The first five ingredients in a Snickers bar are milk chocolate, peanuts, corn syrup, sugar and skim milk. But before you consider Snickers a health food just because it contains skim milk and peanuts, look at the rest of the facts. With a cursory glance at the nutrition information in a regular-sized 2.07-oz. Snickers bar, you can decide whether this sweet bar is a good way to fend off hunger.
Calories
One Snickers bar contains 280 calories, 130 of which are from fat. Food labels use a 2,000-calorie diet as the average. Therefore, one Snickers equals more than one-tenth of the average recommended daily intake of calories.
Fat
Total fat in a Snickers bar is 14 g. There are also 5 g of saturated fat. These amounts make up about one-quarter of your daily allotment of each. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, you should consume no more than 65 g of total fat and 18 g of saturated fat on a daily basis. If your diet consists of fewer calories, you ought to also consume fewer grams of total and saturated fat.
Cholesterol
There are 2 mg of cholesterol in each Snickers bar. As it is recommended you consume no more than 300 mg of cholesterol each day, a Snickers bar's 2 mg of cholesterol does little to cause you to consume too much cholesterol in any given day.
Sodium
A Snickers bar has 140 mg of sodium. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notes that food labels list an upper limit of 2,400 mg of sodium a day, which equates to approximately 1 tsp. of salt each day. However, the organization also states that if you're healthy, you only need a quarter of that much to maintain good health.
Carbohydrates
Very few healthy carbohydrates are in a Snickers bar. In fact, there is only 1 g of carbohydrate via dietary fiber, while there are 30 g of sugar-based carbohydrates and 35 g of total carbohydrates. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends 25 g of carbs from dietary fiber and 300 g of total carbohydrates in a 2,000-calorie diet. So after eating a Snickers, you still need hundreds of carbs and 24 more fiber-based carbohydrates.
Protein
A single Snickers bar contains 4 g of protein. As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration states that there is no lack of protein in adults and children over the age of 4, the daily recommended amount differs greatly from person to person, regardless of the amount of calories consumed overall.
Calcium and Iron
Snickers offer 4 percent of your daily requirement of calcium if you're eating 2,000 calories a day. With the same dietary intake, a Snickers offers 2 percent of your daily iron needs and none of your vitamin A or C requirements.
Member Comments