Kashi GoLEAN on a Trash Can
Written: Oct 17 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice ingredients, some soy, a lot of carbs (a pro for some) and decent protein.
Cons: Taste, lack of vitamins, too much sugar, taste.
The Bottom Line: This is too bad. It has potential if it had less sugar, more vitamins and was edible. As is, I can't recommend these bars.
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| jo.com's Full Review: Kashi GoLEAN Bar |
I have reviewed a couple of the Kashi Cereals. I liked Good Friends a lot but I didn’t like Kashi GoLean. In spite of that I thought I would try Kashi GoLean Cereal Slimming System High Protein/Fiber Bar. I didn’t buy them as part of their slimming system, I bought them because the ingredients look good and they contain soy protein.
Please note: I am in no way addressing the slimming system, how or if it works or anything about it. I have no first hand information on it, but you can get a free, nutritionist-designed GoLean 7-Day Meal Planner at the website www.kashi.com. Personally I am not impressed with what I read on the site. In order to lose weight you have to expend more calories than you consume. If a system or plan works for you it is because that is what you are doing.
About the product:
This is a 2.75-ounce bar in a somewhat fancy gold tinted easy to open wrapper.
You will find the expiration date on the inside of the flap.
They call themselves a snack and as part of the slimming system they tell you that they are great to take with you if you don’t have time for a meal or to tide you over but in no way do they put themselves out to be a meal replacement bar.
We are told that they are delicious and natural cereal bars that “will fill you up without filling you out.” The company claims that they are full of nutrients and will satisfy my sweet urges.
They also have added soy isoflavones and flaxseed. I mentioned the soy above. I stopped drinking as much soy as I used to because of some new studies that show perhaps too much soy is not a protector from breast cancer and can do the opposite. Now I am thinking I may not be getting enough since there are benefits of soy, especially as a woman approaches menopause. Yes, I am 50. In addition there is no high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils in the bars.
The dietary exchanges are 3-1/2 carbohydrates & 1 lean protein based on "Exchange Lists for Meal Planning," © 1995 American Diabetes Assoc. and American Dietetic Association.
Flavors:
Honey Vanilla Yogurt
Strawberry Vanilla Yogurt
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Vanilla Spice Cake
Cookies 'N Cream
Malted Chocolate Crisp
Mocha Java
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
I have the Malted Chocolate Crisp in front of me and will be giving you the nutritional analysis on that one. The analysis can be found on the website. Glancing at them, the amounts appear to be very similar in terms of their fat, carbohydrate and other nutrients’ content.
Let’s look at what is in the bars:
The ingredients (from the website www.kashi.com):
Kashi Seven Whole Grains & Sesame Flour (Stone Ground Whole: Oats, Long Grain Brown Rice, Rye, Hard Red Winter Wheat, Triticale, Buckwheat, Barley, Sesame Seeds), Corn, Wheat Bran, Evaporated Cane Juice, Corn Bran, Oat Fiber, Soy Protein Concentrate, Salt, Annato, Chocolate Coating (Evaporated Cane Juice, Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil, Nonfat Dry Milk, Cocoa, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Natural Flavoring), Honey, Whey Protein Concentrate, Brown Rice Syrup, Mixed Fruit Juice Concentrate (Pineapple, Pear, Peach), Barley Malt Syrup, Whey Protein Isolate, Malt Powder, Natural Flavors, Soy Fiber, Oat Fiber, Flaxseeds, L-Glutamine. May contain traces of peanuts.
In case you are wondering what Triticale is it is “Triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) is a man-made crop developed by crossing wheat (Triticum turgidum or Triticum aestivum) with rye (Secale cereale)." (http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/agdex/100/18000201.html)
Since Flaxseeds and L-Glutamine are at the bottom of the list, there won’t be much of these supplements in this product but they are both good, in my opinion, and I take them as separate supplements.
