Wendyl Wants To Know: Nutty snacks great for the lunchbox

Dole Snackers Crunches - $4.99 for 120g. Photo / Wendyl Nissen

Product full of protein, fibre and essential fats and definitely not over-sweetened

The kids are back at school and so returns the never-ending hunt for healthy snack foods in the muesli bar aisle.

I was pleasantly surprised by these little snacks as they are very filling and feature mainly nuts which are great nutrition.

Ingredients (in order of greatest quantity first)

• Mixed nuts (65%) (cashews, almonds and pistachios) - Nuts are a very good snack food because they are full of protein, fibre and essential fats. Cashews are an excellent source of iron, zinc and magnesium. Almonds are high in calcium and Vitamin E and pistachios are rich in vitamin B6, they also have good levels of lutein and zeaxanthin which are two antioxidants that play an important part in protecting the eyes and they also contain potassium and fibre.

• Maltose syrup (tapioca) - This syrup has 60% of the sweetness of sugar and is manufactured from a starch, in this case tapioca. The sugar levels in this product aren't too bad. Per 28g serve - which is half this packet - you will get 7.8g of sugar which is 1.8 teaspoons.

• Dried berries (8%, cranberries and blueberries) - At 8 per cent there's not a huge amount of berries in here so I suspect they are really providing flavour more than anything.

• Sugar - Not too much sugar in here, see above.

• Salt - Only 25mg of sodium per 28g serve.

My recommendations

These are a great snack to send to school with your child.

Unlike similar products which add chocolate or overdo the sugar, these aren't too bad.

And they don't taste over-sweetened.

You are also putting some very nutritional nuts into your child's diet which are low GI which means they will not only fill your child up but give them energy longer than a sugary snack.

The whole packet will give your child 288 calories and 15.6g of sugar so half a packet would probably be best.

Highlights

• Uses nutritional nuts
• Low in sugar
• Low GI