More than half of snacks marketed as healthy are high in fat, salt or sugar

guardian ^ | 3/8/2021

[mylife]

More than half of seemingly healthy snacks analysed by experts are high in fat, salt and/or sugar, prompting calls for more “honest” labelling.

Action on Salt assessed 119 snacks, including dried/roasted pulses and processed pulse snacks such as lentil curls, chickpea chips and puffs, finding some to be saltier than seawater.

Despite them being on average lower in fat, saturated fat and calories and higher in fibre than standard crisps and flavoured nuts, 43% were high in salt.

The saltiest product surveyed was Eat Real hummus, chilli and lemon flavoured chips – labelled “40% less fat, vegan, gluten free” – with 3.6g salt per 100g, and more than 1g salt in a single suggested serving (28g) – more than in two bags of McDonald’s small french fries.

The saltiest dried pulse snacks were Love Corn salt and Vinegar, and Love Corn habanero chilli, with 2.8g of salt per 100g. One 45g serving of either (1.3g salt) would provide more than a fifth of the maximum recommended daily salt intake and more than in 3.5 bags of Walkers Ready Salted crisps, the researchers found. Seawater contains 2.5g of salt per 100g. Excessive salt consumption has been blamed for thousands of cases of heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Sonia Pombo, the campaign manager at Action on Salt, said: “We should all be eating more beans and pulses, but there are better ways of doing it, and eating processed snacks high in salt is not one of them. This important survey has put a spotlight on the unnecessary amounts of salt in ‘healthy’ snacks, and the use of nutrition claims on HFSS [high fat, salt and/or sugar] foods need to be questioned.”

[mylife]

[snoringbear]

“ I like pig skins. Just about zero everything
100% pig… jes’ sayin’”
***************

Well, I like pig for sure; bacon, bacon, bacon! Everything is better with bacon 🥓🤪😂!!!

[mylife]

I find, people often over indulge in "the snackwells" because they are fat free...

[Bigg Red]

I salt everything. Just had blood work. My sodium is low, but my potassium is great.

[Bigg Red]

Pulses:

edible dry peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas.

[Bigg Red]

::yard scraps gruel::

~~~~~~~~~~

Good one.

[Larry Lucido]

I like my junk food trashy.

[DesertRhino]

I know lentils are a pulse. I think it’s considers the oldest crop.

[Manuel OKelley]

Yep

[minnesota_bound]

Label as organic and you make the big money.

[FormerFRLurker]

If you want healthy don’t open a package. Plenty of fresh fruit and veggies that can be prepared in little to no time.

[TomGuy]

I bought a canned ham at Aldi's late last year. The other day, I happened to be moving it and looked at the 'best by' date -- June 2025. That thing must be half preservative salt.

[tflabo]

I try to buy the unsalted nuts but oftentimes only the salted ones are stocked in stores. I like salt but my BP does not. Oh to be young again and eat whatever wanted.

[Albion Wilde]

That’s because fats, salt and sugar are the only things that reliably taste good in a snack. That’s what snacks are for. If they didn’t taste like a vacation from plain food, they wouldn’t be snacks.

[Albion Wilde]

“Pulse” is just the British word for legumes, like beans, peas, lentils, etc.