The Balance Bars Glycemic Index Confusion

FormulaZone Staff, August 27, 2004

Balance Bars. They are a great snack when you are on the go, or to keep in your desk drawer at work for those afternoon cravings. How are they for you, though?

They ARE balanced. Their traditional bars, as well as their GoMix, are all balanced. They do have a new line, the "carb control" products, that are not balanced, so watch out for those.

The protein appears to be from good sources. Soy, soy nuggets, and nuts are the primary protein sources listed.

The fats also appear to be from reasonable sources. Natural sources, such as nuts, and other sources (they also seem to be Trans-Fat free).

It is the carbohydrates that you have to wonder about. The very first carb source listed on their GoMix packages are "yogurt flavored covered raisins", which consist of sugar (high glycemic) and raisins (also high glycemic). The amounts of fruits (strawberries and others) are so small that their low glycemic index has little to no effect on the overall GI of the food. If you plugged these ingredients into the FormulaZone Meal Designer, the results would be a High Glycemic recipe. (Or, if you plug the entire label into the Label Analyzer, you are shown a high glycemic rating as well).

Yet the Balance company is promoting their foods as "Low Glycemic". In fact, the GoMix packages claim right on their back panel to be "a Low GI Food". We found this interesting, and decided to do a little research.

What they have done is restructured the Glycemic Index chart. They make the claim (and they are accurate) that there is no standardized glycemic index chart. You may also be interested to know that there is no government regulation of the Glycemic Index terms, so be sure to use your own common sense when looking at labels.

While there is no formal standard, there is a commonly accepted standard. Balance has chosen to not use this standard.

For comparison purposes, This is the standard that FormulaZone uses. It is very common, and is the most widely used:

Standard Glycemic Chart

Low	0 - 35
Medium	36 - 70
High	71 - 100
Very High	Over 100

On their website Balance has published an article on the Glycemic Index, where they show you a chart comparing their foods to White Bread as well as some other foods. Now, when you look at a GI chart, look for White Bread. On the standard chart, white bread is 100 (very high). On the Balance chart, White Bread is 70. This is what theirs looks like:

Balance Bar Glycemic Chart

Rank	Per Balance	Adjusted
Low	0 - 55	0 - 79
Moderate	56 - 69	80 - 99
High	Over 70	Over 100

The adjusted column shows their range on the standard chart, as determined by calculating a factor of 1.429 by dividing 100 by 70 (is based on their claim that white bread = 70, vs. the common standard of white bread = 100).

What this really means is that when they claim a food is Low GI, it really means that the GI of the food (on the standard chart) is under 80. 80! That's in the High range! (Look at the chart to the left!).

What they have done is changed the scale so that 70 is "high" (white bread on their chart is 70), whereas the standard chart shows white bread at 100. This has skewed their chart, making all of the numbers seem small. Further, they say that white bread is the low of the High range, whereas the standard chart uses white bread as the high end of the High range, and above is the Very High range.

Why did they do this? We can only guess so that when they show you their GI rating for their products (such as 35 for their GoMix product), you will see a low number and assume that it is Low GI.

Which is too bad because their products are good, and nobody can reasonable expect them to be Low Glycemic. They published their GI information for their products, and we have adjusted them to match the Standard chart. Look at their foods here:

Balance Products GI

Food	Per Balance	Adjusted
Balance Bar Yogurt Honey Peanut	25	35 (low)
Balance Bar Gold	28	40 (medium)
Balance GoMix	35	50 (medium)