12 Of The Unhealthiest Store-Bought Rice Cakes
Rice cakes have had a long and varied journey. Rice has been grown to be eaten by humans for over 7,000 years, and the grain has been pounded into cakes for a long chunk of that history, primarily in East Asian countries like China and Japan. These rice cakes are traditionally dense and chewy, but in the West, the invention of rice puffing technology changed everything. Once people figured out how to inflate rice, they soon started finding their way into a dry, flat, round cake form, which quickly became associated with low-calorie food consumption and arguably were considered pretty boring.
This all changed when rice cake manufacturers started to coat their products with increasingly exciting things, like chocolate, candy, and cinnamon flavor combos. However, this can turn what is commonly seen as a healthy snack into something full of added sugar. In addition, rice cakes can often be fairly low in fiber and other nutrients. In this article, we sought to find the rice cakes on the market today that are highest in sugar and are lowest in all-important vitamins, minerals, or fiber.
1. Quaker Chocolate Rice Cakes
If you've had a rice cake recently, it's fairly likely to have been made by Quaker. The food titan has a ton of flavors out there, from its sweet Apple Cinnamon variety to its savory Tomato and Basil option. Its Chocolate Rice Cakes, though, are ones that you should probably avoid due to their added sugar content. Each rice cake has 4 grams of sugar in it, and all of that is added. This makes up a third of the 12 grams of carbohydrates in the snack overall.
It's also noticeable that there's no fiber at all in these rice cakes, and the combo of added sugar and no fiber content doesn't exactly lead to nutritional success. "When you eat a source of natural sugar, such as a piece of fruit, you benefit from the accompanying fiber," said Houston Methodist Wellness Services wellness dietitian Nathalie Sessions to Houston Methodist.
Sessions also mentioned that this fiber not only helps you feel more full but it prevents the sugar from being absorbed by your bloodstream too rapidly, causing a spike. When you consume added sugar without any fiber, however, the glucose goes straight into your blood. Sessions goes on to mention that there's no dietary need for added sugar, and while it may make your food taste good, it's unlikely to do you any health favors.
2. Kupiec Rice Cakes with Dark Chocolate
Chocolate-coated rice cakes are an enticing snack that seems to promise a sweet treat without the full added sugar and fat content of a candy bar. While this may well be true, you should still watch out for certain brands, like Kupiec. Its Rice Cakes with Dark Chocolate still manage to pack in 70 calories per 15-gram rice cake — which, it should be pointed out, is about the same caloric amount as the equivalent weight of a Snickers bar.
Within that amount, it also delivers 2 grams of saturated fat. This is roughly 10% of your daily value, and it's a high quantity to be delivered in a snack between meals. Saturated fat is one of the most spoken-about nutrients in the health world, and opinion has gone back and forth about how unhealthy they are.
However, it remains the case that you should try to limit your intake and opt for unsaturated fat sources instead due to saturated fat's potential impact on cholesterol levels and heart health, according to BBC Good Food. It's also worth noting that these rice cakes have a fair amount of added sugar in them, too, with 4 grams per serving.
3. Drizzilicious S'Mores Bites Mini Rice Cakes
Anything flavored like a s'more is unlikely to be the healthiest thing in the world. Unfortunately, Drizzilicious S'Mores Bites Mini Rice Cakes don't buck the trend. Don't be fooled by the small serving size: In each tiny 21-gram bag, there are still 90 calories and 4 grams of added sugar. There's also only a single gram of protein and no fiber to be seen anywhere.
Perhaps the most noticeable thing about these mini rice cakes, though, is their sodium content. There are roughly 100 milligrams of sodium in every bag, a fair bit more than other sweetened rice cakes out there and a pretty high amount for a sweet snack. A small amount of sodium is fairly common in processed sweet foods, thanks to its ability to make things taste even sweeter and enhance the overall pleasurability of the item.
These small amounts, however, can add up, and eating an unlikely source like this can boost your intake fairly significantly. Ideally, we shouldn't be eating more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium each day, and you can find other rice cakes out there that won't supply such a big proportion of that in one go.
4. Shibolim Chocolate Drizzled Rice Chips
Shibolim's Chocolate Drizzled Rice Chips seem to have a lot going for them. The branding for the product is quick to tell you that they're not just sugar-free but also gluten-free, dairy-free, and made from whole grains. So far so good, right?
Well, despite all of these positives, these mini rice cakes still manage to contain a gram of saturated fat in a small 23-gram serving. While they may not have any added sugar, too, they also don't have much of anything else, with barely any fiber and no protein.
