Are Pretzels Healthy? Snyder's of Hanover Mini Pretzels Nutrition Facts

Snyder's Mini Pretzels nutrition facts: are they healthy?

Here is one 1 oz serving, from the manufacturer's label as listed in USDA FoodData Central:

The good part is the fat. With 1.79 g of fat per 100 g and no saturated fat, pretzels are far leaner than most salty snacks. Goldfish Cheddar crackers, for comparison, have 16.7 g of fat per 100 g and 467 calories, against 393 for these pretzels. Sugar is low too: 1 g per serving, all of it added.

The weak part is the salt. One serving has 250 mg of sodium, 11% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value. Per 100 g that is 893 mg, a little more than Goldfish (833 mg). Few people stop at 19 pretzels, and two servings already come to over a fifth of a day's sodium.

The other weak part is what the pretzels are made of. The first ingredient is enriched flour, which is refined white wheat flour with a few B vitamins and iron added back. That is why there is only 1 g of fiber and 3 g of protein per serving: 80% of the calories come from starch and sugar. A snack that is almost all refined starch fills you up for less time than its 110 calories suggest.

Snyder's Mini Pretzels ingredients

There are 7 ingredients, in this order:

• Enriched flour. wheat flour with niacin, reduced iron, thiamine, riboflavin and folic acid. The main ingredient.
• Tapioca malt syrup. tapioca syrup and malt extract, for the brown color and slightly sweet taste.
• Salt. in the dough and on top.
• Vegetable oil. canola, palm, soybean and/or sunflower, in a small amount.
• Cane sugar. also a small amount, about 1 g per serving.
• Yeast. for the dough.
• Soda. baking soda, part of the classic pretzel process.

The label lists wheat, so these pretzels are not gluten free.

Are pretzels ultra-processed?

These are not. NOVA, the food-processing scale used in nutrition research, puts foods made by adding salt, sugar or oil to basic foods in group 3, processed foods. The NOVA authors use bread as their example: an industrial bread made only from wheat flour, water, salt and yeast is processed, while one that also lists emulsifiers or colors is ultra-processed (Monteiro et al., 2019).

A plain pretzel is very close to that bread. This label has no flavors, colors, emulsifiers or thickeners, and none of the sugars the NOVA authors name as signs of ultra-processing, such as high-fructose corn syrup, invert sugar, maltodextrin or dextrose. So it is NOVA 3, and the processing part of the Truvi score is 56 out of 100.

That is not true of every pretzel. Filled, coated and seasoned pretzels often add flavorings, cheese powders or emulsifiers, which would make them ultra-processed. Check the ingredient list: a short list like this one is the sign of a plain pretzel.

Why Snyder's Mini Pretzels score 55 out of 100

The Truvi score (our method) is an opinion from the label. It combines three parts. Processing scores 56: NOVA 3, no additives of concern. Nutrition scores 81: very little fat, saturated fat or sugar, held back by the salt, which puts the pretzels at Nutri-Score D on our calculation.

How easy the food is to overeat scores only 22, and that is what pulls the total down. The pretzels meet the carbohydrate and salt marker that researchers use to define hyper-palatable food, more than 40% of calories from carbohydrate with at least 0.2% sodium by weight (Fazzino et al., 2019). Here it is 80% and 0.89%. They are also dry and calorie-dense, at 3.9 calories per gram.

Pretzels that score higher

These two score higher on the same scale. Both are plain wheat pretzels too, NOVA 3, with no sugar on the ingredient list. If you want to stay with Snyder's, the Unsalted Mini Pretzels have the same recipe without the salt: 321 mg of sodium per 100 g instead of 893, about 90 mg per serving.

• 

  meijer Tiny Twists Pretzels

  Meijer's store-brand mini twists, a 1 oz serving is 16 pieces. Unbleached enriched flour, malt, salt, soybean oil, baking soda and yeast.

  NOVA 3 · Reported at Meijer · Photo: macrofactor, CC BY-SA 3.0

  65Good

• 

  Unknown Brand Petite Pretzels

  Small pretzels with no salt on the ingredient list: unbleached enriched flour, malt and soybean oil.

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

  63Good

Full ingredient list and nutrition

Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), tapioca malt syrup (tapioca syrup, malt extract), salt, vegetable oils (canola, palm, soy, and/or sunflower), cane sugar, yeast, soda. contains: wheat

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