Odwalla’s Food Bars: Healthy and tasty?

Normally my grocery shopping occurs on my way home from the gym.  It’s a great plan really, because after the gym who wants to ruin all that hard work by purchasing junk food?  Wellllllll…sometimes I do.  On a recent trip to my local Price Chopper, I had made it as far as the checkout lane without grabbing any snacks, when I saw it…

Odwalla's "Berries GoMega" Bar

So What’s In This Thing Anyways?

It’s really a great marketing move.  As our world becomes more globally and health conscience, when people want something sweet they don’t want to sacrifice nutrition by settling for junk food.  So during that last minute temptation at the grocery store checkout, when faced with the option between a healthy snack or a few ounces of sugar and tablespoon of self-loathing, I went with the healthy snack.  Was it actually healthy though?  The Odwalla Berries GoMega Bar certainly looks healthy, but let’s see what the nutritional info reveals.

Brown Rise Syrup, Ground Golden Flax, Organic Rolled Oats, Dried Sweetened Cranberries (Apple Juice Concentrate, Cranberries, Sunflower Oil), Date Puree, Organic Oat Flour, Fig Puree, Whole Dried Sweetened Blueberries (Apple Juice Concentrate, Whole Dried Blueberries And Sunflower Oil), Vegetable Glycerin, Organic Soy Butter (Organic Soybeans, Organic Soy Oil, Sea Salt), Plum Puree, Oat Bran, Raisins, Less than 2% of: Natural Flavors, Calcium Carbonate, Soy Lecithin, Dried Strawberries, Dried Raspberries, Salt, Baking Soda, Beta Carotene, Vitamin E (D-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate) and Folic Acid.

21% ORGANIC INGREDIENTS

The Taste Test

So it wasn’t quite as healthy as I had originally thought, but that doesn’t mean that it was unhealthy!  Especially considering that it’s marketed by Odwalla as a meal replacement, and not just as a snack.  Rounding out at 220 Calories, with only 45 coming from fat, I didn’t feel bad about eating this as a substitute for dessert (because let’s face it…220 calories is only a meal at Naomi Campbell’s house)!

Everyone knows that those “good for you” bars often taste like cardboard, so how did this one fare?  Not bad I must say.  No, it doesn’t taste like candy, but Odwalla does have other varieties of the Bar to satisfy different palates: Banana Nut Bar, Choco-walla Bar, and the Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bar.

The Berries GoMega Bar was pretty heavy, I almost could have just eaten half of one and been full.  I was hoping that the berries and fruits would be more prevalent in the overall flavor, but they were not.  The grains definitely came through in the taste, as well as a type of honey flavoring (which must have been the brown rise syrup).  Also, my hands got a little sticky, which made it a bit of a challenge to eat while I was driving.

I would purchase this Bar again.  It filled me up more than I thought it would, and when compared to the other healthy food bars out there (which is really what it was, despite the candy marketing) it’s pretty good.  The Odwalla Berries GoMega Bar definitely did the trick for me, and it didn’t contain an obscene amount of calories.  Needless to say, I did not feel guilty about eating it.  I can’t wait to check out the other varieties of this Food Bar.  They also make juices and smoothies that you can find in most grocery stores.  Try their Superfoods line of products for a Green way to get your days servings of veggies and fruits too!

OVERALL GRADE: B+