Rice cakes aren't usually a high-protein snack, but it's still useful to bear in mind how important it is for us, especially in snack form. Protein-rich snacks do what snacks are intended to do, keeping us from getting hungry between meal times by keeping our blood sugar level.
If snacks have low amounts of protein in them or don't have any at all — as is the case with Shibolim's rice cakes — they don't provide any buffering effect from carbohydrates. Therefore, these snacks tend to cause a blood sugar spike and crash and end up making us hungrier than before. While you can increase the protein content of rice cakes by including a topping like peanut butter, it's best to do this with a brand that doesn't have the saturated fat content that Shibolim's does.
5. Element Organic Dark Chocolate Topped Rice Cakes
Element Snacks has a range of topped rice cakes in luxurious flavors, from standard milk chocolate to white chocolate orange. Its healthiest-seeming option, however, is far from the case.
Element Organic Dark Chocolate Topped Rice Cakes have an appearance of healthiness due to being certified organic and non-GMO and being topped with traditionally mineral and antioxidant-rich dark chocolate. Unfortunately, that's where the goodness ends.
These rice cakes are full of calories, fat, saturated fat, and added sugar — one 17-gram rice cake has 80 calories. Their 2.5 grams of saturated fat delivers approximately 13% of your daily value, and there are 5 grams of added sugar in every portion, making them one of the most sugar-filled choices out there.
It also has no fiber and just a single gram of protein. The saturated fat content, in particular, is a common trait of processed foods like this, particularly those that are made with chocolate. Just because that chocolate is on a rice cake doesn't make it healthier or any lower in fat.
6. Lundberg Organic Sweet & Spiced Cinnamon Toast Rice Cakes
As with most processed snacks, rice cakes have become increasingly ambitious as time has gone on, with wilder, more wonderful flavor combos. Lundberg's Organic Sweet & Spiced Cinnamon Toast Whole Grain Rice Cakes are a testament to this, with the simple-looking rice cakes packing spicy, aromatic taste notes into them.
All of that flavor comes at a price, with every rice cake containing 90 calories. The cakes also have 3 grams of sugar, and all of them are added. This wouldn't be so surprising if they were coated with a thick, creamy topping, like so many other competitors, but as these rice cakes look fairly plain apart from a slightly red appearance, we're not quite sure where that sugar is hiding.
It is worth pointing out that these rice cakes do have a small amount of fiber in them, thanks to being made from organic brown rice, and they are also sodium-free, winning them some points. Nonetheless, it's always worth considering how you can cut down your added sugar intake from snacks. A good solution could be to skip these and dust some regular rice cakes with cinnamon and little to no sugar.
7. Mother's Sodium Free Whole Grain Brown Rice Cakes
Processed snacks are often laden with potentially unwanted levels of nutrients like sodium and saturated fat. So it's refreshing to see a snack like Mother's Sodium Free Whole Grain Brown Rice Cakes, which have zero amounts of either. These rice cakes also contain no overall fat, no sugar or added sugar, and no cholesterol, instead just having 7 grams of carbohydrates and a single gram of protein.
So, what's the issue? It's that while they don't have anything that unhealthy in them, they're also not that nutritious. Mother's Sodium Free Whole Grain Brown Rice Cakes contain barely any vitamins or minerals whatsoever, and despite being made from brown rice, they also don't have any fiber.
The lack of fiber content stops these rice cakes from having any noticeable satiating effect and also prevents them from acting as nourishing for your gut bacteria, according to Healthline. If you eat them plain, without any toppings, they'll simply provide calories via their carbohydrate content, and this can cause your blood glucose to creep up surprisingly quickly. While they are arguably one of the best choices out there as a neutral base for healthy additions, as a solo snack they're best avoided.
8. Lieber's Milk Chocolate Covered Rice Cakes
Chocolate-covered rice cakes are now a staple snack for many people, and kosher food company Lieber's has joined the party with its offering. Its Milk Chocolate Covered Rice Cakes, however, aren't necessarily the healthiest ones out there. These rice cakes, like many other coated versions, are fairly high in saturated fat, containing 1 ½ grams per 15-gram serving. They also have a pretty high added sugar content, with 4 grams in each cake.
Neither of these things is particularly exciting to us, but we're perhaps most disappointed by the sheer lack of any other nutritional value. There's no fiber in these rice cakes, despite being made partly with brown rice, and they also have no vitamins and a tiny amount of minerals.
