Kind Healthy Snacks is benefiting from new calorie values for the almonds and cashews it uses in its bars and other products.
The lower calorie counts come because the USDA says the 100-year-old system it uses to assess calories is inaccurate for whole tree nuts. The old way, known as the Atwater system, did not account for how the body digests fat from tree nuts. As a result, calories have been reduced 19% for almonds and 16% for cashews.
"Nuts remain a nutrient-dense snack, but the number of calories provided in a single serving has been grossly miscalculated," USDA researcher David Baer is quoted as saying in a statement from Kind. "Our findings suggest a more accurate representation of calories and food companies using nuts in their products will be able to provide clearer information to the public."
As a result of the new values, Kind was able to knock a few calories off the Nutrition Panel information for some of its products. The biggest reduction was for the Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt bar, its top seller, which will shift from 200 to 180 calories.
“This research indicates that nuts not only contain fewer digestible calories but are just as nutrient-dense as they always have been, with the same amount of protein and essential healthy fats that contribute to heart health,” Daniel Lubetzky, founder and executive chairman of Kind, said in the statement.
