AMRAP Nutrition Refuel Bar Review

Facebook
Google+
Twitter
Pinterest20

Screen-Shot-2012-09-26-at-2.10.28-PM-300x118.png
Have you heard the news? Today, September 27th, 2012, AMRAP Nutrition is officially rolling out their clean livin’ AMRAP Nutrition Refuel bars. They already have 30,600 Facebook fans, so they must be doing something right, right? Here’s our take on these new Paleo friendly snacks.

First, here’s the nutrition label.

Screen-Shot-2012-09-26-at-2.12.20-PM.png

As you can see, the ingredients are pretty darn good, and Jason did a taste and satiety test and it passed with flying colors. We’ll do a play-by-play of what we think.

Ingredients

Nuts
I’m not a nut fan myself, and I think in general Paleo people eat way too many of them. However, sometimes a nutty snack is in order, and they use raw almond butter and raw almonds, which is commendable.

Egg White Protein Powder
I’m also not a huge fan of egg white protein powder because it often comes from unhealthy hens’ eggs from China. When I asked Ron Slavick, the head honcho over at AMRAP, about his egg white protein powder, here’s what he said:

The egg white protein powder is manufactured in Canada from hormone free “Canadian’ chickens that have access to the outdoors. We had to pay more for this raw material because we too agree is a vital aspect of our product integrity.

Cool.

Raw honey instead of normal refined honey? Awesome.

There’s not much else to comment on here. Very few ingredients equals good in my opinion, and they’re all nutrient dense choices that make a nice fatty, protein rich snack. I always wish ingredients could be organic, but consumers just aren’t there yet on the price point of those products.

Nutrition

Calories 300
Fat 21g
Protein 14g
Carbs 22g
Sugars 17g

So no, if you’re on a ketogenic diet trying to eat very few carbs and no sugar every day, you’re not going to be eating these. But for normal people, and especially for active people, I think these numbers are good. 300 calories is actually pretty significant, constituting a meal for some people on low calorie diets, so careful how many of these you eat. It’s a good meal replacement for those times when you’re seriously in a rush and just can’t find anything decent to eat. Or it’s good trail running or cycling food if you can stomach solids on your long workouts. It’s a decent snack all around.

Taste and Fullness Factor

Like I said, I’m not a nut person so Jason here at Paleo Plan tried one of these bars out on behalf of our team. Here’s what he said.

In terms of taste, I thought these were very good. They reminded me a lot of the classic PowerBar Peanut Butter flavor (what I ate for years in college), however they were much softer and in a traditional candy bar form (vs. the flat PowerBar shape). Before AMRAP, my typical go-to in times of need would be a Lara bar. And while I don’t mind them at all, I’ve heard a lot of people complain about Lara bars (favorite quote: They taste like a horse smells). That said, I would definitely choose an Amrap bar over Lara bars any day, both for their flavor and fat content.

Now, I’m not sure how this bar would have helped me during a hard WOD, but I did have one on an empty stomach one morning when I was out golfing with a friend (it was my once a year golf attempt). I had the bar at about 6:30 am, and didn’t get hungry until after noon. Which is pretty good. I think it’s a much better option with the high fat content than any other power/protein bar on the market that I’ve tried yet. 

Is it perfectly Paleo? I’ll let Neely answer that, and while I wouldn’t use this as a daily meal replacement, I would definitely consider having a stash of them for emergencies, especially after a workout when I don’t have access to real Paleo food, or maybe for camping/road trips/long mountain bike rides. It’s all about trying to live this thing called Paleo, and I think this is a decent tool to have in my arsenal of tactics. 

And there you have it. An all around good product with some room for improvement (as most things are). Great work, Ron! Anyone else have any comments on AMRAP bars?