The FDA Has Some Bad News About Your Kind Bars

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Depressing news for all you Kind bar fans: The popular nut and fruit snack, which bills itself as a “healthy and tasty” treat, is actually kind of not healthy at all.

According to a letter from the Food and Drug Administration to the makers of Kind, the bars “do not meet the requirements for use of the nutrient content claim ‘healthy’ on a food label” under the law.

“Your website states, ‘There’s healthy. There’s tasty. Then there’s healthy and tasty’ and ‘all of our snacks are pretty much the nirvana of healthful tastiness.’ In addition, your webpage for the Kind Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate + Protein product states ‘KIND Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate + Protein is a healthy and satisfying blend of peanuts and antioxidant-rich dark chocolate.’ However, none of your products listed above meet the requirements for use of the nutrient content claim ‘healthy’ that are set forth in 21 CFR 101.65(d)(2).”

The FDA said the bars have too much saturated fat to justify the term “healthy,” and also don’t measure up to their “antioxidant-rich” claim. Bloomberg reports Kind is “moving quickly to comply” to edit its labels.

More disappointment for people who thought cheerfully labeled snacks and drinks (a la Vitamin Water) could actually make them fitter.

(h/t Bloomberg)

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In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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