Product Review: Kashi TLC Trail Mix Bar

I continue the search for a healthy, low sugar, and natural snack bar for myself and my daughter. Today I taste-tested Kashi's TLC Trail Mix bar. TLC stands for "tasty little chewies" and they do not lie. The TLC Trail Mix bar is both tasty and chewy, and much to my delight, very low in sugar, especially compared to other similar bars on the market. I also appreciate that Kashi doesn't use high fructose corn syrup. Instead the TLC's have a small amount of a mix of brown rice syrup, evaporated can juice crystals, honey, and molasses.

A box of TLC's has six bars, each one weighing 1.2 ounces, or 35 grams. They contain 140 calories, 5 grams of fat, .5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 105 mg of sodium (4% of the RDA), 20 grams of carbohydrates (they're complex ones though!), 4 grams of fiber (1 gram of soluble fiber and 3 grams insoluble), 6 grams of sugar, and 6 grams of protein. This is a very good nutritional profile for a small snack. Most snack, trail or granola bars I've looked at have at least 10 grams of sugar and some have more than 15 grams of sugar. So far Kashi is the lowest sugar snack bar I've tried.

The bars are dense, chewy, nutty and taste quite good. The ingredients are quite diverse also, which gives them a great texture and flavor. They contain foods such as Kashi's seven whole grains and sesame blend, almonds, sunflower seeds, cranberries, soy protein, soy grits, raisins, and chicory root powder to name a few. I like their chewy, crunchy texture and the fact that they don't taste super sweet. The fat grams come from a good source; almonds and grains.

Kashi's TLC bars come in several different flavors aside from the Trail Mix bar: Cherry Dark Chocolate, Honey Almond Flax, and Peanut Butter. The Cherry Dark Chocolate bar has 20 less calories, but it also has 2 grams less of protein and 2 extra grams of sugar, which is still less sugar than most other brands. The Peanut Butter and Honey Almond Flax flavors only have 5 grams of sugar but the rest of the nutritional information is the same.