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Nutrition in bars!

The rectangular granola bars are here and slowly being discovered

CRISP AND CRUNCHY Granola bars are filling and energising

You've been working late (is it morning or still night?) and feeling hungry. You want to reach for something comforting, filling and energising. Among your options now is the granola bar. Its makers claim that the four-by-one-and-a-half-inch nibble kicks you into an active lifestyle. Nutrition bars are here and slowly being discovered.

The granola bar may be lean food with no oils and little sugar, but it has a rich history. It began life in mid-nineteenth century with American women baking bread at home using whole-wheat flour just because their preacher Sylvester Graham said so. He had told his parish to avoid white flour along with meat and alcohol. Nutrition in the form of Graham flour and Graham crackers became a conscious consideration in colonist kitchens. Soon after, Dr. Jackson of New York was heard promoting a healthy diet. He developed the "granula", palatable sheets of Graham flour, baked twice until crunchy and stored as small pieces.

In 1876, a Dr. John Kellogg became Director of Battle Creek Sanatorium, Michigan. To add pep to the monotony served as food, Dr. Kellogg baked his own whole grains granula, and when sued by Dr. Jackson, quickly named it granola. He tried to sell his concoction but it didn't exactly set America's hunger on fire. He switched to cereals and well, you know the rest. One recipe named Grape Nuts tried out by Charles W. Post tasted success as the world moved into the next century. Granula, Granola and Ganolietta were registered as trademarks in the U.S. for whole grain products crumbled and baked until crisp.

Sugar-spiked cereals ruled the breakfast table in the 1960s, when the health food market exploded. The hip whole grain, natural granola bars went "hippie" at the Woodstock Festival. In the 1990s, the "low fat" granola made its debut to keep with the contemporary craze. Today granola bars have gone mainstream, but maintain their connection with the hippie culture. In slang, a "granola" is someone who looks like his hippie ancestor or an environmentalist or one considered leftist in outlook.

Natural ingredients

So, what is in this rectangular piece of fitness? Nuts and rolled oats that are visible. Honey and natural ingredients (soy protein, fibre) for which you need to take the promo's word. On the plus side, and this is a huge plus when you're rubbing eyes in front of the computer, the granola bar is dry and crisp. (Crunchy birdseed, some call it). It's lightweight and is neatly packed. Raisins and dates are common ad-ons. It tastes good even when cold. It is non-perishable.

For the soft-toothed idli-ites, there is the under-baked, chewy, better-textured version. Sticklers shout that this should be called a cereal bar, not a granola at all. But a granola by any other name is still a snack. So, go nuts. Choose from Banana Nut, Oats N Honey, Peanut Butter, Cinnamon, Maple, Brown Sugar or Apple Crisp. Or buy the wholesale pack. Put a bar in your kid's snack box. Lock a couple in your office draw in the computer table. Make room for it in your hiking backpack. Be sure to carry it along with your water bottle when you fly "minimum fare".

Even if you won't crowd the top of your fridge with health bars, you'll find strength in this story from Cavalier Daily.

Five years ago, unhappy with her dining hall fare and the campus fast food, university student Kelly Flatley began "mixing and matching" ingredients in her kitchen. She hit on a formula for a healthy granola.

Her roommates gobbled it. Her family loved it. She found it handy to bite into while studying. When she graduated she thought, why not make it a business venture?

Her local community said `yes' by buying out what she made. But in a market where the cereal aisles are crowded with big names, starting a personal business is iffy at best. Kelly decided to do it anyway. She had a good product and eating healthy was in. With donations from family and friends and credit from local banks, she and her friend began production. She would make her bar stand out on the shelf.

She used whole nuts for her granola, soft-baked it, packed it in see-through bags, and called it Bear Naked. "Fun and not easy to forget," she said. After 5 years, her 50 employees hand-make two million pounds of granola annually and distribute it throughout the U.S. Kelly dreams of finding it in her university dining hall.

"That's where it got started," she said.

Soon nutrition bars might be the rushing-out-to-work parents' breakfast, rushing-out-to-play kids' school lunch.

But before we raise a toast to the bar, let's think. Is it as healthy as it claims to be? Or is it just a biscuit with an alias? The granola bar, even one with the best combo of nuts, oats and fruits is just a snack. It should be munched with fresh fruits, veggies, rotis and other stuff for a balanced diet, not instead of. It may be low carb, but it is still carb and calories.

GEETA PADMANABHAN

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