"granola bar" news and stories

We love coffee - a sentiment that most bloggers probably share - but you cannot subsist on coffee alone and the pastries at coffee shops often leave much to be desired when it comes to flavor, as well as a little extra that we don't desire around our waists. With coffee and better-for-you options already on our minds, the new granola bars from Caribou Coffee caught our attention right away. The bars come in two coffee flavors - Vanilla Latte and Chocolate Mocha - but have only as much caffeine as decaf coffee, despite their taste. Each bar has about 140 calories and 3 grams of fat. Caribou says that they're a good source of calcium and whole grains, too.

Both flavors of bar are available online, so you can pick them up without trying to hunt down a store that carries them.

Source

Even with a huge number of diet-friendly products appearing on grocery store shelves and constant reminders from the media about how bad junk foods and fast food are for us, some people still feel that "health food" will taste like cardboard and continue to chow down on fatty, salty and/or sugary foods that are not exactly waistline-friendly. And that's fine, in moderation, but it's important to note that healthier foods don't always taste bad.

Kashi wanted to really drive this point home, so to prove that their new Chewy Trail Mix granola bars don't taste like cardboard, they are sending out free granola bars for people to taste. Their nutritionist & brand manager, Jeff Grogg, will eat a cardboard box if people don't like them. Just sign up at their website, wait for your granola bar to arrive, then log back in and tell them what you thought. The bars have roasted almonds, cranberries and honey and are made with all natural ingredients, so it sounds like they have a head start on the cardboard, but you'll have to wait for your own bar before making up your mind.

[via Hungry Girl]

Source

Snack bars are the new granola bars. This isn’t really a news flash, but I certainly never thought of them this way. They were, by and large, previously marketed as energy bars, designed to deliver an extra dose of calories to hard-working athletes or as meal replacements for busy people. Many people don’t use these as meal replacements, though, and eat two or three a day as snacks, hence the new "snack bar" designation. Though most of the bars have 200-250 calories and less than 6 grams of fat, some can have more than 10 grams of fat and over 300 calories. Eating two or three of these adds up – and quickly.

This month, EatingWell magazine rounded up some of the best snack bar options, based on the following criteria: 225 calories or less and less than 3 grams of saturated fat, as well as at least 5 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber. The goal was to find something worth eating nutritionally as a snack and was filling enough to hold you over until your next meal.