{"id":610149,"date":"2026-04-16T06:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/610149\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T06:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:43:19","slug":"raising-the-bar-which-muesli-bars-make-the-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/610149\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising the Bar: Which Muesli Bars Make the Cut?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cancer Council WA is encouraging shoppers to check nutrition labels before tossing muesli bars into their shopping trolleys, after a new review found many contain sugar levels\u00a0similar to confectionery.<\/p>\n

Schools Nutrition Senior Coordinator Mikala Atkinson said with so many varieties on supermarket shelves, including a growing number of high-protein options, it can be hard to know which bars are actually healthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cCancer Council WA audited 80 muesli bars from major supermarkets to assess their sugar, saturated fat, sodium and fibre content,\u201d Ms Atkinson said. \u201cWe wanted to help shoppers know which muesli bars to choose and which to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The review looked at a wide range of products, including traditional muesli bars, protein bars, oat bars, cereal bars, nut bars and fruit-filled bars.<\/p>\n

According to Ms Atkinson, a good muesli bar should contain rolled oats, dried fruit, nuts or seeds, and less than 15 grams of sugar.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBrands such as Carman\u2019s Original Fruit Free Muesli Bars and Hillcrest Fruit Free Premium Muesli Barsperformed well nutritionally,\u201d she said. \u201cNut-free options like Mother Earth Chewy Berry Smoothie and Uncle Tobys Chewy Apricot Bars also rated well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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However, the audit revealed that more than four in five snack bars contained over 15 per cent sugar, with some reaching 30 to 40 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s about the same amount of sugar you\u2019d find in a biscuit,\u201d Ms Atkinson said.<\/p>\n

Bars containing chocolate were among the worst offenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether chocolate coated, chocolate flavoured or packed with chocolate chips, these bars consistently had higher sugar and saturated fat levels,\u201d she said. \u201cSome even had more chocolate than ready-made choc chip biscuits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Examples included Hillcrest Protein Oat Bars Dark Choc and Nutri Grain Original Bars, both at 36 per cent sugar, while LCMs Kaleidos topped the list at 40 per cent\u00a0sugar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe healthiest choice is to keep it simple,\u201d Ms Atkinson said. \u201cLook for bars made with oats, nuts, seeds and dried fruit\u2014they provide fibre and sustained energy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cancer Council WA is encouraging shoppers to check nutrition labels before tossing muesli bars into their shopping trolleys,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137,15353,296639,296640],"class_list":["post-610149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthy-eating","tag-high-sugar","tag-muesli-bars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}