Granola: This is how healthy the crunchy muesli is acutally!

Granola is known as a deliciously crunchy breakfast that is also healthy due to its nutrient-rich ingredients. But appearances are often deceptive, and a glance at the list of ingredients reveals the conventional crunchy mueslis from the supermarket to be real sugar traps.

Fortunately, we know one or two healthy alternatives to the calorie bombs that we don’t want to deprive you of.

Find out how healthy granola really is and how you can enjoy it without a guilty conscience.

What is granola?

To make granola, oat flakes are mixed with honey, a sweet syrup (e.g. maple syrup or agave syrup), or sugar together with oil and gently toasted in the oven. Baking the sticky mixture creates delicious crunchy muesli in no time.

To give it a special touch, other ingredients are often added to the oatmeal base. This happens either before or after baking. For example, you can find crunchies with nuts, chocolate chips or freeze-dried berries on the supermarket shelf.

At first glance, this seems to make granola a delicious and healthy breakfast. However, crunchy mueslis from the supermarket are often real calorie bombs with plenty of sugar and fat. In addition, palm oil is often used for baking, which is not only bad for our health but also for the environment.

To offer you a healthy alternative, we completely avoid palm oil in our VERIVAL Crunchys and Granolas and rely on natural ingredients in organic quality.

Is granola healthy? 

Since granola is baked with fat and sugar, it’s hard to believe that it can actually be healthy. However, if you take a closer look at the ingredients, you will quickly realise that the crunchy granola is an excellent source of nutrients.

Oat flakes as a fibre-rich base

Oatmeal is bursting with fibre, which makes it a healthy base for granola. Not only does it keep you full for a long time, it also boosts digestion. In addition, the complex carbohydrates make your blood sugar level rise slowly and prevent cravings. This property also makes oatmeal a suitable breakfast for people with type 2 diabetes.

In addition, the local superfood contains healthy nutrients such as vitamins B1, B6 and E and the minerals iron, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus.

Nuts, seeds and co. for additional nutrients

As already mentioned, crunchies usually contain a few additional ingredients that not only make breakfast irresistibly delicious, but also provide other important nutrients.

Nuts such as almonds or cashews are particularly popular. They also provide your body with extra fibre and impress with their high protein content.

Nevertheless, nutrition-conscious people often avoid the healthy kernels because they are high in fat. However, the fear of fat is completely unfounded. In fact, nuts are even considered slimming agents. This is partly because the unsaturated fatty acids in the kernels curb your appetite and the body can only really absorb about two-thirds of the calories they contain. The rest is simply excreted. And these are only two of the many reasons why almonds and other nuts are healthy.

Those who tend to avoid nuts because the BMI calculator spits out a value that is too high should therefore rethink their strategy.

In addition to nuts, seeds such as chia seeds or linseed are also convincing with their healthy ingredients. They contain various vitamins and minerals and are particularly rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which strengthen our immune system and have an anti-inflammatory effect.

Fat and sugar in crunchy muesli

The fact that crunchies consist of healthy ingredients such as oat flakes, nuts and seeds unfortunately does not change the fact that they also contain plenty of fat and sugar.

This is often the case in the form of white industrial sugar and cheap palm oil. Some manufacturers, however, deliberately avoid palm oil and opt for healthier sugar alternatives.

Healthy granola simply made yourself!

Another way to escape the calorie trap is to make your own delicious crunchy granola. You alone decide which ingredients you want in your healthy crunchy breakfast and which not.

The preparation is super quick and uncomplicated: Mix all the ingredients with a little oil and, if needed, a little honey or something similar. Then bake the mixture in the oven for a few minutes until crispy. After baking, let the finished granola cool down a bit before enjoying it or storing it in storage tins.

Our recipe for nut granola proves just how healthy crunchy granola can actually be, as it contains no sugar at all. This turns the calorie bomb into a nutrient-rich breakfast in no time at all.

Print Recipe

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Basic Granola Recipe – Sugar Free Nut Granola

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time40 mins

Total Time55 mins

Servings: 5

Ingredients

• 30 g Brazil nuts
• 20 g Hazelnuts
• 20 g Cashews
• 20 g Walnuts
• 20 g Pecans
• 50 g Spelt flakes
• 1 tbsp Ground linseeds
• 2 tbsp Amaranth pops
• 2 tsp Coconut oil
• 2 tbsp Agave syrup (if needed)
• 1 tbsp Almond paste

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 150 degrees celsius.
• Then put all the nuts on a cutting board and chop them to small pieces.
• Then put the nuts in a bowl and add the linseeds, the amaranth pops and the spelt flakes.
• Next, mix all the ingredients together and add the agave syrup and liquid coconut oil.
  
• After mixing, spread the nut granola on a baking tray.
  
• Put the granola in the oven for about 40 minutes, stirring a little every 10 minutes or so.
  
• After the baking time, take the granola out of the oven and let it cool down. You can then enjoy it straight away or put it in an airtight storage tin.
  

Nadine Palmetshofer

Content Creator

Als begeisterte Foodie liebe ich es, neue Gerichte zu entdecken und die besten Frühstückslokale ausfindig zu machen. Meine großteils gesunde und vegane Ernährung ist dabei der optimale Treibstoff, um bei meinen Workouts Bestleistungen zu erbringen, und mich rundum wohlzufühlen.

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