PTI Tucson Blog

Energy bars are certainly handy portable quick snacks to take when on the go. As with everything in life, some are better than others and some should just be avoided! Here are the top 5 that I would avoid:

1. PowerBar Protein Plus – Chocolate Brownie: This bar is for serious weight trainers; packing a hefty 360 calories, 11 grams of fat and almost as much sugar as a can of soda!
2. Quaker Oatmeal to Go: This is about as far from oatmeal that you can get. Oatmeal gets its power from its fiber and protein. This bar get its power from Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup which happen to be the first two ingredients after oats.
3. Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Nut Granola Bar, Peanut: Get ready for your sugar high and crash. This bar has virtually no servings of vitamins or minerals and 170 calories, mostly from the 11g of Sugar.
4. Kudos Chocolate Chip Granola Bar: This chocolate dipped bar has only 120 calories but you will be quickly grabbing another one as it contains only a mere 1 g each of protein and fiber so it won’t keep you full very long.
5. Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Yogurt Bar, Strawberry Yogurt: At only 130 calories and 3.5g of fat, this might seem like a good choice at first glance but when you look at the ingredient list, it looks like a chemistry experiment. The gooey center is mostly High Fructose Corn Syrup, some fruit puree and Red Dye #40.

Here are the 9 most important foods to avoid if you have diabetes:

1. Sugary Foods: soda, sweets, dessert and the such; these cause huge spikes in blood sugar and lead to weight gain. Choose sweet fruits or berries instead!
2. Fruit Juice: all the sugar and none of the fiber. Eat the fruit instead!
3. Dried Fruit: again, the best choice when it comes to fruit is fresh fruit. Be careful with tropical fruits like bananas and mangos, as they are high in sugar for fruits.
4. White rice, bread and flour: the key here is white. Avoid these highly refined and processed foods. Opt for whole grains instead!
5. Full Fat Dairy: much higher in saturated fats that lead to weight gain and heart disease both of which diabetics are predisposed to.
6. Fatty Cuts of Meat: same story with saturated fats. Go for the leaner cuts and chicken, turkey and fish.
7. Packaged Snacks and Baked Goods: These are pretty much a big combination of everything bad for diabetics and then some: full of sugar, refined flour, saturated fat, sodium, preservatives and usually high in trans fats. Nothing redeeming about these foods. They are awful for diabetics…actually for anyone!
8. Fried foods: full of fat, at times trans fats and lead to weight gain and heart disease. Not good for anyone.
9. Alcohol: alcohol is pretty much sugar in its purest form. If you do drink, drink in moderation that is one drink for most women or two for most men.

Did you know that you can swap applesauce for vegetable oil one of one when you are baking and eliminate a lot of unhealthy fats from your baking. I use natural, unsweetened applesauce to avoid the additional sugars as well. Combine this with using granulated Splenda or Splenda Brown Sugar Blend you can really reduce the caloric content of your baking while still tasting delicious! Give these a try in you favorite recipe and let me know what you think!