Nutrient Rich Snack Bar Slashes Risk of Diabetes In Weeks

♦  Scientists claimed a cheap snack bar full of critical nutrients could cut the risk of diabetes in just 8 weeks.

♦  A cheap and convenient way to manage weight and reduce heart disease

A nutrient rich bar which had been in the making for 10 years or more has recently been hailed as a success in cutting diabetes. The low calorie bar is packed full of fruit, fibre, essential vitamins, minerals, fibre and omega-3 fatty acids. As a snack, it fits very neatly with many Western eating patterns where snacking has become the norm.

The bar can also help in weight loss programmes and was shown to increase levels of ‘good’ cholesterol. The bar itself only has 110 calories per serving.

The bars currently termed CHORI bars after the initials of the hospital that developed them have been designed to help sufferers manage their debilitating condition, and if they haven’t then contribute to a healthy lifestyle without having to make drastic dietary changes. The trials were conducted at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) in Oakland, California, USA where patients ate two of the bars for two months. Regular consumption led to weight loss as well as ‘significant health improvements’. One other critical feature was that patients did not make changes to their diet or other lifestyle practices other than consume the bars.

Joyce McCann, reporting on the findings stated to the Daily Express that:

“The CHORI-bar is a testament to the power of and the right mixture of nutrients. It is very difficult to both raise good cholesterol and lower homocysteine with drugs and even most special diets, so the ability of the CHORI-bar to do this in only two weeks with no special dietary instructions is very encouraging.”

Dr Bruce Ames, who named the bar after the hospital for the study expressed the view:

“Over-consumption of Western diets high in calories, sugar, salt and unhealthy fats, but low in micronutrients is a major cause of the increasing prevalence of obesity. Because poor diets are the root cause of these health problems, an obvious approach to the obesity epidemic would be to improve dietary habits.”

Type-2 diabetes has proved to be extremely difficult to control globally as Western style diets expand across the world. Providing a suitable, cheap and convenient food format is one of the steps open to anyone wanting to manage a number of issues associated with obtaining adequate nutrition.

In the United States alone, an estimated 29.1 million people or 9.3% of the population live with  diabetes and its consequences. According to the latest 2014 summary report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, this includes about 21 million people who have been diagnosed with the disease and more than 8 million people who are undiagnosed.

In Britain, three million sufferers live with diabetes brought on by a largely sedentary lifestyle and poor diet. The key is whether the bar has the sensory appeal to encourage take up although further research studies would reinforce gathering evidence from other strands about the benefits of fibre, fruit, vitamins etc. It would be feasible to develop a bar of this type based on the nutrition profile and indeed similar bars are available.