Cascade Fresh Activ8 Probiotic Crunch Bars

 

At my local grocery store, they have a complete isle devoted to their display of nutrition bars. There are meal replacement bars, diet bars, protein bars, granola bars, low-carb and high energy bars.  I spent longer than I should have in that particular isle and I selected six assorted nutrition bars to compare. 

My findings were a bit jaw-dropping.  I discovered that a number of these “health” bars are essentially a candy bar with a crushed up multi-vitamin added in.  All six were observably “shelf stable” and were stamped with expiration dates ranging from a few months to more than a year (great for an emergency food supply I suppose).  Here is the breakdown on what I discovered;

1.       Prices ranged from $1.00 to $3.49

2.       Sizes ranged from 35 grams to 60 grams

3.       Calories ranged from 150 to 330

4.       Sugar grams ranged from 1 to 22 grams (that is as much as 5 teaspoons!)

5.       Protein grams ranged from 3 to 19

6.       Fat grams ranged from 3 to 12

I was even more surprised when I read some of the ingredients;

1.       Hydrolyzed collagen

2.       Hydrolyzed Fish Gelatin (from cod)

3.       Hydrogenated Soybean Oil

4.       Vegetable Glycerine

5.       Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil

6.       Acacia Gum

Surprising! A number of of the ingredients were a total turnoff…I don’t care how “good for your health” these are alleged to be.  I made up my mind that I would never consume another nutrition bar in my life.

So down the isle I went, headed over to the organic-refrigerated section. I stumbled upon yet another nutrition bar, but there was something exceptionally out of the ordinary about this particular brand.  It was refrigerated and it screamed ORGANIC.  Taking a further look, I have to admit I was impressed and quickly changed my mind on the “never gonna consume another nutrition bar in my life”. 

The fine folks at Cascade Fresh, a local Seattle company, must have been just as unimpressed with all the shelf-stable bars that they fashioned the Activ8 Probiotic Crunch Bars.  These 1.4 ounce bars are wholly organic, gluten free, low sodium, cholesterol free, and a good source of iron.  The sugar content is low, the protein is appropriate, and they sweeten the bars with organic agave syrup.  As if all of this was not ideal, they also include  several active cultures (hence the name of the product). Eating just one bar gives you 5.55 BILLON CFU’s of live probiotic cultures. That pretty nearly translates into one bar provides more probiotics than 12 cups of typical yogurt.

I chose their blueberry/acai bar, the peanut/chocolate chip, and the pomegranate/goji flavors.

Here is a few of their ingredients:

1.       Organic Peanuts

2.       Organic Quinoa Flakes

3.       Organic Raisins

4.       Organic Agave Syrup

5.       Organic Sunflower Seeds

6.       Organic Blueberry Flavor

The cost is just under $2.50 per bar. The taste of these bars is phenomenal and fresh.  The texture is soft and the flavor is nutty and fruity.  My teenage daughter and five year old son both approve.  They didn’t just pack each bar with tons of noble stuff, they left out the mainstream preservatives, stabilizers, artificial sweeteners and colors that most bars are chock-full of.  I truly admire the Activ8 Probiotic Crunch Bar!