Belvita Soft Bakes Choc Chips, 250g

Product Information

Well, they don’t taste awful. They do have quite an artificial flavour and the texture tells you that there are whole grains and fibre is present but they are ok to eat. To be honest, I definitely had a preconceived opinion about BelVita. The idea of biscuits for breakfast just doesn’t seem right at first, especially in a world dominated by food fixations. They are processed, have a huge list of ingredients and, well, they have the word biscuit in the title. Biscuits aren’t breakfast food, are they? Or are they? Time for a closer look to see what the nutritional claims are, what the reality is and try to work out if they are healthy or not. Having said that, I spend a lot of my time working with clients who are concerned about pre-diabetes. Their needs and their eating habits are different.

In terms of ingredients and nutritional profile, they are very similar, however, if you start drifting into the Duo Crunch Chocolate Hazelnut range then the calories do bump up a touch and so does sugar content. Since Belvita soft bakes come in different flavours there syns can vary slightly, but on average their soft bakes have around 10 syns per bake which is quite high, taking up the majority of your syn allowance. They also contain less fat per 100g than other biscuits. However, 30% Less Sugar Chocolate Chip biscuits are also worth considering since they are the lowest in sugar out of all Belvita biscuits (although they are still high in calories). Hell, you don’t even have to put these in a bowl and pour milk on them! But nutrition should not be sacrificed for convenience, at least not at the start of every day. I definitely wouldn’t feed them to kids. Again, not necessarily due to the nutritional values but more because of the nutritional concepts.

If you are watching your calories and follow Slimming World or Weight Watchers diet, then it’s good to know there are 2.5 to 3 syns and 1.5 Weight Watchers points per biscuit (depending on the variety). Can you gain weight if you eat Belvita biscuits every day? I’m pretty sure not many people are enjoying that every morning. I hate to say it but even though they are not the worst thing to eat nutritionally, I still think that these biscuits are targeted at the kind of people that buy their breakfasts from a petrol station.

Belvita Soft Bakes Chocolate Chip - Soft baked biscuits made with wholegrain cereals, chocolate chips and added minerals.Enjoy as part of a varied and balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. Rich in cereals, source of fibre, source of Vitamin B6 and folic acid, Magnesium, Iron, made with wholegrain. Energy for the whole morning! Now for the big question. Do they taste any good? Let’s be honest, it doesn’t matter if they are the greatest nutritional “superfood” ever invented but if they taste awful then it’s all irrelevant. They’re made without high-fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, artificial flavours or sweeteners…At 9 syns for a 50g serving, Belvita strawberry biscuits are extremely high in syns and take the majority of your 15 syn daily allowances. This is down to the high sugar and carb content inside of the biscuits which increase the calories and therefore the syns. Due to the use of wheat flour, Belvita biscuits are not gluten-free, unfortunately. They also have other ingredients which may contain gluten so they are not suitable for coeliacs. What’s the taste like? If they are used to highly processed, sugary breakfasts and they liked these biscuits and wanted to swap to these instead then that would be an improvement. Belvita biscuits in strawberry flavour have 9 syns per biscuit, making them very high in syns so you should only be eaten in moderation when you have enough room in your syn allowance.

Let’s start with the ingredients. Alarm bells start ringing when you look at the ingredients list of Belvita biscuits. I tried the Milk and Cereals biscuit with around 20 ingredients in it. It takes 5 minutes to scramble an egg and eat it. If you only have time to eat a biscuit in the morning for breakfast then “nutrition” is not your biggest concern! In terms of nutritional profile, the Milk and Cereal biscuits weighed in with the following numbers (the basis is a single serving of 4 biscuits (45g) with using a nutritional reference value (NRV) intake of an average adult consuming 2,000 calories per day):Would I eat them or serve them to my family? Nope. Not necessarily because they are unhealthy but more because there are better options out there. The bottom line is, if you care about your health you wouldn’t want to eat these biscuits every day but having them as an occasional treat as part of a healthy and balanced diet is totally acceptable. Neil Welsh is a nutrition coach who specialises in working with clients who are concerned about prediabetes. Belvita biscuits won’t make you fat if the rest of your diet is good. They are, however, heavily processed and could lead to the consumption of more processed foods which could contribute to weight gain.