This weekend I had to stop at a gas station with my son to get him a drink for his soccer game* and I managed to convince myself that I needed something to munch on while watching from the sidelines. I chose what at first glance appeared to be a fairly innocent snack, a small bag (3.5oz) of Snyder’s of Hanover Honey Mustard & Onion Pretzel Pieces.
*They won their district championship but lost their regional final tonight that would have earned them entry to State, so the season is over. Except for the pool party at our house. And yes, I’ve been reading too much Joe Posnanski.
But as it turned out these things are pretty darned bad. Well, they taste great, but bad for you. Just how bad? Well when you read the nutrition label you will quickly see that there are 140 calories and 3g of saturated fat per serving. “But John,” you say, “that doesn’t sound too bad.” Well, let me finish. There are almost 4 servings in this small bag (I HATE when they do that). So instead of 140 calories and 3g of saturated fat I’m really consuming about 560 calories and 12g of saturated fat, which is 28% and 60% respectively of a 2,000 calories a day diet. For one small bag of pretzel pieces! I thought pretzels were ok to eat?
I did a little research at the Snyder’s of Hanover website and found that they offer seven different varieties of this product: Southern Style Barbecue, Hot Buffalo Wing, Buttermilk Ranch, Cheddar Cheese, Honey Mustard & Onion, Jalapeno and Garlic Bread. Interestingly enough they all contain 140 calories per ounce serving, except for Cheddar Cheese which has 130. Regrettably I can’t find that they actually sell their product in 1 ounce bags so the 1 ounce serving size is a myth. The smallest bag is the 3.5oz bag that I bought and nobody that I know* would look at that little bag and say, “Let’s share.”
*Of course, that could be my problem. And did you know that Joe is Tony’s brother?
Now in Snyder’s defense I should point out one thing. Unlike most products I have seen where “about 4 servings” really means 4.1, making the math even worse, in this case the simple math of taking 140 calories and multiplying by “about 4 servings” to get 560 calories isn’t exactly right. Actually the product is 5 calories per gram for a total of 496 calories. So kudos for that.
But still the Bad Snack of the Day.
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