We eat a lot of granola bars around here. I love to cook breakfast food; I do, just not until evening. First thing in the morning I might burn the house down! So I stock up on granola bars whenever they are on sale. This time Fiber One Bars just happened to be one of the coupons offered at Costco so I picked those up along with another brand I had never tried that there was also a coupon for.
Everyone was excited to try the new Oats and Chocolate bars! Boy are they good! The chocolate on them is extra good, not like the waxy chips on other brands. We all had at least one for breakfast every day for about four days. Yep it took me that long. I was sitting on the couch folding laundry with the girls thinking, “Hmm, I have had an unusual amount of gastrointestinal problems the last few days. What on earth have I done differently?” My little boy had, had diarrhea several times. So I got to thinking that maybe it wasn’t just me. “Girls have you had extra trouble with…uh…tooting lately?” They all looked around sheepishly before admitting that yes in fact they too were having issues.
“I thought it was just me!” they said. “It happened in front of my friends!” one confessed.
That’s when it hit me. “FIBER One bars!” It was like the photo of the box was instantly uploaded to my mind. “Oh course!” I burst out laughing. “It’s those bars we’ve been eating that’s been giving us the toots!” We laughed and laughed. They are now dubbed the tooting bars around here. You’d think no one would want them any more, but that’s not the case. They are so good everyone is eating them anyway…on days we don’t plan on seeing anyone!
After realizing it was the bars causing all of our pain, I inspected the box several times and still it just looked like a regular box of granola bars. Then I finally found a little blip on the bottom of the box that read, “Gradually increase fiber over time to help decrease gastrointestinal discomfort.” Aha! Now normal people would probably not need a neon sign, but then again I’m not normal. Nope. I must embarrass myself and this time I took my whole family with me!
I’m linked with Heavenly Homemakers, Women Living Well and Works for Me Wednesday.
Hahaha, in my (extended) family, they are referred to as ‘fart bars’….you’re not alone 🙂
We’ve never had them but I think your post will make us think twice about buying them. 😀
Haa! This made me chuckle. And reminded me of a co-worker that tried one from our snack box, and he really liked it. So much so that he got another for his afternoon snack (he thought this will be better for me than a candy bar). It became his go to snack for a day or so before he realized it was the cause of him running to the bathroom more than normal!!! Talk about adding some fiber to your diet!! ha!!!
Oh my goodness, those things are SO YUMMY but you’re right! We’ve had the same problem with them.
I have some intestinal problems and found they were totally a problem for me, but my sister who has no problems couldn’t eat them either without having stomach problems. so I’m not sure who they are made for! Thanks for passing along this needed review : ) Gail
It’s funny how sometimes it takes a while to realize that a change in your diet is making a difference!
From what I’ve been reading, a lot of the ready-to-eat foods with extra fiber actually use “isolated” fiber that isn’t quite the same in its effect on your digestion as fiber that occurs naturally in food. For some people, it is just hard to digest (hence the gas) and doesn’t have any healthy effect.
Another food additive that can have bad digestive effects is “invert sugar” or “sorbitol” or “mannitol”–sweeteners that are engineered to be undigestible so you don’t absorb the calories. The trouble is that having something in your intestine that you can’t digest or absorb can cause irritation! A few years ago when I was a Girl Scout leader, we got a sample of the new flavor of sugar-free Girl Scout Cookies, and one of the girls noticed a warning on the box that they could cause digestive upset. Sure enough, the next week about 2/3 of the girls were saying they’d had troubles. So then we were selling cookies outside the supermarket, and they were conscientiously warning customers about the sorbitol! I was surprised we sold any of that flavor at all!
We had the same problem here with Fiber One Bars, and just like you, it took a while to figure out what was causing it.
Uh Oh! I have one of those big boxes here, but we don’t eat it regularly enough to notice a difference. I think I’ll eat one soon and see what happens. I should be alone when I do, just in case. 🙂
LOL! I don’t eat anything Fiber One anymore, because it does the same thing to me. So funny!