Sugar & Palm Oil Bars - misleading food labels - Brief Article

Nutrition Action Healthletter, July, 2001 by Bonnie Liebman

"Filling Made With Real Milk!" exclaims the box of Chex Milk'n Cereal Bars. All that real milk must explain why the bars have "The NUTRITION of a bowl of cereal with Milk," right? Wrong.

The "nutrition" comes from the handful of vitamins and minerals General Mills adds to these glorified Rice Krispies Treats. The "milk filling" is made mostly of sugar plus nonfat milk, lactose, palm kernel oil, natural and artificial flavors, and other additives. And unlike a bowl of most Chex cereals--Wheat, Rice, or Corn--which have two to five grams of sugar, each Milk'n Cereal Bar has 13 grams. What's more, a bowl of Wheat Chex has five grams of fiber. A bar has zip. Bottom line: if you want the real nutrition of a bowl of Chex with milk, you'll have to eat one.

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