MilkBite Milk & Granola Bars

Granola and milk are a pretty good match, wouldn’t you say?! Now you can find them together as one in Kraft’s new MilkBite Milk & Granola Bars.

The bars come in five flavors (strawberry, chocolate, mixed berry, oatmeal raisin, and peanut butter) and contain dried fruit, nuts, oats, and milk (along with a bunch of other ingredients). That’s right – there is real milk in these granola bars, which means you won’t find them in the cereal aisle. Unlike other granola bars, Kraft’s Milk & Granola Bars are found in the dairy aisle along with milk, yogurt, and cheese. Kraft boasts that the bars are an “excellent source of calcium, with 30% of the daily recommended value” and they are “a good source of vitamin D and fiber.” While these claims are true, when you take a closer look at the ingredient list on the package, you can see that the fiber and vitamin D are coming from added sources, such as inulin (chicory root fiber) and vitamin D3.

Peanut Butter Milk Bar Nutrition Facts & Ingredients:

140 calories, 6 g total fat, 2.5 g saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 60 mg sodium, 17 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 8 g sugar, 5 g protein

Rolled Oats, cream (from milk), sugar, skim milk, peanuts, inulin (chicory root fiber), soy protein crisp (soy protein isolate, tapioca starch, soybean fiber, salt), canola oil, calcium phosphate, brown rice syrup, oat flour, molasses, palm kernel oil, honey, peanut flour, salt, peanut oil, soy lecithin, vitamin D3.

In my opinion, packaged foods like granola bars can play a role in your daily food intake, for example if you’re at a doctor’s appointment between meals or you’re rushing out of the office to get to the gym. However, when it comes to meeting your nutrient needs, I’m a firm believer in reaching for whole foods first. So to get your calcium, have a glass of milk, a cup of yogurt, or some broccoli; for vitamin D, eat some sardines and mushrooms, or better yet spend 15 minutes in the sun; and for fiber, fill up on whole fruits and vegetables (with the peel), whole grains, and beans.

I received all five flavors to try from Kraft, and as far as taste goes, I preferred the chocolate and peanut butter bars. I found the fruit flavors to be a little too cloyingly sweet (and I have quite the sweet tooth!). I felt these bars were a good treat, but I wouldn’t recommend them as a snack that would satiate you between meals. For those, check out some of my Nutritioulicious snack options.

Disclaimer: I received samples of the MilkBite bars, but I was not paid to review or endorse them. All opinions are my own.