The Perfect Foods Bar Giveaway

I’m not a big fan of protein bars or meal replacement bars. Most of them contain highly processed and artificial ingredients that I don’t want to eat or recommend:

• low quality protein made from soy protein
• refined sweeteners, such fructose, high fructose corn sweetener
• artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, Splenda, or acesulfame K
• artificial flavorings and colorings (I want the flavor of real foods !)
• junk vegetable oils and/or hydrogenated fats or oils

Too sweet to eat
Most of the bars I’ve tried also taste too sweet for my tastes and very artificial with an unpleasant after taste. So I was skeptical about trying any of the new ones on the market. If I want a snack I usually go for toasted nuts, a piece of fresh fruit, fresh fruit with almond or peanut butter, homemade jerky, or something else. I recommend eating foods that spoil and eating them before they spoil. Real foods spoil. Preserved foods don't.These bars fall into that category. The company recommends storing them in the refrigerator. If you plan to take them on outings away from home, you may want to store them in the freezer, then stash them in an insulated tote if you don't plan to eat them before they thaw.

A better bar?
I’d seen the Perfect Foods Bars at my chiropractor’s office for at least a year. I know Dr. Jason and Dr. Elissa at Living in Line Chiropractic, located in the Phoenix-Ahwatukee area in Phoenix, are very selective about what they eat and recommend to their practice members. Then a colleague of mine at Funktional Fitness a crossfit style fitness training studio in Gilbert, AZ, gave me one of the Peanut Butter flavored Perfect Foods bars to try. I liked the flavor of the bar, what was in it, and what wasn't in it.

Good, real food ingredients
The bar does not contain soy, gluten, and refined and synthetic sweeteners. It contains real food concentrates from land vegetables, sea vegetables, and fruits, along with nut and seed-based fats and oils, and honey. The bars taste sweet (sweeter than eating a piece of fruit) but the sweetness comes from a traditional and real foods: honey. If you’re not in the habit of eating bars or you limit concentrated sweeteners (even honey), I suggest having a tall glass of filtered water on hand to drink with the since it is more dry than a piece of fresh fruit.

They’re rich in antioxidants and they contain 18 grams of whole food protein per bar. Each bar contains 18 grams of whole foods protein made from peanut butter and egg, milk, and rice protein. If you don’t tolerate casein, whey, or peanut butter, then this wouldn’t be the bar for you. Note: I’ve heard that the company is working on creating a line of bars using almond butter in place of peanut butter.

What about the PUFAs?
Although I’m not a fan of and usually avoid seed oils, most of the polyunsatured oils in the bars come from peanut butter (a whole food) and I think the benefits of these bars outweigh the drawbacks. Many people are going to buy bars for snacks to take to work, school, or when traveling, hiking, camping, cycling, running, or engaging in other sports. If you (and they) are avoiding other sources of polyunsaturated oils such as corn, soy, canola, sunflower, cottonseed, peanut, grapeseed, and generic “vegetable” oils, all margarines, shortening and all foods that contain it, deep fried foods, commercial salad dressings, and packaged baked goods made from vegetable oils or shortening, then I don’t think the PUFAs in these bars would create fatty acid imbalances or inflammation.

If you’re not already avoiding the hazardous oils I just mentioned, I encourage you to read more about the risk of consuming them (click here and scroll down to "Time for an oil change") and weed them out of your diet in favor of more stable and traditional fats and oils, such as real butter, ghee, clarified butter, virgin coconut and palm oil, avocado and olive oil, non-hydrogenated palm shortening, fat from meats (preferably pasture-raised), and occasional unrefined almond or sesame oil. You can also read more about how the processed oil industry created a propaganda campaign to discredit naturally saturated fats and promote refined vegetable oils and the effects of that in The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookbook by Rachel Albert Matesz & Don Matesz.

So what’s in these bars?
The Perfect Foods Peanut Butter Bar contains the following ingredients:
Peanut Butter*, Raw Unheated Buddy Bee Honey*, Milk Protein, Egg Protein, Rice Protein, Dried Whole Food Powders (Sunflower Seed*, Sesame Seed*, Flax Seed*, Rice Bran*, Rose-Hip*, Orange*, Lemon*, Grapefruit*, Tomato*, Apple*, Bell Pepper, Papaya*, Mango*, Black Cherry, Cranberry, Fig, Alfalfa*, Celery*, Spinach*, Parsley*, Mint, Kelp*, Dulse*), Olive Oil*, Sunflower Seed Oil, Sesame Seed Oil*, Flax Seed Oil*, Pumpkin Seed Oil, Almond Oil, and Rice Bran Oil.

1 Peanut Butter Bar contains: 292 calories, 16 grams of fat (2.5 grams of saturated fat and 13.5 grams of polyunsatured fats), 26 total grams of carbohydrate (less 3 grams of fiber) with 17 total sugar grams, and 18 grams of protein, 95 mg of sodium. 520 milligrams of potassium (so it has a good potassium to sodium ratio).  * The asterisk denotes organic ingredients.