Serving Size: 1 Bar
Calories 280 Calories From Fat 50
Total Fat 5 grams
Total Carb 51g
Saturated Fat 4g
Dietary Fiber 6g
Cholesterol 20mg
Sugars 29g
Sodium 85mg
Protein 13g
Potassium 150mg
Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 0% Calcium 10% Iron 8%
Thiamin 2% Riboflavin 8% Phosphorus 8%, Magnesium, 2%
Taking a closer look at this, the amount of vitamins and minerals is miniscule. In fact it only contains very, very small amounts of 6 vitamins/minerals. Other brands including the line of Power Bars have over 20 vitamins and minerals so you won’t be eating this bar rather than taking your multi vitamin.
In addition, the amount of sugar is ridiculous. Just as a comparison to the cereal, one serving of Kashi Cereals has about 7 grams of sugar! This is totally unnecessary and although the sugar may not be high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils in the bars but if you look at
http://www.christinacooks.com/glossary/brownricesyrup.html
you will read a great article explaining that brown rice sugar, for example, is a complex sugar rather than a simple sugar. The bottom line is that it does break down in your body differently and perhaps not altering your blood chemistry the same way a simple sugar does. I would rather have 29 grams of this than 29 grams of simple sugars. But I would rather have less sugar of any kind.
51 grams of carbohydrates is a huge amount. I was really surprised when I took a close look at that. It is well over what I would consider to be needed, in fact, as a meal replacement bar or as an after workout pick me up and am surprised that they don’t market Kashi GoLean bar as such. One theory (According to my Personal Trainer Manual) has me at about 46 grams of protein per day and 80 grams of carbohydrates per day. (I weight 125 pounds.) I eat 5 times a day so that number of carbohydrates should really give me a boost! There is actually enough protein in this bar for me to use it as a meal replacement bar. I truly was surprised.
Five grams of fat is more than I usually like to eat at a meal but for a bar such as this, that number isn’t bad.
280 calories is a good number with an additional piece of fruit perhaps to make this a meal in a hurry. It is unusual to see this much fiber, 6 grams, in a bar so that is also nice to see.
The soy protein is also a nice addition. My carton of Silk soymilk says, 25 grams of soy protein a day, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.” It is the 11th ingredient. If it were within the first 5 I would say there is enough to make a difference. We do not know the amount of soy protein in this product.
What the bar is like and how it tastes:
The Malted Chocolate Crisp is covered in a thick layer of chocolate. It looks like a candy bar but then you taste it and there is nothing delicious about this unless I just scrape off the chocolate. You can feel a bit of the "crisp" as you chew. It is a little chewy and looks something like a Mars Bar if I were to compare. It is bitter and leaves an aftertaste. I have no idea where the 29 grams of sugar are!
The bars do give me a boost though. I will have 1/4 of one during a workout if I am feeling really sluggish. That amount will give me a boost but even if 1/2 would give me more, I can’t eat more than that because I really can’t tolerate the taste.
I will not buy them again. I haven’t tried every flavor but the few I have tried are bad and Chocolate Crisp is usually a favorite type of mine and this may be better than the Honey Vanilla Yogurt, another flavor I usually like, but if it is better it isn’t better by much. It is really too bad because they have added all that sugar for no reason.
Truly if it had 3 grams of sugar and tasted this bad I might buy it again because it works as a meal replacement for me. There is no way I can recommend these as a snack. The reason it may tide you over until your next meal is because it leaves such a bad taste you may not want to eat for awhile. I am sorry for being so harsh on Kashi. I found a huge difference between the Good Friends and Kashi GoLean Cereals as well with the GoLean Cereal being inedible.
At the website you will find information about healthy eating, weight management, recipes and nutritional information on all their products.
You can order products from the website and buy these in bulk. Twenty of them will cost you about $1.66 each at the website. I paid $1.45 at the supermarket.
My final thoughts:
I like the Kashi brand and this bar is a good one in many ways. The ingredients are really wonderful and it is nice to be able to pronounce them! However there are very few vitamins and much too much sugar to make it a healthy snack or meal. I can’t recommend anything I can’t tolerate eating so I have to rate these 2 stars. I can’t even rate them 3 because I can’t recommend it. It is not average. Average is not good, Kashi GoLean is bad.
If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.
Recommended:
No
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