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BHU Fit Superfood Protein Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

6/14/2018

3 Comments

 
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I was very skeptical when I saw this in my local health food store. How could a product made with cashews and pea protein be any good?  In one word, this product is amazing. It's also vegan, organic, keto, dairy-free, egg-free, gluten and soy free as well.  I couldn't get a decent picture of the label because the print is so tiny you can barely read it, so I took this information from the bhu foods website:

​Ingredients: Organic Cashews, Organic Chocolate, Organic Prebiotic Fiber (From Tapioca), Organic Red Palm Oil (Certified Sustainable), Organic Pea Protein, Organic Brown Rice Protein, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Cocoa Powder, Pure Water, Organic Baobab, Orange Pulp, Sea Salt, Organic Vanilla, Monk Fruit, Xantham Gum, Baking Soda, Organic Stevia. Allergen: Nuts.
Nutritional Facts: Serving Size 1.65 OZ (47g) per Cookie, Serving per Container 6, Calories 200, Calories from Fat 150, Total Fat 16g (*25%), Saturated Fat 7g (*35%), Cholesterol 0mg (*0%), Sodium 210mg (*9%), Total Carbohydrate 17g (*6%), Dietary Fiber 8g (*32%), Net carbs 8g, Sugars 0g, Protein 10g, Vitamin A 0%, Vitamin C 0%, Calcium 4%, Iron 10% *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Allergen: Nuts.

I recognize all of the ingredients except "organic baobab."  Here is a very informative website.  Baobab certainly does appear, by all accounts, to be a "superfood."  ​https://nuts.com/healthy-eating/benefits-of-baobab   I am puzzled by the serving size referring to a "cookie" as a serving size. This is cookie dough, you're not supposed to actually bake it, am I right?!  Yes, I ate it out of the container.

It might be obvious to some that this product is aimed at the keto and low-carb crowd; however, if you have a sweet tooth and enjoy your chocolate, this is definitely a healthier option than a candy bar or a tube of "regular" cookie dough. The only negative thing I have to say about this product is its price. The 10 ounce tub is a whopping $14.99. I have managed to show some restraint and have made a tub last for at least two weeks just because I can't afford to shell out what could be up to $60.00 per month (one tub per week) for a cookie dough addiction. It's a fine "sometimes" treat for me. 
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Like natural peanut butter, the oil tends to separate, so if you can, it's helpful to stir it around somewhat or you will end up eating some dry chunks and some very oily chunks. I prefer some consistency, so I mixed it a bit. Don't refrigerate it.

I very highly recommend this product and hope that I can find it on sale somewhere sometime soon!   
3 Comments

ON (Optimum Nutrition) Cake Bites

3/28/2018

3 Comments

 
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I've seen these in my local Walmart Neighborhood Grocery store for a few months and decided to give them a try. There is now a glut of new food products which marry the ideas of healthy, high-protein with cakes/cookies. There are expensive, low-carb products with natural sugar substitutes and organic ingredients (think $2.99 for two small snack cakes) to products that are not quite as healthy but still promise to trick you into thinking you're having something decadent. As this package of cake bites claims, "any day can feel like cheat day." On a personal note, I never quite understood the lure of "cheat day." When I was eating keto/low-carb, I wanted to keep my body in that state of ketosis and feared the consequences if and when I "cheated." My idea of cheating usually involved eating a bite of an apple. I did find many protein bars which were pretty tasty and low-carb/high-protein and stuck with those when I wanted something other than vegetables and meat. 
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I chose the Red Velvet flavor over the Chocolate Dipped Cherry, Chocolate Frosted Donut and Birthday Cake flavors. 
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There are three cake bits in each individally wrapped package. Each box contains four packs. 
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Let's take a look, shall we? 230 calories is a little bit more than an average protein bar (Quest, One Bar, etc.), so that's not horrible. 7 grams of fat is right on par for a product like this. 20 grams of protein is quite high, so if you're looking for a very high protein snack, this might be right for you.  The ingredient list has not listed the fiber content, which is very confusing considering this product contains chicory root fiber. The only thing I can surmise is that there is not enough fiber to list. The sugar alcohol grams are also not listed and since this contains maltitol, there are sugar alcohols in this product. If there were sugar alcohol and fiber grams listed, you would subtract those grams from the total carbohydrate grams (22 grams for this flavor) to obtain a new "net" carbohydrate amount. If Optimum Nutrition is trying to appeal to the low-carb/keto crowd, it would be in their best interest to list the sugar alcohol content. Also, some people's digestive systems react poorly to sugar alcohols, so they really should have listed those in the nutrition facts. 

