Product Category

Granola – Pioneer, Seed, Luxury Wholefood

Category: Cereals & Porridges

Granola Products

There are as many granola products as there are individual tastes and needs. Although granola is found mainly in bar form, it is also available as a breakfast cereal. All granola is, of course, mainly based on cereal and more specifically on oats. As for content, take your pick. Your favourite granola’s dominant flavour could be strawberry, apple, blueberry, raspberry, lemon, vanilla or chocolate, and it may contain nuts, seeds, fruit, raisins, berries, chocolate, honey, molasses, soy, yoghurt, peanut butter, caramel or whatever the food company thinks might take your fancy. On the health side, products now range from almost junk food – featuring such ingredients as chocolate chips, candy pieces, caramel and marshmallows – to very healthy, whole-food varieties. For the diet conscious, consumer preferences such as high carbohydrate, high protein, high fibre, low fat, diabetic sensitive and non-allergenic are being catered for more and more.

Nutritional Content of Granola

The nutritional value of any given granola product will, of course, depend on the ingredients in it. Nature’s Choice offers the following health granolas (a nutritional analysis is provided alongside each ingredient list):

Luxury Whole Food Granola

Ingredients: Rolled oats, fructose syrup, raisins, cashew chips, sesame seeds, soya protein isolate, sunflower seeds, bran, coconut, maltodextrin, vitamins and minerals

Nutritional Info
Calories	481 Kcal
Total Fat	25.19 g
Sodium	76 mg
Total Carbohydrates	53.54 g
Dietary Fibre	2.11 g
Protein	13.14 g

Pioneer Granola

Ingredients: Oats, macadamia nuts, fructose, barley malt extract, dates, cashew nuts, wheat, coconut, sea salt

Nutritional Info
Calories	432 Kcal
Total Fat	15.54 g
Sodium	8.4 mg
Total Carbohydrates	38 g
Dietary Fibre	3.2 g
Protein	36.81 g

Seed Granola

Ingredients: Rolled oats, wheat germ, fructose, whole wheat flour, coconut, sea salt, sesame seeds, linseed, dairy cream

Nutritional Info
Calories	449 Kcal
Total Fat	18.97 g
Sodium	39 mg
Total Carbohydrates	58.12 g
Dietary Fibre	2.51 g
Protein	14.56 g

More Info

Granola is a snack food of the late twentieth century that was “invented” for people with busy schedules who still wanted a quick energy boost to meet the demands of the day. Granola typically contains mainly cereal (usually oats and sometimes rice) combined with some nuts, seeds, fruit, raisins, berries, chocolate, honey, molasses, soy, yoghurt, peanut butter, caramel and so forth.

The nutritional value of any given granola product will depend on the ingredients in it, but a typical healthy granola, whether in a bar or breakfast cereal, should offer a reasonable amount of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, protein and fibre, and it should be low in or free of saturated fats, cholesterol and sodium. The benefits will show in every organ and function of the body!

As ever, all Nature’s Choice granolas are free of sugar, free of refined grains, and free of hydrogenated fats. Our granola products also contain no preservatives or food chemicals or even added vitamins. We prefer that you get all of your vitamin and mineral needs direct from the food that you eat – this way we have the assurance that you will be receiving maximum benefit from our products.

Description and Origin

In an age of pushbutton technology, busy schedules and instant gratification, it was simply a matter of time before the convenience craze hit the food we eat. After a slow start in the eighteenth century with the invention of the sandwich by Lord Sandwich and such breakfast innovations as corn flakes by the Kellogg brothers, the second half of the twentieth century saw the birth of whole ranges of fast foods and the appliances to produce them. Even snacking has evolved from regular meals to instant cereals to granola bars to cereal bars to diet bars to energy bars to supplement bars.

Along with cornflakes and all his other food inventions, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg also developed a breakfast cereal that quickly became a favourite with his patients. He mixed oatmeal and cornmeal together, baked these into a biscuit and ground it into bits. He called it granola.

Granola in bar form was born when the Nestlé company hired modern inventor Stanley Mason to develop a snack that would be healthy, tasty and easy to carry around. Mason chose some tasty food items and compressed them to make them portable – granola bars.

Health Benefits of Granola

The following comments apply strictly to products offering sufficient amounts of nutrients necessary for a healthy diet, such as the Nature’s Choice range of granolas. The four products listed earlier collectively (though not always individually) contain the entire range of nutrients essential for good health – high quality protein, all the vitamins, all the minerals, essential fatty acids, amino acids, phytochemicals, and such phytonutrients as lignans and isoflavones. They are also low in sodium, saturated fats and cholesterol and high in fibre.

With such a range of nutrients, a nutritious granola product should offer great benefits for a healthy heart, good kidney, muscle and brain function, prevention, treatment and management of cancer and diabetes, good supplies of energy, healthy eyesight, skin, bones and teeth, healthy blood pressure and blood sugar content, cholesterol and weight management, a healthy digestive system and a strong immune system, and even for the treatment of such common conditions as eczema, fatigue, anemia, infertility and high cholesterol.

Cautions About Those Convenient Bars

Some granola products contain higher ratios of unhealthy processed sugars with empty calories, as well as chocolate and other ingredients that cater for pleasant taste rather than nutrition. Also, the average granola bar, no matter how healthy it may be, on its own may not make an adequate breakfast. Many granola products, including bars, contain added cane sugar (sometimes up to four teaspoons per serving), saturated fats and sometimes even dangerous trans fats.

To get an idea of the saturated (bad) and unsaturated (good) fat content in a random selection of commercially available granola bars, compare these figures:

Granola Bars (1oz./28.35 g)
	Saturated Fat	Total Fat
Hard, Plain	0.7 g	5.6 g
Hard, Almond	3.0 g	6.0 g
Hard, Chocolate Chip	2.7 g	3.9 g
Hard, Peanut	0.7 g	6.0 g
Soft, Plain	2.0 g	4.9 g
Soft Raisin	2.7 g	5.0 g
Soft, Chocolate Covered	4.0 g	7.0 g
Soft, Nut & Raisin	2.7 g	5.8 g

One last note needs to be made with regard to fibre. Although granola bars generally do not contain enough fibre in a typical serving to satisfy requirements for a healthy heart, with a little shopping around it is possible to find a good product – look for at least 2 grams of fibre per serving.

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Sources Consulted

The Doctor’s Book of Food Remedies, by Selene Yeager and the Editors of Prevention Health BooksTM, 1998, Rodale Inc.

The Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies, by the Editors of Prevention Health BooksTM, 2002, Rodale Inc.