Rice Syrup

Ive posted before about how Im trying to cut down on added sugar in things. I bought these bars and was going to have one later, they are by village bakery called four seed bars.

Ingredients: rice syrup*, seeds* 18.5% (pumpkin seeds*, sunflower seeds*, linseeds*, sesame seeds*), oats*, puffed rice*, desiccated coconut*, concentrated apple juice*, low sodium sea salt.
* denotes organic

The first ingredient is rice syrup, what is this? Is this healthy enough to eat or is it just as bad as sugar?

 

Energy 691kj/163kcal
Protein 3.4g
Carbohydrates 29.2g
of which sugars 11.5g
of which starch 18.0
Fat 3.7g
of which saturates 2.6g
mono-unsaturated 0.4g
poly-unsaturated 0.5g
Fibre 1.1g
Sodium 0.05g
Salt 0.12g Thats the nutritional info for one bar, theres also 2.6g of sat fat in each bar, is that alright? Is it from the coconut or where is it from? Im just worried these bars arent as healthy as they make out to be.

'Rice syrup' is sugar.  You can extract sugar from all kinds of natural foods.  'Concentrated apple juice' is another way of saying 'sugar' incidentally.  The fat will most likely be from the coconut and the seeds.... they're very rich in oil.  For future reference, any food with more than 20g sugar per 100g would be a 'high sugar food'. 

Here is a list of some of the possible code words for “sugar” which may appear on a label. Hint: the words “syrup”, “sweetener”, and anything ending in “ose” can usually be assumed to be “sugar”. If the label says “no added sugars”, it should not contain any of the following, although the food could contain naturally-occurring sugars (such as lactose in milk).

• Corn sweetener
• Corn syrup, or corn syrup solids
• Dehydrated Cane Juice
• Dextrin
• Dextrose
• Fructose
• Fruit juice concentrate
• Glucose
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Honey
• Invert sugar
• Lactose
• Maltodextrin
• Malt syrup
• Maltose
• Maple syrup
• Molasses
• Raw sugar
• Rice Syrup
• Saccharose
• Sorghum or sorghum syrup
• Sucrose
• Syrup
• Treacle
• Turbinado Sugar
• Xylose

Cereal bars are usually just glorified biscuits/cookies.  Approach them as such i.e. eat them occasionally as a treat rather than as a dietary staple, and take note of the calories if you're trying to control your weight.

Thanks for that list GI-JANE it was very helpful. Its realy surprising where you can find sugar hidden. For example I was eating some roasted soya beans fromTesco and saw on the packet maltodextrin was added, I didnt know that was a sugar until I read your list!

Thank you for your help, you give some great advice here!