I may as well say this now, this is not a good review. I first looked at the product's packaging and was actually impressed. It was simple, looked good, a good slogan on the front, but then I turned it over to look at the contents. On the front it did say 'The great tasting nutritious mixed seed energy bar', so I was expecting good contents. Here is the nutritional info:
Per 40g bar
Energy - 213kcal Protein - 5.7g Carbohydrates - 15.8g of which sugars - 13.3g Fat - 13.7g of which saturates - 4.2g mono-unsaturates - 3.8g poly-unsaturates - 5.3g Omega 3 fatty acids - 0.2g Fibre - 1.9g Sodium - <0.1g
The ingredients are:
Mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, dehulled hemp) (50%), carob topping (sugar, vegetable fat, soya, carob, emulsifier; sunflower lecithin, dried apricots (11%), golden syrup, dates (9%), raw cane sugar, vegetable oil, rice flour.
This is where it goes bad. Some of the ingredients in there are good, such as pumpkin seeds, but others are awful, such as sugar and vegetable oil. One third of this bar is sugar, to me that is poor. This is supposed to be a bar that is healthy, but yet it has 1/3 sugar. Divide the bar into 3 even chunks, take one away and replace it with the same size block of sugar, that's what you're eating. It contains 'sunflower lecithin, which is a product that manufactures use to give food a creamy, moist texture, and is a gum byproduct (sounds nice doesn't it? nope). Vegetable oil is one of the worst oils you can have (they also put vegetable fat in there too, for some crazy reason), and here's why :
- It's unnatural - It wreaks havoc with your fatty acid composition of your body's cells - It contain a lot of trans fats - Increases your risk of cardiovascular disease and many other diseases - It increases inflammation
Obviously, it doesn't say how much vegetable oil is in this bar, but the fact they have used it, and claim the bar is healthy, completely puts me off. The fat percentage is reasonably high, with nearly a third of the total fat is saturated and only 0.2g comes from omega 3's (the fats you WANT). They used carob instead of real chocolate (it doesn't say if it is sweetened or unsweetened) but here is a comparison. 1tbsp of unsweetened carob - 25kcal, no fat, no cholesterol, 6g of carbs. 1tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder - 12kcal, 1g fat (0g sat fat) no cholesterol, 3g carbs. The taste of carob, I personally find, is horrible, whereas cocoa is actually nice, and very dark cocoa has antioxidants.
If you want a healthy snack that will fill you up, you want SLOW digesting carbs, a good amount of protein and some fiber. Sugar does NOT fill you up, it simply boosts your blood sugar levels for a short amount of time, and then you will have the 'drop off', it's pretty pointless to be honest. Then you will be hungry again, and will likely buy another.
What do I have as a healthy snack? I make my own batch of Hench Nutrition's protein flapjacks. They are high in protein, a good amount of carbs, low fat and barely any sugar. No, I am not just trying to 'flog' these. I would NOT buy or eat something that I personally find disgusting or if it was poor nutrition.
If the sugar content was much lower, the protein increased a bit, and the fats lower and with better ratios, this bar would be a lot better. But as it stands, from a nutritionists point of view, I do not recommend these, even if it is 'convenient'.
I'm glad my mother received the 9bar for free, as I personally wouldn't ever pay for one.
Lee Gregory Fitness
