Fudge on granola bars

For the sake of argument, let’s say that a granola bar by itself is “wholesome.”  Is it still wholesome after you dip it in fudge?

Traditional fudge is made with sugar, milk and butter.  I don’t see butter and milk listed in the ingredients of the Keebler Granola Fudge Bars, but among the listed ingredients are sugar, brown sugar syrup, corn syrup, and hydrogenated and/or partially hydrogenated oils.

If the granola bars are truly wholesome to start with, as Keebler claims in its ad announcing the product, then nearly all of the sweeteners and partially hydrogenated oils must be coming from the fudge.

The fudge no doubt makes the bars tastier — it is essentially candy, after all — but it also makes them a whole lot carbier and more caloric, with little if any contribution to nutrition.  (Which isn’t to say that a naked granola bar would be a low carb food, exactly.) The partially hydrogenated oil contributes a lovely thing called trans fat.

There’s nothing wholesome about empty calories and trans-fat.

Both the peanut butter and chocolate chip versions of these fudge-dipped bar have 150 calories, 3g fiber, and 2g protein.  As for total carbs, the peanut butter bar has 24g and the chocolate chip bar 25g.  For both versions, the carbs include 10g of sugars.

In contrast, a quarter-cup of roasted peanuts provides 180 calories, 5g total carbs, 3g fiber, and 7g protein — three-and-a-half times the protein and one-tenth the net carbohydrates for just 30 additional calories.

Now, that’s wholesome!

Just don’t let any elves dip the peanuts in fudge and feed them to your kids.

In fact, as a general policy, keep elves out of your kitchen.  When it comes to feeding ourselves and our families, we need to rely more on science, and less on magic — especially advertising hocus-pocus.