Pretzels are a popular snack and in this video Tony breaks down what you should be looking for on the ingredients to make sure you buy the healthiest version.
Are pretzels sweet?
When you bite into a pretzel, would you describe it as satisfying your sweet tooth? Do you taste sugar or anything sweet at all in a standard pretzel? Of course not, but companies use sweeteners anyways in products because they believe it makes them taste better, and ultimately to increase profit. It’s common for pretzels in the grocery store to container sweeteners like corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup, which makes the product less healthy, and is also seemingly unnecessary.
Beware of the flavored versions
In this video, Tony explains that the flavored (honey mustard) version of these pretzels is exponentially worse than the standard version from the same brand. Why? Because the flavored version contains food dyes, partially hyrdogenated oils, monosodium glutamate. These three ingredients are terrible for you, and you can click them individually for information on what the science says they each do to your body.
The flavored versions of products being worse than the standard version, is a common theme in the grocery store, so it’s a good idea to be extra careful while examining these products. For instance, this video explains how the “Hint of Lime” Tostitos tortilla chips are far worse than the standard Tostitos toritlla chips. One might thing that adding lime to tortilla chips, would just be adding one ingredient (lime) but that’s not how food companies operate. Instead, they end up adding multiple sweeteners, coloring agents, etc. The same can be said for the honey mustard pretzels, one might expect honey and mustard to be added to the pretzels, but instead there is a concoction that is designed to make your taste buds happy while increasing their profits.