What is Granola Bar?
Granola bars are pocket-sized nutrition powerhouses made from whole grains like rolled oats, nuts, dates and natural sweeteners like honey or maple syrup or brown rice syrup.
What is Granola?
This bar is mainly prepared baking a mixture of various ingredients such as quick cooking oats, maple syrup, nuts and at times, also added is puffed rice.
Granola is rich in calories contributed mainly through carbohydrate & fat sources such as cereals and nuts respectively. Granola bars also comprise somewhat same composition, except that they may vary in their composition of nuts & cereals.
Granola bars emerged as a breakfast food or snacking substitute that offered the convenience of nutrition while on the go. It became an instant hit and favourite with people hiking, trekking or camping as it was lightweight, easy to carry and comfortably fitted one’s purse or pocket. Granola bars are highly popular in United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and recently its market has expanded to India and other Asian countries.
Why Granola Bars Are Healthiest Bars
The rising trend of granola bar can be rightly conferred to the rise in the number of health conscious and fitness enthusiasts all round the world. A quest of healthy lifestyle has greatly manoeuvred the journey of these small pocket-sized bars.
The ingredient commonly used in granola bar are natural and nutritious like oats, nuts, honey, dried fruits like dates, figs or raisins, peanut butter or almond butter making it a healthy option with expediency. The mode of cooking is generally baking which gives the bar a crispy toasted flavour.
Availability in Market
There are myriads of variety adorning the supermarket as well as the online stores. The wide range of flavours and diversity in ingredients make these bars a treat for all occasion. From low-calorie mid- meal snack to a high protein pre-workout bite you will find bars to suit your every need. Granola bars along with the goodness of natural ingredients are also often fortified with nutrients like omega 3 fatty acids, iron, calcium and fibre.
More the merrier is not always a good deal. With a
diverse range of granola bars at your disposal choosing a right bar which actually provides the health it promises can be a difficult task. Discerning a healthy bar from a misleading sugar coated candy bar is of utmost importance if you want to reap the health benefits of these healthy portable snack packs.
Reading nutritional labels and ingredient list helps you determine the composition of the bar and select a perfect bar for yourself.
Granola Bars Recipes
Along with great varieties available commercially granola bars are quite easy to make at home. Try baking your own granola bar and enjoy its wholesome flavour with these simple recipes.
What do you need?
2 Cup Oats
½ Cup Coconut desiccated.
1/2 Cup Honey
2 Tablespoons creamy Peanut Butter
Teaspoon Vanilla extract
How you proceed
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch square baking dish.
Spread the oats and coconut evenly across a baking sheet and toast them in the preheated oven for 10 minutes until brown.
Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.
In a saucepan Add honey, peanut butter, vanilla extract and salt and cook over medium to low heat. Cook and stir until smooth.
Pour honey mixture over the oats and coconut mix and Stir it to coat it. Spread the mixture evenly in the baking dish.
Bake in preheated oven until it begins to dry. For about 15 minutes for crunchy granola bars and for a lesser time if you like them chewy. Cool completely and cut them into fine bars.
This is a fairly simple recipe and you can add other nuts, seeds and dry fruits to crunch it up. This bar is organic, gluten free, soy free, without any added sugar and 100% natural ingredients. Each bar provides up to 165 calories and 3 gm of protein.
Importance Of Breakfast
It is important to begin our day with a wholesome meal since it sets the metabolism going after the night long fast. It maintains the pace of the metabolic rate in the body throughout the day. Studies have well elucidated the correlation between beginning the day with a wholesome breakfast with sustained attention spans, improved concentration levels through the day and commendable productivity among subjects having breakfast.
Subjects starting their day skipping breakfast have found themselves feel more sluggish halfway through the day and also reported to have more junk food cravings to satisfy their hunger pangs. Skipping breakfast also leads to overeating in the next main meal to compensate for the previous skipped meal. Making a habit of skipping breakfast can lead to weight gain in the long run. Hence, including a healthy breakfast is one of the first strategies for facilitating weight loss.
Choosing Breakfast Options
Nowadays, with the early morning hours being a rush time for most people to reach their workplaces in time, finding time to have a wholesome breakfast is quite difficult to manage. Also, not many have the time to cook breakfast in the morning. It is, however, important to include all macronutrients in the breakfast such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats in proportionate amounts.
An easy to carry
travel snacks option like granola bars can be had while traveling and also solve the problem of having to cook breakfast daily.
How Is Granola Bars A Better Option Than Granola Breakfast Cereal
As mentioned previously, the composition of granola bars and the granola breakfast cereal are quite similar to each other. The latter may require milk to be added which acts as a disadvantage for it since it can’t be portable to be consumed while traveling.
On the other hand, choosing a granola bar on extremely busy days can save your breakfast time by having them while traveling, without having to skip your breakfast. Carry a tetra pack of soya milk or almond milk and a granola bar; both these can serve a wholesome quick, on-the-go breakfast.
Wish to make your quick breakfast more wholesome? Include a bowl of sprouts or a medium serving of fruit smoothie or plain greek yogurt and you are done with sorting your breakfast for the day!
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Meal Replacement Bars : The Handy & Healthy Meal Option during Weight Loss
