I've had a love / hate relationship with Met-Rx products over the years. There have been a few high priced protein products I've purchased that turned out to contain less than what was stated on the container and their flavor selections in bars has really gone down hill. I mean, how many different variations of chocolate do you really need? I love chocolate as much as the next person but I don't need 17 different varieties of it to stay on my diet. When my local grocery store had several of the Protein Plus bars on sale for .99 cents I grabbed some of them to try out. Since I try to maintain a low carbohydrate diet all the time, these were something that I could have in moderation [for several reasons] without it messing with my diet. Take a good look at the image on the wrapper. If your mouth is watering at the sight of it, try to remember that feeling when you are eating it. That soft, almost cake batter looking top layer isn't really all that soft and gooey. The chocolate coating that surrounds it tends to flake off but hey, at least you are sticking to your diet.

Met-Rx Protein Plus Chocolate Fudge Deluxe
metamyosyn VPP protein blend, chocolate coating, glycerin, soy nuggets, water, chocolate chips, maltitol, canola oil, cocoa, sorbitol, sucralose

These bars are available in two sizes, the 1.76 and el grande three ounce. Having something of that size around is dangerous for people like me; once you open it you slowly start nibbling away at it until you have nothing left but the wrapper. The 1.76 ounce size is a lot more popular and readily available than the larger one and there is a price difference of about a dollar between the two. This means that you have to pick which one is best for you and your needs; more to the point, how much will power you have when eating these bars. For me the smaller sized ones are best; I am a chocolate junkie and if I get the three ounce one I will tear through it and deal with the consequences later. Consequences? From a sport bar? Yeap. Indeed there is. The combination of maltitol, sorbitol and sucralose can have a laxative effect on you. The latter of the three aren't the biggest culprits but people who are sensitive to these ingredients have said that their bout with diarrhea has been a little worse than others.

Getting that out of the way, this bar has a good taste to it. One thing that I can't stand about most chocolate sport bars is that they often have a fake taste to them or they leave you with a nasty after taste. This one goes down smooth but it is a little on the hard side. It's almost like they took the bar and compressed it so it's dense and heavy. The soy nuggets aren't crunchy so if you are expecting something with a 'snap' to it, this could be a little bit of a disappointment. Put it this way, if you've ever tried to bite into a frozen candy bar, that's pretty close to the consistency of this. Maybe I got a couple that were old or were exposed to cold temperatures then back to room temperature; when I checked the expiration date on the wrapper this one said May of 2007 so it's still 'fresh' but it's only a month away from getting yanked off the shelf and tossed in the clearance cart. Will I buy more of them if they are at a reduced price? You could put a sale sign on a bucket of rocks and I'd buy it. Simply put, if they were on sale, I'd buy every single one of them.

Met-Rx suggests that you consume this with eight ounces of water. Why? It helps to fill you up so you are temporarily relieved of hunger. Do I do this? Most of the time no. If I am hungry or just having a really bad craving for chocolate, the last thing I want to do is water down what I am eating. That does make me a little more dangerous when eating bars like this because it is pretty easy to polish off one too quick or grab another one. If you do a low carbohydrate diet then these are a nice thing to check into because the impact carbs are low. I'm not saying that you can eat ten of these a day, but they are nice if you want a change from your usual snacks. These are not meal replacement bars and they should never be used to substitute regular food. It might sound like a good idea at first but you will end up screwing up your metabolism if you try to cut out complete meals for a bar that's less than two ounces in size.

Calories: 190
Fat: 5
Protein: 19 grams
Carbohydrates: 19 grams
Dietary Fiber: 1 gram
Sugar: 2 grams
Sugar Alcohol: 10 grams

The Bottom Line

Even though I have had some bad experiences with Met-Rx products in the past, this bar gets high marks from me for several reasons. There's only three grams of impact carbohydrates, the taste is better than I expected and they are generally pretty inexpensive. If you are grabbing them at the gym you will pay a lot more for them than if you purchased them at a sport nutrition store but for the best deal check out online sites that offer you a nice price break for ordering a box. There are a lot of different flavors on the Protein Plus series and I really wish they would make a combo pack of them so you can try them all out without having to go from store to store to get them. Chances are I'll buy this flavor again but I'll be checking the expiration date on the flap to see if they have a couple months to go or not. At a buck a bar this is a nice thing to have around if you are dieting.


As always, thanks for the visit…

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2007 Freak369


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