How 3 popular protein bars stack up

Protein bars. The food alternative to protein shakes designed to help you gain muscle post resistance exercise. They aren't new, but they have cemented themselves into the health food aisle of supermarkets and chemists, not to mention gyms and health food stores. I decided it was high time I reviewed them, considering the ongoing popularity of my post 'lifting the lid on protein powder' last year.

Here I've picked three popular protein bars and compared them based on taste and nutrition.

What's actually in protein bars?

Protein bars come in many flavours but it's usually based around chocolate. The first ingredient in all three bars I looked at is protein blend at 30-40%. This is basically the protein 'powder' you can buy to turn into shakes. This is then followed by a long list of ingredients, many of which are long and difficult to pronounce (like polyglycerol esters of interesterified ricinoleic acid- um, what?). Chiefly, it's a mix of sugar (in it's many forms), chocolate, vegetable oil and additives like emulsifiers and flavours.

Unfortunately they are quite low in carbohydrates, which are needed in combination with protein to help provide energy before a workout and repair and rebuild muscles after a workout. You can read more on this here.

Protein comparison

Aussie Bodies Protein FX Lo Carb Mini Protein Bar (Choc Honeycomb)
9g protein/30g serve or 29.9g/100g

Swisse Low Carb Protein Bar (Choc/Caramel Flavour)
9.5g protein/25g serve or 37.9g/100g

Horleys Carb Less Deluxe (Chocolate Peanut Flavour)
10.1g protein/35g serve or 28.9g/100g

So, despite the Swisse bar coming out on top for protein per 100g, they are all roughly the same per serve. The bar sizes do vary, but lets face it: you're going to eat the amount that's in the packet, not leave a bite.

How do protein bars stack up against other protein containing foods?

• 1 chicken breast= 53.4g protein or 31g/100g
• 2 hard-boiled eggs= 11g protein or 12.4g/100g
• 250mL glass reduced fat milk= 10g protein or 4g/100mL
• 30g (small handful) mixed dry roasted nuts= 5.2g or 17.3g/100g

That means you could get the same amount of protein from a glass on milk, 2 hard-boiled eggs or 2 small handfuls of nuts. And meat is just off the scale…

Taste comparison

Aussie Bodies Protein FX Lo Carb Mini Protein Bar (Choc Honeycomb)
A nice sweet flavour and very chewy. But still quite dry and with a powdery aftertaste.

Swisse Low Carb Protein Bar (Choc/Caramel Flavour)
Hard, dry and powdery plus a lack of flavour. Choc caramel: who knew? Definitely the worst.

Horleys Carb Less Deluxe (Chocolate Peanut Flavour)
A chewy centre, made softer by a layer of caramel. Nice flavour without the powdery texture of the other three. Could be mistaken for a chocolate bar but the clear winner in taste.

The verdict

Protein bars can be a convenient snack post work out, but they're also highly processed and expensive. With many everyday foods providing the same (if not more) protein per serve, like milk, eggs and nuts, I think there are much more nutritious options than these chocolate bars marketed under the guise of health. If you do choose a protein bar, I'd recommend combining it with a carbohydrate containing snack for the right muscle-building fuel. And choose well as some certainly taste better than others!

Baked apples with an oaty crumble stuffing

It's getting to that time of year again where I crave warming wholesome desserts. And while traditional apple crumble may be a little heavy handed on the sugar and butter and a little lacking on the apples, these baked apple crumbles are anything but. Individual half apples, baked, with an oat and almond crumble filling piled high and served with my low sugar creamy vanilla custard (see my profiterole post for the recipe), these are full of fibre and protein and are 1/2 a serve of fruit each. 

Note: you can prepare the crumble filling ahead of time, but once baked, these are best eaten straight out of the oven!

Baked apples with an oaty crumble stuffing

3 green or red apples, halved horizontally with the core scooped out

Juice of 2 lemons

¾ C rolled oats

½ C almond meal

¼ C plain wholemeal flour

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp linseeds

1 heaped Tbsp chopped almonds

1 tsp cinnamon

3 Tbsp butter/margarine 

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Drizzle cut apple surfaces with lemon juice to prevent them turning brown. Place into a baking dish with 2cm of water and set aside.
3. Combine oats, almond meal, wholemeal flour, brown sugar, linseeds, chopped almonds and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add butter/margarine and rub with your fingertips to form a crumble.
4. Divide crumble mixture amongst apple halves, spooning into hole and piling up on top. You may have to press the mixture down so it all fits and doesn’t just fall off.
5. Bake apples for 30 minutes or until apples are soft and crumble is golden brown.
6. Serve with custard or ice-cream.

      Serves 6.

Product Review: Oats + Chia Apple Spice

We're heading into the cooler months, when porridge sales increase 10-fold (I'm just making that up, but surely it's a lot right?). And when you decide it's time to make the warming switch, there'll be one extra brand to choose from. The Chia Co are now making oats! Plus chia of course…

I decided to put it to the test on a recent overnight work trip, and there were 3 main things I was looking for: convenience, nutrition and (most importantly) taste! So how did it fare?

