrain in the biscuit allows a slow release of carbs over 4 hours. However the carbohydrate content of these biscuits is 64 grams per 100 grams of which 25 grams is sugar (compare that to porridge which has 1.1 grams of sugar per 100 grams of product and Weetabix which has 4.4 grams of sugar per 100 grams of product).

Out of interest I compared this nutritional information with a cupcake, namely the Fabulous Bakin’ Boys ‘Chocolate and Orange King Cupcake’.

Guess what. The Belvita Breakfast Biscuits had pretty much the same amount of sugar in them as the cupcakes: 52.3 grams per 100 grams 29.5 grams of which are sugars! Unsurprisingly a quick look at the list of ingredients shows that sugar is the second on the list and that other forms of sugar, such as dextrose also make an appearance.

So, you might just as well eat cake for breakfast!

Update: Perhaps it’s unfair to compare a biscuit to a cake. So here goes – let’s compare the breakfast biscuit with another biscuit, one that is also made of wholewheat, namely McVities ‘Digestives’.

So, McVities Digestives have 62.8g of carbohydrates per 100g 16.6g of which are sugars (remember the Belvita ratio is 64:25 per 100 grams of product) and their protein content is only marginally less than the breakfast biscuits (7.1g for McVities and 7.5g for Belvita). Now, you wouldn’t dream of eating McVities Digestives as part of a healthy breakfast would you? ‘Nough said!

Kraft may advise you to combine these biscuits with other ‘healthy’ food stuffs but there too lays a problem. Low fat yoghurts are not low sugar and some fruit, such as the grapes pictured as part of their ideal breakfast combo (see post update), can also be laden with sugar albeit natural sugar. If you take sugar in your tea or coffee too then you are seriously overdosing on the sticky stuff first thing in the morning and will very probably feel fatigued and hungry by mid-morning and begin craving more sugar and stimulants to keep you going. For women who struggle with food sugar can be a trigger to bingeing and tea and coffee can also be a part of this problem.

Obesity and Type 2 diabetes are on the rise in the UK and the US in large part, I believe, because of the sugar laden products that are manufactured and masquerade as food.

Update: Belvita have now changed their packaging as a result of this post (according to their nutritional consultant!) and show a different type of fruit to as part of their ‘healthy’ breakfast.

Their consultant also told me that this product is aimed at people who skip breakfast. My advice here, to those of you who struggle to get breakfast before you leave the house, is to a) try to get organised the night before and give yourself more time in the morning or b) take a pack up (of healthy, low sugar foods with you that you can eat slightly later in the morning.

Not really a good breakfast IMO. Not filling and likely to make you snack.

I never eat a full packet (unless it's the yogurt ones, because I can't help myself ) but they seem to fill me up just fine. They're great for when I have early mornings at work, feel sick and can't really eat anything else, or have to eat my breakfast in the car on the way to Uni.

Yeah, they're high in sugar, but honestly that's never been a problem for me. I see all these people saying 'sugar makes you crave crap' and it never has for me.

I wouldn't eat them for breakfast - I rarely eat breakfast and if I do I want something savoury. however on those evenings when I'm craving something sweet, then they are DELICIOUS (and I reckon better for me than some other sweet stuff out there). My favourite is the milk and cereals flavour - there's something Horlicksy about it.

Yeah, they're high in sugar, but honestly that's never been a problem for me. I see all these people saying 'sugar makes you crave crap' and it never has for me.

Blood glucose up then down quickly in most people = hunger craving.

I normally have either those or porridge for breakfast. I cannot eat as soon as I get up so I take a pack to work and eat them there. They are still not the best option for breakfast, but they are often far lower in salt and sugar than a lot of breakfast cereal and they keep me full till lunch.

If it doesn't fit into your diet, don't eat them. It fits into mine! What I eat for breakfast depends on my mood and the day. Sometimes it's oats, sometimes it's eggs, sometimes it's Belvita.

Well said!

And

Blood glucose up then down quickly in most people = hunger craving.

funny, my body must be a mutant. That's pretty cool. I'm going to join the X-Men, catcha later.

They're great but don't regard them as better than a Twinkie bar. If you don't want breakfast, don't eat it.

I sometimes eat them to make up calories at night if I fancy a change.