Product review: energy bars
Odwalla chocolate chip peanut: one of my favorites. I love the flavor and the texture is good as well. A bit high in sugar (14g) and calories (250), but has 8g of protein and is pretty filling. Doesn’t contain soy isolate, just soy nuts! Rating: A-
Luna key lime pie: the lime has that metallic taste that I always get if I leave a squeezed half of lime sitting in a glass of water overnight. The bar in general seems insubstantial, and sugary, especially the white coating. Lots of protein, but not so much fiber. Lots of vitamin and minerals added. Only 180 calories, which is lower than most bars. Rating: C
Optimum Cranberry, Ginger, and Soy: This bar tastes a lot like the optimum cereal with ginger. The ginger flavor (plus cloves and cinnamon) is quite nice, and just a bit spicy even. It’s quite high in sugar though (21g), and contains soy protein concentrate. Although it doesn’t have nutrients added, it is quite high in calcium (25%) and iron (15%). With 5g of fiber, 6g of protein, and 3g of (unsaturated) fat the nutrient balance isn’t too bad either. Rating: B
Lara cinnamon bar: This is one of my favorite lara bars. It’s very tasty, but unfortunately I don’t really find any of the lara bars too filling. I consider them more like dessert. This one has 210 calories, 20g of sugar, and 4g each of protein and fibe, plus 12g of fat from nuts. Rating: B
Kashi TLC Trail Mix granola bars: Kashi TLC bars are much closer to traditional granola bars I ate when I was a kid. The taste isn’t bad and I quite like the texture–lots of hard crunchy things stuck together with a sticky, gooey sweet substance. These bars are much smaller than most others I’ve tried: only 140 calories, with 5g of fat, 6g of protein, and 4g of fiber. The vitamin and mineral content is quite low, but so are the sugars (6g). They contain soy protein isolate. They come in a box with maybe 8 or so bars, and so end up being quite a bit cheaper than the ones you buy individually. Rating: B-
The captious vegetarian 
Robbie said,
November 11, 2006 at 5:48 pm
What about cliff bars? They are my favorite….
captious said,
November 11, 2006 at 5:59 pm
Yeah, I like many of the Clif bars, just haven’t gotten around to adding them yet. They taste pretty good and are filling, but they are high in sugar and soy protein isolate (not surprisingly).