Kellogg’s Special K Mini Breaks

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spacie
spacie Posts: 82
in Food and Nutrition
Kellogg’s Special K Mini Breaks


I saw a full page advert in a Sunday supplement magazine yesterday for Special K Mini Breaks – Chocolate variety. Described as “Mmmmmmmmmm”; “crunch”; “delish”; “biscuit”‘; “chocolate”; “crispy”; “choccy”; “biscuity”‘; “crunch”; “moreish”; “99 calories a bag”; “crunchy, delicious, biscuity bites”.

How to get every word possible to tempt a dieter to eat stuff that they should be avoiding?! And, of course, as people who eat Special K are Queens of calorie counting, the 99 calories a bag is going to appeal. 99 calories of what, however? This is the full ingredients list from the Kellogg’s web site:

Cereals (Rice, Wheat Flour, Whole Oats, Wholewheat, Rice Flour), Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Chocolate (5%)(Sugar, Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Powder), Wheat Gluten, Glucose Syrup, Defatted Wheatgerm, Dried Skimmed Milk, Partially Inverted Sugar Syrup, Salt, Oat Fibre, Barley Malt Flavouring, Raising Agents (E500, E450a), Flavourings, Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin), Antioxidant (E320), Vitamin C, Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1), Folic Acid, Vitamin B12.

Ignore the vitamins added to give this product a false impression of containing nutrients and you have sugar in the form of sugar (twice), glucose syrup, partially inverted sugar syrup and the flavourings are no doubt sweet ones. Then you have wheat flour, whole wheat, wheat gluten and defatted wheat germ. Ever wondered how we end up eating more sugar and wheat than any other ingredients out there?!

- 100g of this product is 72g of carbohydrate and 414 calories.

- 100g of pork chop is 0g of carbohydrate and 123 calories!

- 100 of apple is 14g of carbohydrate and 52 calories.

- 100g of porridge oats (dry oats, no water) is 69g carbohydrate and 379 calories.

Even if you care about calories – there are far better ways to consume calories than to eat 100g of this frightening selection of ingredients.


Be nice to yourself and eat real food! Nature makes the healthiest food – not Kellogg’s.

Replies

  • sazziecee
    sazziecee Posts: 143
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    I think the lemon ones are yummy.

    And if it stops me eating something even worse then what's the harm? sometimes an apple just doesn't hit the spot :)

    Most "diet" products are full of sugar, the actual Special K cereal is too.
  • GingerSnark
    GingerSnark Posts: 153
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    I'm sure they taste good but if you have to ask what's the harm then I don't think you're going to get it even if people try to explain to you what the harm actually is.
  • Natalie43
    Natalie43 Posts: 122 Member
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    must confess i enjoy the 'original' ones as a treat with a cup of tea!
  • amesnc
    amesnc Posts: 32
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    Love this, thanks for posting! I prefer an apple over the 100 calorie packs anyway :happy:
  • TammieOwen
    TammieOwen Posts: 54
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    These things all taste good, but I am starting to learn that the food with one ingredent are the best foods. Like fresh meet, veggies, fruit.
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    Kellogg's is ALL crap. Google it, almost every single one of their products contains fillers and HFCS. I have banned them from my house.
  • spacie
    spacie Posts: 82
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    Kellogg's is ALL crap. Google it, almost every single one of their products contains fillers and HFCS. I have banned them from my house.

