Every now and again I’m sent products to review. The latest of these are a new granola bar product, the Fiber One Chewy Bars – Oats and Chocolate (made by General Mills – I’d link to a product site if they had one).
I haven’t personally eaten a mass produced chewy granola bar in years. Now I remember why. They just taste like cardboard and glue, and these bars were no exception. Bland starchy ingredients, held together in an amalgam of high fructose corn syrup and confectioner’s shellac. Oh, and some chocolate drizzled on top. THAT CHOCOLATE FOOLS NO ONE!
But I did eat the whole box (5 bars) over a period of a couple weeks. What can I say – they were in my desk drawer, and sometimes my hunger is only rivaled by my laziness. But they were obviously not that bad if I didn’t throw the box away upon the first bite – and I’ve been known to do that with stuff I’ve paid for myself, nevermind stuff that came to me for free.
I had a whole laundry list of pros, cons and ingredient horror stories about the bars once I saw the whole box – but then I saw the review up at Fitness Mantra, and realized it was far more inspired than mine ever would be – so I suggest you read it instead to get a better idea of the product.
The bar has what amounts to 1/3 of your daily requirement of fiber. I eat a pretty high fiber diet anyway, so the extra wasn’t noticeable to me – however the box did come to me with a disclaimer:
As you may be aware, health professionals often recommend gradually increasing fiber intake to help reduce gastrointestinal discomfort that initially may be experienced by some people when more fiber is added to their diet. Note that each Fiber One Chewy Bar has 9 grams of fiber—about 1/3 the Daily Value. If you’re not used to eating a high fiber diet, you may want to begin with just half a bar and gradually work up to a full bar as your body becomes used to the fiber.
Olestra-style anal leakage anyone?
Bottom line about the Fiber One bars – If you’re going to eat a chewy granola bar anyway, maybe hate your body a smidgen less, and get one that has some extra fiber in it. Because god knows if chewy granola bars are a diet staple of yours, you can probably use all the help you can get.
If you’re not a chewy granola bar eater, then just keep passing these on by like you would any other chewy bar. General Mills might not thank you (or me for that matter), but your body will.
Mmmmmmmm, olestra leakage…….
I’ll be trying that just one bite at a time, that’s for sure…..LOL