You may not have ever heard of isomalto-oligosaccharides, so here is the link to tell more about this additive: ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isomaltooligosaccharide
​

I see that there are artificial colors in this particular flavor.

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The inside. It certainly looks "cakey," but it did not taste anything like red velvet cake. The texture was very chewy, almost like a low-carb protein bar (Quest, etc.). It wasn't particularly terrible, but the flavor and texture was disappointing, as I was expecting something a little more light in texture. 

Bottom line is that for something that I found in the sports nutrition aisle, this isn't very nutritious at all. I doubt that any health food store carries this product due to the questionable ingredients, including two very controversial artificial food colorings. I would rather eat a low-carb protein bar than these and there are some very good ones out there that taste much better and are healthier than this product. I can't say for sure how many net carbs this contains and that is an important consideration when choosing a high protein "treat." This is another one of those products that I find myself asking, "to whom are they marketing this?" If you are eating high protein, you most likely are avoiding carbohydrates. If you are just trying to eat healthier and choose this product thinking it's healthy, then I would suggest doing your research. Artificial colors, sucralose (Splenda) and sugar alcohols are generally not considered healthy. If you just like the taste of these and want to spend $6.00 a box, then go for it. Just be warned that excessive consumption of sugar alcohols might lead to lots of time spent in the rest room. 
3 Comments

Hostess Bakery Petites

3/10/2018

0 Comments

 
I rarely venture down the snack cake aisle. Just too tempting!  I love Twinkies and Zingers especially, but they sure don't love me back. While perusing the healthy frozen entrees at my local Walmart Neighborhood store, I glanced at the snack cake aisle behind me and saw these. Made by Hostess, these are "decadent small batch treats." The products have no artificial colors or flavors and no high fructose corn syrup. That makes them healthy, right?  Don't answer that. I decided to get the Fudge Blondie Crispi Thins Cookie Thins and the White Fudge Vanilla Cake Delights. 
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No artificial colors. Impressive. In case you didn't know what spirulina is, according to Wikipedia: Spirulina represents a biomass of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) that can be consumed by humans and other animals. This has been approved for blue coloring. That ingredient list is pretty extensive. I also notice that the second ingredient is palm kernel oil, which is particularly unhealthy and bad for the environment. I will give Hostess credit for not using high fructose corn syrup, but that hardly matters when the first ingredients are sugar and palm oil. 
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Nothing too surprising here. 210 for 3 little cakes, which are about the size of a ping pong ball. Lots of sugar, lots of carbs, lots of fat.
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Here is a mini cake that I have cut open so you can see the inside compared to the image on the front of the package. Not too dissimilar, except the amount of creme is somewhat less than shown and the cake is more tan than beige. My husband and I tried these and our conclusion was the same. These are definitely tasty and the way they are packaged is dangerous if you find it hard to stop at the serving size. I thought the texture was somewhat stale and rubbery. Strong vanilla flavor was good, but to call the coating "white fudge" is a stretch. The coating was similar to what you'd find on a cheap Little Debbie snack cake. I paid $3.00 per bag for these for 7.9 ounces. Not my favorite and overpriced for what it is. I would have preferred a Twinkie.
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The ingredient list here seems pretty straightforward, but what in the heck is cerelose? "Cerelose A commercial preparation of glucose containing about 9% water."  I'm not sure why this is in here. Seems like a "frankenfood" that is completely unncessary, especially for a product that is trying to pass itself off as "natural." Real vanilla, no artificial flavors or colors and no high fructose corn syrup, yet they include cerelose. 
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The worst part of this nutrition label, in my opinion, is that you somehow have to judge what 1 ounce really means. Is it 5 pieces? 10 pieces?  It is very hard to determine since the cookie pieces are not all the same size. Some of them are broken pieces. You would have to own a food scale to really figure out how much you're eating. 
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As you can see, the image on the package is not very representative of the actual product. What I have shown is just a random sample I took from the bag. Some had chips and some didn't. Interestingly; however, none of the pieces had more than two chips. The color is darker and the cookie itself is more crumbly than those pictured on the package. What did they taste like? Glad you asked. These are very good. The texture is thin, but not easily breakable and they almost melt in your mouth. The chip to cookie ratio was overall very good and even the pieces without chips are yummy. Strong but not overpowering vanilla flavor, which is typical for a "blondie." There is almost no way a person could present them on a platter as nicely as shown on the package. I'm not sure why a consumer would choose these over buying a traditional cookie unless you wanted a bag of broken chocolate chip cookies. Again, as with the cake delights, the packaging is dangerous for a person who had little self-control. These were $3.00 a bag for 6 ounces.  Good, but nothing spectacular or very new as far as taste. 
0 Comments

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