    And yet again the Special K diet adverts are all over the place and are in association with Marks and Spencers as they provide the "Red Dress"!
  • worchard
    worchard Posts: 30
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    Now let's not get all "Naturalist" on people here. If a 90 calorie bar filled with some not so good things is going to stop someone from going and getting a scope of ice cream or donut, then so be it. These bars aren't the most idle thing but cn certainly help someone control their cravings and making people feel like they aren't "dieting" and depriving themselves. With most diets the depriving yourself of things is what sets you up for failure. SOmeone "diets" for six weeks eating only one ingredient items and then they start sneaking other foods in there and the next thing they know, they are sitting in front of a cheese fries basket with a side of ranch stuffing their face.......okay, I may have gone a little far there but you get the point.
    Most of the time these bars are the way to get in a "meal" every couple of hours while at work.
    The Special K bars (protein and snack) helped me out tremendously while losing weight in a 12 week period (with workouts). I'm maintaining right now until I kick it up a notch with P90X starting next Monday and each morning have a Special K protien bar on the way to work.
  • spacie
    spacie Posts: 82
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    Now let's not get all "Naturalist" on people here. If a 90 calorie bar filled with some not so good things is going to stop someone from going and getting a scope of ice cream or donut, then so be it. These bars aren't the most idle thing but cn certainly help someone control their cravings and making people feel like they aren't "dieting" and depriving themselves. With most diets the depriving yourself of things is what sets you up for failure. SOmeone "diets" for six weeks eating only one ingredient items and then they start sneaking other foods in there and the next thing they know, they are sitting in front of a cheese fries basket with a side of ranch stuffing their face.......okay, I may have gone a little far there but you get the point.
    Most of the time these bars are the way to get in a "meal" every couple of hours while at work.
    The Special K bars (protein and snack) helped me out tremendously while losing weight in a 12 week period (with workouts). I'm maintaining right now until I kick it up a notch with P90X starting next Monday and each morning have a Special K protien bar on the way to work.

    Hi there, I went back onto the Kellogs website to see what was in the protein bars you have instead of meals. As you may already know, ingredients lists are in order of mass. So the first ingredient is the main ingredient. Here is the ingredients list for your "protein bars".


    Ingredients

    SUGAR, PALM KERNEL AND PALM OIL, MILK PROTEIN ISOLATE, YOGURT POWDER [CULTURED WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, CULTURED SKIM MILK, YOGURT CULTURES; HEAT-TREATED AFTER CULTURING], COLOR ADDED, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR), SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, CORN SYRUP, STRAWBERRY FLAVORED FRUIT PIECES (SUGAR, CRANBERRIES, CITRIC ACID, NATURAL STRAWBERRY FLAVOR WITH OTHER NATURAL FLAVORS, ELDERBERRY JUICE CONCENTRATE FOR COLOR,SUNFLOWER OIL), INULIN, FRUCTOSE, POLYDEXTROSE, SUGAR, RICE STARCH, SOYBEAN AND PALM OIL WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS, RICE CEREAL (RICE, WHEAT GLUTEN, SUGAR, DEFATTED WHEAT GERM, SALT, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, WHEY, MALT FLAVORING, REDUCED IRON, NIACINAMIDE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE [VITAMIN B6], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE [VITAMIN B1], FOLIC ACID, VITAMIN B12), CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF DEXTROSE, CALCIUM CARBONATE, GLYCERIN, SORBITOL, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SALT, SOY LECITHIN, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), XANTHAN GUM, POLYSORBATE 80, D-ALPHA TOCOPHEROL (VITAMIN E), NIACINAMIDE, ZINC OXIDE, REDUCED IRON, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), VITAMIN A PALMITATE, RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), BHT FOR FRESHNESS, ALMOND FLOUR, PARTIALLY DEFATTED PEANUT FLOUR, WHEAT STARCH, VITAMIN B12, FOLIC ACID, VITAMIN D.


    Notice sugar is the largest ingredient plus they have added it to a further 5 ingredients plus corn syrup and fructose (at least that is kind of natural). They even added sugar to the little bits of fruit!!!

    I cant copy and paste the ingredients table here but I'm sure it is on your box. Now, explain this,

    WHY ARE THEY CALLED PROTEIN BARS WHEN THERE IS 10G OF PROTEIN AND 15G OF SUGAR???
  • spacie
    spacie Posts: 82
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    Plus palm oil is the main cause of the deforrestation that is causing Orangutang extinction. Slightly off note but they are neither good for your body or the environment.
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    These bars aren't the most idle thing but cn certainly help someone control their cravings and making people feel like they aren't "dieting" and depriving themselves.

    That's the thing, they don't control cravings they cause them. That's the main issue with hfcs and other fake chemicals put in food.

    Why, if you must have a granola/protein bar, would you choose the crappy one over one made with natural ingredients and nutrition readily found in a grocery store (i.e. Kashi or Luna)?

    That was the point of this post, to show how things we may think are "healthy" are nothing but garbage. Don't sugar coat it (excuse the pun lol) because that is all it is.

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