I have bugged my wife for a long time that my kids have never had a pop tart. As you could imagine morning TV is full of commercials for food and sugary food at that, so what about these Pop Tarts?
Yesterday we got a box of pop tarts for the kids as they finally won over my wife. Growing up I never had pop tarts myself but I am sure it is only because my parents cared about me. in my 20s I had a few so I of course know what they are.
So here is the scoop. Are Pop Tarts good for you? Are Pop Tarts part of a balanced breakfast?
No
Nutritional Analysis of Pop Tarts
The stats are really against these frosted toasted pastry deserts disguised as breakfast food. The box has numbers for one but realistically I think no one is going to have one. I will use the numbers for one anyway.
- Calories: 200
- Fat: 5 grams
- Carbohydrates: 35 grams
- Fiber: 1 gram
- Protein: 3 grams
So what are we looking for here? Well the numbers look fine although in a vacuum it looks like a decent number of calories and there is a bit of protein.
But looking deeper look at what a Pop Tart gets it’s calories from – sugar- these things are made of sugar and fried pastry (don’t know how the fat is even that low) and the pastry is just one of those refined carbs that we always try to avoid.
The real problem though is that the kids get a big pop to their blood sugar and then a sugar crash and the calories are completely empty. Breakfast is an important meal for kids to get lots of nutrients and there are not going to be any, I know the box says there is some iron and folate but really no vitamins A or C at all.
So I will have to give a pass on Pop Tarts. Pop Tarts are not good for you even if they do taste great.