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Out of Balance
Most programmers, coders, hackers, Software Engineers, call them like you see them, don't eat healthy. There is just no time to leave the keyboard for having a healthy meal and instead we prefer a quick snack or a beer, depending of the location and time of the day maybe.Despite the popularity of the well-marketed low-carbohydrate diets, a.k.a. Atkins Diet, the Carpentaria, CA based Balance Bar Food Company (bought by Kraft Foods in 2000 for approximately $268 million) stuck to their concept of making nutrition/energy bars that have balanced proportions of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% dietary fat, and are fortified with vitamins and minerals.
The Balance Bar's 40/30/30 principle, aimed at achieving stable blood sugar levels, is based on a nutritional philosophy popularized by biochemist and nutrition scientist Dr. Barry Sears and has been proven to provide sustained energy and hunger management. A box containing 15 bars costs about US$ 16 and can be bought by retailers nationwide or directly at http://www.balance.com/.
Being a proud member of the above-mentioned group of unhealthy eaters, I have too few meals during the day, don't spend much time thinking about calories and fat, and don't like fruits. I drink plenty of fluids - in the form of coffee and beer that is. However, for the last seven or eight years, I have made the Balance Bar part of my daily diet and while there are plenty of flavors to choose form, I enjoy the Balance Bar Gold triple-chocolat-chaos the most.
Since the Balance Bar is really tasty and has been a consistent and healthy part of my everyday selection of food, I immediately noticed the new designed box and wrapper. Comparing the nutrition facts revealed that not only the packaging had changed but also content and not for better, if you ask me.
Now, I certainly couldn't care less about their new wrapper and box design and even if the new bar (more Sugar, Cholesterol, and Sodium but less Protien) is not nearly as good for you as the previous generation, I still may have continued buying it - but the new bar also tastes awful.It's much more chewy, unpleasantly sticking to your teeth and tastes more like caramel than chocolate. It's also a lot sweeter, almost feels like eating a spoon of pure sugar. But don't take my word for it, buy one of those new bars and experience the flavor yourself. Or even better, do a comparison taste test, just like Tom and I just did.
Balance Bar responds to my comments:
Hi Wolf,
Thank you for visiting http://www.balanceoasis.com/.
Balance is undergoing a major product and packaging change. The first of the bars to change is the Gold line.
The bars have been reformulated and the packaging and logo totally redesigned with new, and contemporary graphics. The reformulation includes the removal of High Fructose Corn Syrup and improved the taste and texture - making the bars softer.
These major product improvements make BALANCE BARS even better than before. We value your comments, and will forward them to our Marketing team.
If you haven't done so already, please add our site to your favorites and visit us again soon!
K. ...
Associate Director, Consumer Relations
| Nutrition Facts | The old Balance Bar Gold triple-choco.-chaos |
The NEW Balance Bar Gold triple-choco.-chaos |
|---|---|---|
| Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet | ||
| Total Fat | 7g = 11% | 7g = 11% |
| -- Saturated | 4g = 20% | 4g = 20% |
| -- Trans | 0g | 0g |
| Cholesterol | 0mg | <5mg = 1% |
| Sodium less is better |
90mg = 4% | 130mg = 5% |
| Potassium | 120mg = 3% | 135 mg = 4% |
| Total Carbohydrate | 22g = 7% | 24g = 8% |
| Diatary Fiber | <1g = 3% | <1g = 4% |
| Sugar | 12g | 16g |
| Protein | 15g = 28% | 13g = 24% |
|
|
|
| Serving Size | 1 Bar (50g) | 1 Bar (50g) |
| Calories | 210 | 210 |
| -- from Fat | 60 | 60 |
| Vitamin A | 50% | 50% |
| Vitamin C | 100% | 100% |
| Calcium | 10% | 10% |
| Iron | 25% | 25% |
| Vitamin E | 100% | 100% |
| Vitamin K | 25% | 25% |
| Thiamin | 25% | 25% |
| Riboflavin | 25% | 25% |
| Niacin | 25% | 25% |
| Vitamin B6 | 25% | 25% |
| Folid Acid | 25% | 25% |
| Vitamin B12 | 25% | 25% |
| Biotin | 25% | 25% |
| Pantothenic Acid | 25% | 25% |
| Phosphorus | 15% | 15% |
| Iodine | 25% | 25% |
| Magnesium | 10% | 10% |
| Zinc | 25% | 25% |
| Selenium | 25% | 25% |
| Copper | 25% | 25% |
| Manganese | 25% | 25% |
| Chromium | 25% | 25% |
| Molybdenum | 25% | 25% |
Balance Bar responds to Alfredo's comments:
Several reasons exist for changes in Nutrition Facts values:
- Values might have changed due to new food labeling regulations. Regulations have changed many parts of food labels. Serving sizes on many labels have changed. If a serving size increased, the values on the label often increase. If a serving size decreased, the values on the label often decrease.
- Product reformulations can also change the Nutrition Facts values. Product reformulations can occur when we have new ingredients or new technology.
- Nutrition Facts values can change slightly from one measurement to the next. This is normal and can happen even with no reformulation or serving size change.
Recently, I decided to write Balance Bar about their decision to reformulate the product. I outlined the increase in carbohydrates and decrease in protein-content of the new bar.
I received the following canned response:
(see box on the right)
I figure, they are trying to cut costs, since, protein is much more expensive than carbohydrates. What do you think about this?
Thanks,
Alfredo Garcia
Miguel: " This is good informatiion in your article. And the main point, about compositional changes, is a good one.
I long had observed that Kraft's many foods included not one that you should eat. Now, knowing that Kraft purchased Balance, I gladly remove Kraft from my 100% negative category.
At the same time, it is possible that the Kraft connection explains the erosion of quality that you cited. It also is possible that the new data effectively corrects data that had been inaccurate. "