Taste Test: Trader Joe's Rolled Oats & Peanut Butter Fiberful Granola Bars
Trader Joe's house-brand "fiberful" granola bars are touted as a great way to add more fiber to your diet, and they certainly succeed on that front: the fact that each bar contains 9 grams of fiber per serving is plastered on the front of the box. In fact, the first ingredient in these bars is oligofructose, a white powder that's known as a prebiotic, high in fiber, and good for digestion. The bars also contain rolled oats and crisped rice, as well as peanut butter chips, peanut flour, and chocolate.
Unfortunately, oligofructose doesn't have the most pleasing flavor on its own, and it gives this bar a slightly medicinal, bitter overtone. In order to cover up the flavor, loads of sugar has been added, with 6 grams per 35-gram bar. There's a good peanut butter flavor as well, but none of our tasters were really able to detect much in the way of chocolate flavor, even though it's dipped in it. It was so sweet, though, that a few of our tasters said that they'd be unable to get through a whole bar.
For those who are looking to boost the level of fiber in their diet, these are a good choice (as long as you're OK with super-sweet food). If you're not, however, there are plenty of better granola bar options on the market.