Trail Mix- A SAFE Paleo Snack? Not really…

Think you'll be fine grabbing a handful of the mixed nuts the the office passes out in the conference room?  Or just a little of the trail mix that your kids brought home from camp?

Not so fast!

While nuts ARE paleo, some of the stuff that they get coated with is far from it.  Peanut or soybean oils, hydrogenated oils of any kind, sugars, loads of salt and preservatives are just a few of the nasty toxins you might run into if you wing it.

Here is an example of a typical trail mix label from a well known company, available at Whole Foods, to show what someone might mistakenly thing is a good choice, simply because of what shop it came from:

 Sunflower seeds, raisins (oil coated), goji berries, cranberries with sugar and sunflower oil, dried blueberries (blueberries, sugar), dried strawberries with sugar and sunflower oil 

 

And here is an even worse ingredient panel from a trail mix that one might find at a gas station (you'd be surprised!):

Ingredients: PEANUTS, CHOCOLATE CANDY PIECES (MILK CHOCOLATE {SUGAR, COCOA BUTTER, MILK, CHOCOLATE, LACTOSE, SOY LECITHIN – EMULSIFIER, VANILLIN – ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR}, SUGAR, ARTIFICIAL COLOR {INCLUDES YELLOW 5 LAKE, YELLOW 6, BLUE 1 LAKE, RED 40 LAKE}, GUM ARABIC, CORN SYRUP, CARNAUBA WAX, BEESWAX, CONFECTIONER'S GLAZE, SOY, WHEAT), RAISINS, ALMONDS, CASHEWS, PEANUT AND/OR COTTONSEED OIL, SEA SALT. CONTAINS: PEANUT, MILK, SOY, WHEAT, ALMOND, CASHEW. MANUFACTURED ON EQUIPMENT THAT PROCESSES OTHER TREE NUTS.

 

Take home message: unless you make it yourself, you're almost always better off skipping the trail mix and going with an apple and some raw walnuts!