To see ingredients in The Perfect Foods Fruit & Nut Bar click here.
To see ingredients in The Perfect Foods Carob Chip Bar click here.
To see ingredients in The Perfect Foods Cranberry Crunch Bar click here.

What do they cost?
The bars run $2.39 each at whole foods, less than many of the bars on the market. On line from the company that makes them, they sell for $2.42 each (before shipping) if you buy them in boxes of 12 on line.

Would you like to try these bars?
You can if you enter the Perfect Foods Bar Giveway that starts today. Three lucky winners will each receive 4 bars.

Rules for entering
1) Leave a comment below telling me why you want to win a handful of bars or 2) Tell me why you like these bars.

To receive entries, spread the word about this giveaway by doing any of the following:
1) Watch one of my YouTube videos and leave a comment about it below
2) Subscribe to my YouTube page, then leave a comment about that below
3) Subscribe to my blog (see link half to two-third of the way down the left side of this page), then leave a comment saying you did that below
4) Publicize the giveaway, then come back to my blog and leave a comment about what you did, for example
    a) Tweet about the giveaway with a link to my blog
    b) blog about the giveaway
    c) announce the giveaway on Facebook and send me a link
    d) mention the giveaway to your family and friends
    e) come up with your own creative idea
5) do any or all of the above; just be sure to post a separate comment below for each action

Deadline
Minight, March 5th, 2010. You have 10 days to get your entries in, starting today, February 23rd, 2010.
Selection criteria: Random drawing

Comments

[Tamar Erlich]

I love these food bars for all the reasons you wrote in your post plus I LOVE peanut butter and these are like eating peanut butter with a spoon!

Thank you for the giveaway, Tamar.

[barb]

I'd love to win the bars because as a diabetic I'm looking for snacks all the time! These sound good and friendly. I subscribed to your feed last night & told some friends about your giveaway so they'd check it out.

[Emily]

Rachel, I watched your meatball YouTube video, and I have made them twice already! The fist time I used half pastured beef, and half pork. Wonderful! The next time I used fresh pastured chicken and added olive- another winner! Thank you for a wonderful recipe I will use again and again.

[Shannon]

I have yet to try these but you had me at peanut butter and honey - two of my favorite foods! It would be nice to have a bar that isn't artificial.

[Jenny Hughes]

I would love to try these. I am so frustrated with most bars on the market that I rarely by them. But would be nice to have something on hand for the very hectic days when I am on the go.

[Nicole]

I eat flavored peanut butter every day. I love trying new peanut butter things and would LOVE to win these.

[Nicole]

I mentioned this to my friend Amy on Facebook who loves peanut butter. She will most likely enter too.

[Chef Rachel]

Thank you all for commenting about the perfect foods bar giveaway. For all you peanut butter lovers, you have 5 more days to get extra entries in by telling other people and posting more comments on my blog. I look forward to announcing the lucky winner!

[Tammy Bottita]

I love these bars! I am so busy in the morning and it gets to messy trying to eat at my desk. I grab one and nibble on it with some fruit or maybe a hard boiled egg and I feel full and totally satisfied. Although I don't even like raisins I still even like the fruit and nut one too. Yum!

Hi Tammy,
Glad you like them. You can enter more than once if you want. See my blog post for more ideas for extra entries.

Good luck,
Rachel

[Hollister]

I would love to try these bars. Sometimes work can be too hectic to have a real meal. These would help me get through my shift without starving!

Hi Hollister,

Thanks for commenting on my blog. Maybe you'll win! You can enter more than once for a chance to win. See this blog post above for ways to get extra entries!

Chef Rachel

[Nicole]

I am a winner of the bars and I am so excited since I found this blog about looking up info for the bars themselves. I have yet to taste them but I have heard from word of mouth how yummy they are.

[coach mik]

I am a gymnastics coach and I recently found these bars. I love them and i'm currently promoting them in the gym. It would be easier to just hand them a sample.

Hi Coach,

Glad to hear you like them. Perhaps you could contact the company that makes the gars and request some samples to give out at your gym if you are also buying them by the case to sell. I heard they are coming out with an almond butter bar soon.

Sincerely,
Chef Rachel

[Carey]

Dag I missed your contest lol I love these bars. They were giving out samples in the Whole Foods in Vegas one time when my partner and I were there. I loved the carob and she the peanut butter.

We since order cases from their website. Our whole foods doesn't have them but they said they'd order them for us if we wanted.

DELICIOUS! And for someone that suffers from heartburn (me) who has to really watch what they eat, they have all of the right ingredients and leaves out all of the not so good ingredients.

I can only eat 1/2 at a time tho. Kinda rich.

Hi Carey,

Thanks for following my blog. Keep reading, I plan to get samples from the company when they come out with the almond butter version. I hope to do a giveaway for that too!

Chef Rachel

[Mabel Gray]

Chef Rachel,

How likely are you to do a SUMMER GIVEAWAY of the Perfect Foods Bars again? The Carob Chip variety are fulfilling morsels of edible joy, but I will gladly amp up my praise in an official entry if you are up for the contest again.

Gratefully,

M.G.

Hi Mabel,

Yes, I may do another giveaway of those bars now or wait until they come out with the almond butter version this fall.

Chef Rachel