I was running a few errands the other day and stopped in at The Bulk Barn. I was picking up some organic chia seeds, Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and a few other things and saw these things called The Simply Bar. Like I said, I'm not big into buying pre-made things, but I think it's handy to have a few things that can be quickly heated up and made into a meal (like the dairy-free organic burritos I blogged about earlier) and I think it's handy to have a few things that need no preparation (something you can throw in your purse and have when you're out running errands or after a run or workout). There's a lot of hype about energy bars, but there's also a lot of artificial ingredients and preservatives. So even if the calorie, fat, sodium, carb and protein count look acceptable that doesn't mean that it's great for your body.
That is why I was intrigued by this bar. I know a lot of people love Larabars because they have more simple ingredients and less preservatives than most energy/meal replacement bars and when I looked at The Simply Bar it seemed great too. Who wants to buy a food that contains about 25 ingredients for something that doesn't seem that complicated and most of the ingredients are words you can't even pronounce and have no idea what they are? Well I certainly don't.
It says the ingredients are: Soy Crisps (Non GMO Soy Protein, Tapioca Starch, Salt), Organic Agave Nectar, Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Fair Trade (Fair Trade.... woohoo!) Cocoa Mass, Raspberries, Canola Oil.
Not bad, eh?
There are different flavours of bars, and the ingredients vary a little with each flavour (ha ha I would hope so), but they all seem to be pretty great ingredients for something that is already made and packaged. It also has 140 calories for each bar (up to 160 for another flavour, but most are 140) and a great 16 grams of protein and 20% of your daily value of Iron! So all in all, not bad.
This flavour is Cocoa with Raspberry and had only 2 grams of fat, is milk and gluten free and is VEGAN! All the bars looked vegan except for the chocolate peanut butter one (which is the 160 calorie bar... and I bought it, so I will let you know how it is when I try it!). This one tasted OK. It smelled delicious, but didn't taste as good as I hoped. It didn't overpower with cocoa taste, which was great (healthy!) and the raspberry flavour was just slight (which was great, like a raspberry after taste), but the bar almost tasted chalky? That might be because they did use Cocoa and we're all used to the artificial and unhealthy, but delicious, chocolatiness of most bars. So, I'm willing to give it another shot. I'm going to taste the other flavours and let you know (I think I bought one with some lemon in it and maybe one with some coconut? I will let every one know!).
I hope everyone has a BEAUTIFUL evening... and enjoy the outdoors!
Hey sis! Great post! I've never seen those bars around but if you can, send the coconut one with your parents for me to try too!!!! YUM! Can you tell I'm craving some deliciousness?!! xo
ReplyDeleteThe lemon coconut are my favorite and I just heard about the new caramel flavor which is supposed to be great!
ReplyDeleteThey rebranded and now most bars seem to be 160 calories. Still one of my favourite protein bars out there. I just had a chocolate peanut butter one. It was developed by someone with crohn's disease. It's got no lactose and has unrefined (low) sugar, and is vegetarian-friendly. I really care less about that, and more about how darned filling they are. I find that it's a great way to incorporate a little more calcium and iron into your diet, and it's even got a bit of fibre in it!
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