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LCMs Split Stix Yoghurty bars | Chewsday Review

Today’s Chewsday Review features the LCMs Split Stix Yoghurty bars. When something is described as ‘yoghurty’ I’ve got my rubbish radar beeping insistently!! Remember that I’m not against any food- but I just don’t want people being duped into buying food thinking it’s more nutritious than it really is.

Ingredients

Rice bubbles (32%), yoghurt compound (27% see below), glucose, fructose vegetable oils, sugar, glucose solids, invert syrup, humectant (glycerol), gelatine, natural flavour, salt, emulsifiers 472e, 472a, milk solids, rosemary extract.
The Rice Bubbles are made up of rice, sugar, salt, barley malt extract, rosemary extract.
The yoghurt compound is made up of sugar, vegetable oil, milk solids, glucose, yoghurt powder, soy lecithin, food acid 330 and salt.
Food acid 330 citric acid, which helps to prolong shelf life and is well tolerated. Emulsifiers 472E and 472A come from fatty acids to keep the consistency of the bar and is not considered problematic.
Common allergens include: gluten, soy and milk, with possible traces of peanuts and tree nuts.

Positives

Negatives

The sugar content of LCMs are the highest of any bar we’ve looked at so far at 34.2g/100g. This is 50% higher than the Milo bar. Plus, all of this comes from added sugar (the not great type) and you can look for at least NINE different sources of this in the ingredients list. Wow, even I didn’t expect this.
The saturated fat content is well above healthy guidelines at more than 4 times the upper recommendation.Total fat also exceeds requirements. This is mostly from the vegetable oil. The fact that the type of vegetable oil hasn’t been declared makes it highly likely that it’s a very cheap blend, likely containing palm oil.
Virtually no fibre. To be precise, the fibre content provides 0.7% of a young child’s daily requirements and 0.5% of an older child’s requirements.

Marketing

“Yoghurty” BAHAHAHAHAHA there’s a sprinkle of yoghurt powder in the ‘yoghurt’ coating made primarily from sugar and vegetable oil. Their use of this made-up term means that they don’t have to clarify how much yoghurt is actually in the product. Most people assume that a yoghurt based product has some nutritious content. Wrong.
”Made with rice bubbles” Ummm, ok a third of these bars by weight are rice bubbles. I guess they couldn’t claim much else!
”Barrel of fun”. Barrel of sugar and oil might be a more accurate label.

Alternatives

If you’ve read my reviews for a while, you’d know that I think all types of food belong in a healthy diet, and food isn’t ‘good or bad’. I’m certainly not saying that your kids should never ever be allowed to eat an LCM. BUT, if you’re buying these bars because they’re made from cereals and you think that surely they have some goodness in them, then I’d reconsider your options. Even the Milo bars are better than these.
Carman’s muesli bars or nut bars are a more nutritious option. Dry rice bubbles and a tub of yoghurt would be a better option.