Uncle Tobys Squarz | Chewsday Review
You’ve been requesting these to be reviewed for a while… It’s time to find out if Uncle Tobys Squarz can join my breakfast club or if they are a bowl of missed opportunity.
- Whole Grain Wheat (95%), Date Syrup (2.8%), Banana Puree (1.8%), Salt.
- Date syrup and banana puree are added for sweetness, although technically are still just added sugar (albeit more expensive than table sugar).
- Allergens: wheat (gluten).
- Being made from mostly wholegrain wheat means these are high in fibre. Squarz have 4.7 g of fibre per serve, which is about a third of a toddler’s and a quarter of a young child’s recommended daily fibre intake. If we look at fibre per 100g, Weet-bix, Weet-Bix Little Kids, Vita Brits and Low Sugar Cheerios still have slightly more.
- Sugar is within recommendations at 4.2g per 100g, which is on par with Low Sugar Cheerios (4.1g per 100g) and only a teeny bit more than regular Weet-bix (3g per 100g). This is low compared to most other cereals.
- The sodium (salt) content is well below recommendations (less than 400mg per 100g) with only 115mg per 100g. This is less than Low Sugar Cheerios (285mg per 100g) and regular Weet-bix (270mg per 100g), but more than Weet-bix Little Kids (12mg per 100g).
- As expected both total and saturated fat are within recommendations.
- Why are these not fortified with iron and other vitamins and minerals?! This is such a missed opportunity, and while wholegrain wheat contains some iron naturally (although not included on the nutrition information panel), it’s not a lot. Other iron-fortified cereals can be so helpful for kids who don’t eat many high iron foods.
- Uncle Tobys Squarz are about $14 per kg, which is more expensive than most of my regular recommendations.
- “4 simple ingredients”. It’s likely that this statement is playing on some people’s fear of processed foods, despite this essentially still being a processed (and nutritious) food.
- “Less than 5% sugar”. True.
- “4.5 star health rating”. This tells us this cereal rates quite well compared to other breakfast cereals.
- Overall these are another high fibre, low sugar cereal option, but it’s disappointing that they don’t have any added iron (or other vitamins and minerals).
- If your child likes these but doesn’t eat a range of high iron foods, you could mix these with other iron-containing cereals like Weet-Bix or Low Sugar Cheerios.
- Weet-bix (regular or Little Kids), Low Sugar Cheerios and plain oats are cheaper alternatives that are still high in fibre and low in sugar.
The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.