Convenience

Oats + Chia come in a small foil-lined sachet with instructions to either add cold water and microwave or add boiling water and let sit for a minute (literally one). Being that I was in a hotel room with no microwave and only a kettle, I went for the second option. And it worked really well! I poured the Oats + Chia into a mug, added the boiling water, waited and stirred. Super quick and simple and perfect for travel times like these (or early morning dashes out the door!).

One drawback? The price. A pack of five will set you back $7.30 compared to a 12-pack of Uncle Toby's quick oat sachets for just $4.00. A lot of this will be due to expensive ingredients though, including the chia and coconut oil. 

Nutrition

Chia + Oats contain maple sugar, dried apple, virgin coconut oil and spices along with the main stars oats and chia seeds. Now, while I can applaud the short (and identifiable) ingredients list, I'm not sure why you'd need coconut oil (or any type of fat for that matter) in a porridge? It doesn't have a manufacturing purpose that I'm aware of, and I certainly couldn't taste it, but it does significantly add to the saturated fat content.

On the plus side, this new porridge is a great source of fibre (6.1g or 25% of your RDI per serve), has a reasonable sugar content (given it is 10% apple) and some omega-3 ALA (from the chia). But I'd probably want to have it with some yoghurt or milk for a bit of calcium and extra protein to balance it out for brekky.

Taste

I sampled the apple spice flavour, which certainly lived up to its name. There was plenty of nice large apple pieces and lots of spice! While a combination of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, the main standout flavour was the ginger. A bit different to the standard apple cinnamon flavours you normally see, but I couldn't help but feel like I was eating a ginger nut biscuit in porridge form!

The final word?

Not a bad option when it comes to quick and satisfying winter breakfasts and certainly flavoursome, but I'd probably save the sachets for work trips and stick to my own home made version of oats and chia porridge on a day-to-day basis to save some dough and cut the oil.

Ginger-lime chicken lettuce wraps with coconut rice noodles

When I was in Hawaii earlier this year I had this great meal. So fresh, so light, and so flavoursome! It was like a version of tacos (just as messy too!) but using Asian inspired flavours: ginger, lime, chilli and coconut. And of course I had to recreate it. 

Rice noodles are great because they cook quickly, but they also take on whatever flavour you cook them in, which is why cooking them in coconut milk really gave them a life of their own. I served these with the chicken and rice noodles hot, which is a good contrast to the cold bean sprouts, carrot and of course lettuce! The dipping sauce adds some spice and is based on a Donna Hay dipping sauce recipe (but with a lot less sugar!). Enjoy sharing this one for your next family meal...

Ginger-lime chicken lettuce wraps with coconut rice noodles

1 cos lettuce, leaves rinsed and separated

125g rice noodles

375g tin coconut milk or coconut flavoured evaporated milk

1 C water

2 chicken breasts, cut in half horizontally

2 tsp minced ginger

2 tsp minced garlic

Juice of 1 lime

2 large handfuls bean sprouts

2 medium carrots, grated or finely sliced

Chilli and ginger dipping sauce:

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and shredded

1 long red chilli, deseeded and shredded

1 Tbsp fish sauce

2 Tbsp castor sugar

1/3 C water

1.  Combine minced ginger, garlic and lime juice in a large non-metallic bowl. Add chicken breasts and toss to coat. Cover with cling film and put in the fridge to marinate for 2-3 hours.
2.  Make dipping sauce: add all ingredients into a small saucepan and place over medium heat, stirring, for 3-5 minutes, until sugar is dissolved and the flavour of the chilli and ginger permeates through the sauce. Refrigerate until needed.
3.  Cook chicken in a large frypan over medium-high heat until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from pan and slice into thin strips.
4.  Meanwhile, heat coconut milk and water in a medium saucepan until just boiled, add rice noodles and reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes or until noodles are cooked. Drain.
5.  Serve lettuce leaves with grated carrot, bean sprouts, coconut rice noodles and marinated chicken, to roll into wraps and dip into dipping sauce.

Serves 4 (3-4 'wraps' each).

Sugar: the missing (label) link

I have this pet peeve about sugar and it's drawn attention to every time I look at the Nutrition Information Panel (NIP) on the back of a food label (which is relatively often considering I'm a Dietitian and like knowing what's in my food). And it's not what's there that bothers me, but rather what ISN'T there: a row under total sugars labelled 'added sugar'.

Why does this bother me so much? Maybe because there's a big difference between sugars naturally occurring in the food to those added by man to sweeten a product. And yes, this problem could be solved by simply avoiding all packaged and processed foods, which is certainly a good aim to have, but isn't all that realistic for the average person.

Consider the amount of sugar in a bowl of natural muesli (21%) versus a chocolate chip muesli bar (also 21%). While they may have the same amount of sugars (total) they certainly aren't comparable nutritionally. And that's because the sweetness in the muesli is coming from sugars naturally occurring in the dried fruit, while the muesli bar contains added sugar in both the choc chips and the bar itself

Similarly, plain Greek yoghurt (with no added sugar) still has 4.8% sugars and that's because dairy products contain lactose, a naturally occurring sugar. Whereas, a low fat strawberry flavoured yoghurt which has 12.6% sugars contains a mix of natural and added sugars (but mostly sugar added for sweetness).

