Store bought granola is loaded with sugar! Take a peak at the ingredient labels and often times you’ll find sugar listed as 5 or more different ingredients. Ingredient labels have ingredients listed in order of how much appears in a recipe. When you have sugar listed under different names 5 or more times you have clued in a marketing trick. They are trying to trick you into thinking sugar is not the first ingredient and highest amount in this product, but it still is. If you added up all the different levels of sugar it would push sugar to being ingredient number one. Any product that lists sugar as ingredient number one is a product that you just put right back on the shelf. Now that you are in on their little trick you won’t fall prey to their sneaky marketing.
Here is a little list of common sugar alternative names so you can become an ingredient label sleuth!
- agave nectar
- barley malt
- brown sugar
- corn syrup
- dehydrated cane juice
- dextrin
- dextrose
- fructose
- fruit juice concentrate
- glucose
- high-fructose corn syrup
- honey
- invert sugar
- isomalt
- lactose
- maltdextrin
- maltose
- malt syrup
- maple syrup
- molasses
- natural sweetener
- raw sugar
- rice syrup
- saccharose
- sucrose
- syrup
- turbinado sugar
- xylose
This short little list is hardly all of these, last I checked their were over 70 different names that food companies are using to label sugar under. You can check for an updated list, it is constantly changing as they are constantly trying to trick us. But we are on to their tricks and smart mamas!
Best bet make your own granola, using real whole ingredients. I sweetened mine with just a small bit of maple syrup, coconut flakes and dried fruit. Really play around with this, I’ve changed the dried fruit many times for a completely different overall flavor from goji berries to mulberries, the options are limitless!
Enjoy the recipe below and please comment below and let me know how you enjoy this granola!
Need a new pan? I love this baking sheet: Baking sheet
Line it with parchment paper and you have less mess=easy clean up. You can order it here: Parchment paper
Homemade Granola
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup raw walnuts
- 1 1/4 cup gluten-free rolled oats
- 2/3 cup dried fruit (raisins or cranberries)
- 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 275*
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (makes for easy-peasy cleanup)
- Add all dry ingredients to a bowl (except dried fruit)
- Add wet ingredients to the bowl with dry ingredients, mix
- Spread onto parchment lined pan
- Bake for 40 minutes, stirring once at the 20 minute mark
- Allow to cool for 30 minutes, then add dried fruit.
- Enjoy!
I love mine alone, in a bowl with milk, on top of unsweetened coconut milk yogurt and as a treat on coconut or almond milk ice cream!
