You know the company Quaker for their commercials from the late eighties and early nineties where they spouted about how healthy their oatmeal is and how important it is to eat a healthy breakfast. Quaker does more than just oatmeal, in fact they have even came as far as making snacks. None of this is news however as more and more food companies are finding ways to try and compete with the growing demand for organic and all natural food.
One of Quaker's snacks in general seems to be pretty healthy upon first look. I am talking about their Quakes Rice Snacks. There are a few flavors available but lets just take a closer look at one in particular, their Ranch flavored rice snack cakes. At first glance I thought, oh, a rice snack made by a well trusted company and on the front of the package it states in large print made to stand out 13g Whole Grain! Sounds even more healthy.
Also on the front it states, “Flavored with other natural flavors”. Hmm sounds good. At a closer look you see the disclaimer. It reads, “See nutrition information for sodium content.” We will talk about that in a moment. As I turn over the package I see more exciting information about how healthy these snacks are. I see this statement printed in italics to stand out more.
“Quaker Quakes Rice Snacks are the surprisingly delicious snack with a satisfying crunch. And because they're always backed, never fried, and have 0g trans fat, you can snack smart.” Again you can see a little star next to the word smart at the end of that statement. Upon closer look at what the star means I see *See nutrition information for sodium content. Now let me tell you the truth about these snacks.
What the disclaimers mean is that you should know that no matter what they say about the snack that it contains a whopping 17% salt, that’s 400mg! That’s if you eat just 17 little snacks. Since the package states it contains three of those servings then we are talking a boat load of salt in the whole package. 1200Mg of salt is hardly healthy! But as I take a closer look at these seemingly innocent snacks I see the whole array of secrets hidden in the smallest print on the package.
Its a shame that the FDA, a cooperation that was suppose to protect the people allows nutrition information to be printed in the smallest print on the package. And insignificant sells tactics such as “13g Whole Grain” to be printed in the largest print possible. Although whole grains are awesome, you can not justify eating this snack after knowing what the ingredients are and here is a partial list of some of the most significantly dangerous ingredients.
Partially Hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil (GMO Ingredient), monosodium glutamate (MSG, a known neurotoxin), sodium caseinate, sodium diacetate, sodium acetate, disodium phosphate, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, sodium citrate, yellow 5 lake, yellow 6, red 40 lake, blue 1 lake, yellow 5. For those that do not understand these ingredients lets just say that they are very bad. Just about all the colors listed here have been shown to cause some sort of cancer.
As for the taste of the snack cakes, I rate this product 1 star but if I could I wouldn't even give it 1 star. These rice snacks do not taste anything like a real ranch product. In fact I can honestly say that this is the worst ranch flavored snack I have ever tried. Not only will I never again buy this product but I will speak out against its danger and would never suggest this product to anyone. Do yourself a favor on this one, don't waste your time with it.
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