Archerfriendly Bars

3 different bars, each offering a quick 7g protein snack

There aren’t many bars that I can eat. What’s left for a bar if you can’t have gluten, dairy, soy, tapioca, almonds, or cashews? One of those items is in almost EVERY bar I investigate. That’s why there are so few archerfriendly bars.

This may be a good thing, since packaged bars tend to be over-sweetened and packed with man-made-not-found-in-nature protein powders (more on protein powders later). But sometimes I just want something that I can eat out of a package and not have to make it myself, especially on the fly. Almost every single thing I eat, I make myself. It feels nice to be able to eat something I didn’t have to make myself. But it’s not so much a matter of feeling nice than it is a matter of time. Sometimes I just run out of time. I don’t meal plan. And, wow, it’s lunch and I have nothing made, and by the time the unplanned lunch will be ready to eat, it’ll be another two hours. Time for a bar.

These bars, I can eat. I eat one of them almost every day. Being that almost nothing else in my diet comes out of a package, I think it’s fine. And I think it’s ok if you eat them too. Not only are these the only archerfriendly bars I can find, but they also happen to be the most whole food based bars on the market.

Up until a few days ago, the above bars were the only archerfriendly bars I could find. But late last week, I found Nutiva’s Organic Hemp Protein Bar. It’s totally archerfriendly! How have I not found it until now?! I’ll be testing them tomorrow when I pick up my Azure order. Because I haven’t had them yet, they won’t be reviewed in this article.

To receive the archerfriendly stamp of approval, a bar has to have protein. That’s usually why I need a bar. I need quick protein. Something that won’t give me the hypoglycemic shakes 2 hours later. None of these bars bother my blood sugar (thank goodness). I wouldn’t be eating them every day if they did. Each of these bars has 7 grams of protein.

In case you are looking for last minute and healthy stocking stuffers, think no farther! Load up the stockings with a bunch of these!

Here’s my take on these 3 bars:

1. Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar.
The Good: Tasty. Simple whole foods ingredients. You can’t get any more basic then peanuts, dates, and salt.
The Bad: Too sweet. 18g of sugar in one bar – that’s more than a medium banana!
My Rant: I was a little disappointed when I started seeing some of Lara’s bars incorporate chocolate chips, because I think she started veering away from her whole foods based philosophy. The chocolate chips have sugar in them, and overall, I just felt like it was a downgrade in food quality.

2. Original Peanut Bumble Bar
The Good: A bar that’s available at the BCNH’s dispensary when I need a quick snack on shift. Much lower in sugar than the Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar, only 7 grams!
The Bad: Not a big fan of brown rice syrup or evaporated cane juice, but I’ll take it, since it ain’t much. The sesame seeds are hard to digest if you don’t chew them up well (if you’re really curious feed them to your toddler and you’ll see the bar in their poop), so I’m not sure how much of that protein you’re really getting.
My Rant: In the past, I would have never eaten these because I was a refined sugar snob. While they are a bit sugar coating to my throat, they are really not a bad snack. Probably at the bottom if I had to rank all 3 of these bars in terms of their health, but I’ve gotten so sick of eating Peanut Butter Cookie Larabars, that it’s a breath of fresh air to have a change! I guess I caved…

3. Tanka Bar
The Good: An incredibly tasty Native American traditional food made with buffalo! A really nice change-of-taste for a snack (can you tell I’m tired of snacking on peanuts?). And your money goes to a great cause.
The Bad: I wish it didn’t have sugar in it. The cranberries used to make the Tanka Bars are pre-sweetened with sugar. Also the most expensive bar on this list.
My Rant: Buffalo!

Are you eating archerfriendly bars you haven’t told me about? I would love to hear about them in the comments.

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