Are Mary's Gone Crackers Healthy? Original Crackers Nutrition and Ingredients

Mary's Gone Crackers Original nutrition facts: are they healthy?

Here is one 30 g serving, about 12 crackers:

The good part: whole grains and seeds make up the whole recipe. One serving has 3 g of fiber, about 11% of the 28 g daily value used on US labels, and 4 g of protein, which is a lot for a cracker. There is no sugar and very little saturated fat. The nutrition part of the Truvi score is 91 out of 100, at Nutri-Score C on our calculation, held back mainly by the salt.

The weaker part is sodium. One serving has 180 mg, about 8% of the 2,300 mg daily value. The FDA calls 5% or less of the daily value low and 20% or more high, so this is in the middle, and it adds up if you eat more than one serving.

The crackers are also dry and calorie-dense, at 4.7 calories per gram. About 32% of the calories come from fat, mostly from the flax and sesame seeds, and sodium is 0.6% of the weight. Research on hyperpalatable foods uses more than 25% of calories from fat together with at least 0.3% sodium by weight as one marker of foods that are easy to overeat, and these crackers meet it. That is why the overeating part of the Truvi score is low, at 28 out of 100. Eating them with hummus, cheese or vegetables, and putting one serving in a bowl, helps.

Mary's Gone Crackers Original ingredients

Six ingredients, in this order. The stars on the label mark organic ingredients, and USDA FoodData Central lists the product as Original Organic Crackers.

• Brown rice. the main ingredient, a whole grain.
• Quinoa. a whole seed that adds protein.
• Flax seeds. add fiber and most of the fat.
• Sesame seeds. add crunch and more fat.
• Tamari (water, soybeans, salt, vinegar). a soy sauce made from soybeans, used for flavor. It is one of the two sources of salt.
• Sea salt. the other source of salt.

There are no flavorings, sweeteners, emulsifiers, gums or preservatives on this label. It does list soybeans and sesame, so check the box if you avoid either.

Are Mary's Gone Crackers ultra-processed?

No. NOVA, the food-processing scale used in nutrition research, puts foods made by adding salt, sugar or oil to whole foods in group 3, processed foods. Simple bread made from flour, water, salt and yeast sits in the same group. Grains and seeds baked with tamari and sea salt land there too.

Group 4, ultra-processed, is for products made mostly from ingredients of industrial use, often with cosmetic additives such as flavorings, colors, emulsifiers, sweeteners and thickeners. None of those are on this label. The processing part of the Truvi score is 56 out of 100: not ultra-processed, but not a whole food either, because salt is added.

Check the box you buy

This page is for the 18 oz box, barcode shown below. The 6.5 oz box listed in USDA FoodData Central has the same six ingredients and the same nutrition per 100 g, so the numbers here apply to both.

Other Mary's Gone Crackers products are made differently. In the USDA database, the Thins and Minis lines list tapioca starch, palm fruit oil, tapioca syrup and xanthan gum, so they are a different kind of cracker from the Original. If you want the simple six-ingredient version, read the label or scan it.

Crackers that score a little higher

Two crackers in Truvi's US list score slightly higher on the same scale. Like Mary's, both are processed (NOVA 3) with no additives on the label. The main difference is salt.

• 

  BACK TO NATURE Harvest Whole Wheat Crackers

  Three ingredients: whole grain wheat, safflower oil and sea salt. Per 30 g: 130 calories, 3 g protein, 3 g fiber, no sugar and 80 mg sodium, under half the sodium of Mary's. It contains wheat, so it is not an option if you avoid gluten.

  NOVA 3 · Photo: chancewash, CC BY-SA 3.0

  65Good

• 

  H-E-B Deli Norwegian Crispbread

  A seed and whole grain crispbread with sunflower seeds, sesame, rye, oats and spelt. Per 24 g: 110 calories, 4 g protein, 4 g fiber and 6 g fat, with 170 mg sodium. It contains wheat and rye.

  NOVA 3 · Reported at H E B · Photo: chancewash, CC BY-SA 3.0

  64Good

Full ingredient list and nutrition

Brown rice*, quinoa*, flax seeds*, sesame seeds*, tamari* (water, soybeans*, salt, vinegar*), sea salt

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