Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)As an avid weightlifter and biker, I'm always looking for healthy ways to get more protein into my diet, so I have tried a wide variety of protein bars. What I like in a bar is decent flavor, not too hard to chew, quality ingredients, and of course good fat/sat fat/carbs/fiber/protein numbers.
So how does this bar stack up against the competition?
Well, for this particular flavor, you better really like lemon, because it is certainly very lemony, so it is not really a great flavor to me, but better than many.
The texture and ease of chewability were very good, some bars are just impossible and my jaw actually hurts after I'm done with them, plus they stick in my teeth afterwards, this bar is more like a granola bar texture, so it is above average in that category.
Some of the ingredients leave something to be desired. They are not organic, or at least don't say that they are unlike Clif and some other bars. It also contains Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil, and I'm not an expert, but from what I understand any time you do that to oils it makes them much less healthy for you but gives the product a longer shelf-life, so good for the product, bad for us.
Last, but certainly not least, how does it stack up in the nutritional numbers. The Calorie to Protein ratio is pretty good, you get 1 gram of protein for every 12.86 calories, so 4 of those calories are from the protein and 8.86 are from fat and carbs. If you compare that to other bars, Clif Peanut Butter - 20.83/gram, Kashi GoLean - 18.75/gram, MET-RX Big 100 Super Cookie Crunch - 12.81/gram, it's doing pretty good.
How about the all important F word, fat. No Trans Fat, but really there aren't many bars left that do have that, but still a good thing. And the Saturated Fat is slightly lower than most bars I have looked at. The total fat is also in line with the competition, so really nothing to differentiate it in this category.
In fact when looking at Fiber, I come to the same conclusion, 5 grams is good, but most other bars also have around that amount.
Sodium is only 3%, which is much lower than the 10-20% many of the others have, so if lowering sodium is one of your goals, this bar excels in that category.
Also with only 7% of your carbs it comes out near the lowest on that front. However, it does use Sugar Alcohol to help meet this end, which has been linked with excess gas and/or laxative type symptoms in some people especially when consumed in large quantities.
And then we have vitamins and minerals, this bar is pretty sparse in this category, it does have 20% of the daily amount of calcium combined with 30% D to help absorption, plus just a hint of Iron 6%, but that's it. No A, C, E, B-6, B12...well you get the idea. So since science still has not, and may never, completely understand the total impact of vitamins and minerals on the human body, I tend to lean towards foods and bars that have a nice balance of many different vitamins and minerals, just in-case one of them is needed for a certain tissue or cell to recover properly from a workout, or even to prevent diseases.
So, in a nutshell, this bar does have some nice advantages in certain categories, but comes up a little short in others, so don't just buy 10 cases and think you are going to be the image of heath by just eating them. Like so many other things in life, moderation and variety will serve you better than putting all of your faith in one thing. Go ahead and add them to your list of reasonably healthy and quick options if you like the taste, but make sure to balance them with "real food" nuts, berries, greens, lean meats, beans, etc. if you want to reach your next level of health.
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Dr. Melina Protein Bar, Lemon Raspberry, 1.58-Ounce Bars (Pack of 15)
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