So be mindful when looking at labels that you make a mental note to differentiate between natural and added sugars by looking at the ingredients list. If the product contains a large proportion of fruit, milk or yoghurt then those products may have a higher content of sugars due to those naturally occurring in the fruit or dairy. But if sugar (or brown rice or malt syrup, honey, agave, molasses, dextran, glucose or invert sugar, or any other of sugars aliases) is listed on the label, particularly in the first few ingredients as they are listed in order of amount, then it's safe to say that product contains too much (added) sugar.

To find out more about reading labels, check out my post Nutrition Information Panels: Decoded.

Chickpea Blondies with White Choc Chips & Macadamias

I recently discovered the wonders of chickpeas in baking. They're an unlikely substitute for flour but somehow they just work! And the benefits? Well they instantly increase the fibre and protein content of any recipe, not to mention adding in some sneaky vegetable serves! This recipe isn't new, you will find variations floating all over the internet, mostly using normal choc chips and nothing else. But I wanted to go more down the traditional route: blondies are meant to contain white chocolate. And macadamias and white chocolate are just a match made in heaven. 

These blondies are crispy and crumbly on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. The recipe is flour less, full of healthy fats (thanks to the nut and seed butter) and can be made gluten free by choosing gluten free baking powder. And they passed my boyfriend's taste test (who is usually anti-healthifying recipes)! Which, trust me, says it all. So go ahead and try these, I will certainly be making them again (and doing some more experimenting with legumes in baking)!

Chickpea blondies with white choc chips and macadamias

400g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed and patted dry with paper towel

1/2 C nut butter (I used Mayver's Original Super Spread but your favourite nut &/or seed spread will work fine)

1/4 C brown sugar (can be substituted for honey)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarb soda

1/2 C white choc chips

1/3 C macadamias, chopped

Splash of water (~3 Tbsp)

1. Preheat oven to 175°C and line a loaf tin with baking paper.

2. Blend all ingredients, except the white choc chips and macadamias, in a food processor until smooth. It should make a thick hummus-like consistency.

3. Stir in the choc chips and 3/4 of the macadamias and pour into the loaf tin. Smooth top with the back of a spoon and sprinkle with remaining macadamias.

4. Bake for ~50mins or until a skewer comes out clean and the edges begin to brown. Cool in tin for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Cafe review: Mint Organics

So I've got this list  of restaurants and cafes I want to try (on my phone of course, so I can add to it wherever). All my friends know about it. It's becoming quite large and now spans both Sydney and Melbourne (after a recent trip and many recommendations from a local Melbournian) so I figured it was time to start spreading the love and reviewing some of these places on my blog. Anyway, so last weekend I dragged and a girl friend of mine to one of the latest: Mint Organics. It's a small cafe in Cronulla (a beach-side suburb in Sydney, for those of you not familiar with the area) that prides itself on healthy organic whole foods (you can read my thoughts on organic food here). 

We went for lunch on a Saturday which I expected to be really busy as they don't take bookings, but despite being quite a small cafe we were able to easily find a table. Mint Organics are open 7 days a week from 7am-3pm so are definitely a breakfast/brunch/lunch/afternoon tea kind of place.

Location- 5/5

Close to Cronulla train station, it was tucked away from the rest of Cronulla's cafe scene, a lone shop opposite the beautiful Gunnamatta Bay. This had a two-fold effect of being quiet (and possibly unknown by many) and having many more parking options than the main streets! The cafe was small but cosy, with plenty of wood, metal and greenery.

Service- 2/5

Sadly, the service left a lot to be desired. While the waiters/waitresses were friendly, we waited too long for our table to be cleared (from the people who left just before us) and to be given menus. In fact, we got sick of waiting for the menus so grabbed them from the counter ourselves.

Menu Variety- 4/5

There was a good variety of choices- from mueslis with various alternative milks to bacon and egg rolls, wraps and salads to brown rice sushi. There were certainly a lot of vegetarian options, and opportunities for add-on's and alterations and the cabinet was lined with raw, vegan, sugar-free and paleo treats like raw (bliss) balls, brownies, muffins and cakes. So this really is more of a health-conscious person's mecca (i.e. don't bring your Dad, or the blokes from the footy team- unless they're into that kind of thing!). 

Taste- 5/5

I chose the seeded sourdough topped with avocado, fetta, basil pesto, rocket, toasted pepitas and a poached egg which was delicious and the perfect size! My friend and I also shared a coffee cacao raw ball which was tasty and my takeaway vegan chocolate brownie was yummy too (but I'm afraid there was no hiding the fact that it was still very much a treat).

Price- 4/5

Organic food doesn't come cheap. And this was evident in some of the prices (such as $10 for a smoothie) but other food items were quite reasonable and comparable to other cafes ($5.50 for sushi, $10 for muesli or $13.50 for a panini).

OVERALL- 20/25

The walls were adorned with interesting 'health' foods, like veggie chips, raw bars and organic grains which seemed in contrast to the highly processed protein powders, but Mint Organics did provide an array of basic, tasty and healthy options. I'd go there again!

Check out their website here for more details.