Unless rice cakes are supplemented with nutrient-rich flour, they're generally pretty devoid of vitamins and minerals, and this can be a surprising issue. According to Centrum, these nutrients are fundamental to a massive range of bodily functions and processes, providing immune and metabolism support and helping our cells operate correctly. It's always a good idea to pick snacks that will top up our vitamin intake — and Lieber's rice cakes just won't do the job.
9. Galil Ultra Thin Rice Cakes with Sesame and Sea Salt
Ultra-thin rice cakes are a popular snack choice, partly due to their super-crispy texture and their ability to satisfy a craving to munch on something relatively healthy. Galil's Ultra Thin Rice Cakes with Sesame and Sea Salt certainly hit the spot on the crunch factor.
However, while they're individually pretty low in calories, it's crucial to point out that they have a serving size of four rice cakes, which puts them on par with other rice cake offerings out there calories-wise. When food items are smaller or thinner, it can also lead you to eat more of them, thereby meaning you inadvertently eat more calories than you might have intended to.
The calories, however, are not too bad. It's the lack of fiber we're more concerned about. Each rice cake has a mere 0.1 grams of fiber despite being made with brown rice and fiber-rich sesame seeds.
We should be aiming for around 25 to 30 grams of fiber per day, but the fact of the matter is that most people don't get that much. Topping up our fiber intake with snacks throughout the day is one of the best ways to achieve that goal — but it's unlikely to happen if you're opting for low-fiber snacks like this one.
10. Deluxe & Bla Bla White Chocolate Rice Cakes
Rice cakes are constantly reaching new heights of fanciness, and Deluxe & Bla Bla's products are a testament to this, with its snacks coming in ambitious flavors and understated, elegant packaging. However, fanciness doesn't equal healthiness.
Its White Chocolate Rice Cakes, for example, have a similar amount of sugar to its market competitors, and in each 19-gram serving size, comprising two rice cakes, there are 3 grams of sugar. Like several other rice cakes out there, too, Deluxe & Bla Bla White Chocolate Rice Cakes are made with brown rice but still don't have any fiber in them whatsoever.
Unfortunately, coated rice cakes like these are usually less nutritionally valuable than plain ones. As well as having higher amounts of sugar, they can also contain saturated fat and fat. While Deluxe & Bla Bla's rice cakes don't seem to have any saturated fat inside, they do have several grams of fat per serving, coming from hydrogenated palm oil. It's usually a healthier option to go for a plain rice cake and top it with nut butter, which will provide a healthier fat content and also some useful fiber.
11. Kim's Chocolate Deli Pop
Kim's Magic Pop rice cakes are a snack with a difference. While most rice cake manufacturers opt for plain white or brown rice in their recipes, Kim's Magic Pop also includes pressed barley, a move which earns its products the right to call themselves multigrain. However, that doesn't seem to make a huge difference to its nutritional value. Kim's Chocolate Deli Pop, its chocolate-coated version, still has 0 grams of fiber and no vitamins and minerals.
Like many coated rice cakes, it also has a notably high level of saturated fat, clocking in at 2 grams per serving. This fat, too, comes from hydrogenated palm kernel oil. Palm kernel oil is especially high in saturated fat and is generally used for its ability to stay stable at room temperature, but that saturated fat content comes at the expense of healthier, unsaturated fats. It's important that we aim for these types of fats as our primary source and that we keep track of what forms of fat we're consuming in convenient snacks like this.
12. Just Grown Kosher Chocolate Covered Rice Cakes
Just Grown's Kosher Chocolate Covered Rice Cakes may not seem that bad to the casual buyer. The manufacturer proudly announces a host of attractive-looking qualities on its packaging, proclaiming that these rice squares are all-natural, gluten-free, and whole grain. While these may seem like good traits, it's worth remembering that rice cakes should always really be gluten-free and whole grain because rice is, after all, a gluten-free whole grain.
It's always helpful to look beyond statements like this and take a peek inside. Unfortunately, Just Grown Kosher Chocolate Covered Rice Cakes are as sugary as a lot of other coated rice cakes out there, with 3 grams of added sugar per serving.
Importantly, the standard serving size for Just Grown's offering is smaller than a lot of others, with each cake weighing in at 12 ½ grams instead of the usual 15 to 17 grams. In addition to this, there's not a lot of fiber to speak of, with under a gram in each small cake. Without a good amount of fiber, added sugar is free to run riot and elevate your blood sugar and hunger levels, according to the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.