Homemade Protein Bars Made For You

Filed under: General Health, Nutrition

Recently a nutrition client showed me a really cool website they came across. It is called elementbars.com. At elementbars.com you are able to create your own customized protein bar, built to your specifications from some some very high quality and sometimes organic ingredients. Not only can you build your own bar, it also shows the macronutrient breakdown of your bars. That is probably the coolest feature of the site. There are 5 categories to choose from – Core, Fruit, Nuts, Sweets and Boosts and with each element you add or change, the change in macronutrient profile is immediately reflected. It is awesome.

My mom said I use the word awesome too much in my blog

I checked it out last night and built my own bar with these ingredients:

• Core – I chose the chewy core made of almond butter, oats and flax – seemed like a solid choice
• Fruit -  I chose blueberries, which have been lightly sweetened with apple juice
• Nuts – I added more flaxseeds for fiber, omega-3′s and cancer-fighting lignans
• Sweetener – I chose pumpkin spice, for awesome flavor and health profile, but also to keep cals and sugar down
• Boosts – I chose whey protein for a protein and glutathione boost

The BSP Bars came out to:

Not too shabby if you ask me. Granted this is not something I would consume everyday, but if you get caught in a pinch or you are on the road a lot and need a quick convenient snack option, you could do a lot worse. The great thing about it is most protein bars contain tons of crap: tons of artificial sweeteners, hydrogenated oils, sugar alcohols, etc. These are chock full of high quality stuff, granted there may be a little brown rice syrup in the core, but all in all this is made from real food, would probably taste pretty good and could hold you over for a couple of hours until you can get some solid food in you.

The only downside to these bars is they are not cheap. At $36 for 12, they are not for the faint of heart, but they are freshly made out of high quality ingredients. While I can’t attest to the taste personally since I haven’t actually tried them, it certainly seems like you can make a winning combination. Enjoy!