IS LARABAR’S RENOLA PALEO?

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The fruit and nut bars from LARABAR are among our favorite on-the-go snacks you can buy in a store, but they, like many other companies, are branching out from their flagship product. Enter Renola, “Reinventing Granola.” Is it Paleo?

What is LARABAR’s Renola?

Renola is a new grain-free granola product from LARABAR. It is gluten-free and non-GMO, and doesn’t contain any of the usual granola suspects like oats or sugar. It’s kind of like a trail mix, but in granola form. Here’s a list of ingredients from their Berry flavor.

Ingredients: Almonds, Cashews, Sunflower Seeds, Dried Molasses, Pumpkin Seeds, Pecans, Dried Blueberries, Apple Juice, Blueberry Juice Concentrate, Raspberry Powder, Apple Powder, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Cinnamon, Sea Salt, Vanilla Extract

This is where Paleo products enter the gray area. On the surface, everything is recognizable, and there’s no highly refined sugar, grains, soy, or unstable oils. However, there sure is a lot of concentrating and drying and powdering and juicing going on here. Their other two flavors don’t have as many ingredients, but they both contain tapioca syrup and dried molasses.

Yes, sort of. The ingredients are all technically “Paleo,” but they are quite a bit removed from their natural source, and there are 6 different kinds of sugar. However, one serving (or travel pouch) contains 200 calories and 8 grams of sugar, so it’s probably about the same as any nut & dried fruit trail mix you would make yourself. We’ll say these granola packs are Paleo, and acceptable for your camping or hiking trip, but maybe not something you should eat for your everyday breakfast.

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