Slim Fast Optima - Are You Sure This Is A “Meal Replacement” Bar?
Written: Jul 30 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Awesome taste, good source of vitamins and minerals. 40% less sugar than their bars..
Cons: High carbs, taste so good you might want more than one.
The Bottom Line: Heed Thy Warning ... “Excessive Consumption May Have A Laxative Effect”
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| Freak369's Full Review: Slim Fast Optima Meal Bars - all flavors |
I have never been a huge fan of the Slim Fast approach to losing weight. When I tried their so called ‘weight loss mix’ several years ago it tasted like chalk, left me bloated and tore me up for a few days. I guess I shouldn’t single out Slim Fast - I am against all the places that make you buy their food and pay a weekly fee to get weighed. So far all the people I have known that have gone to these places have lost weight but they gained it all back and then some. If I said it once I will say it a thousand times - Chris Rock said it best, “There ain’t no money in the cure, the money is in the disease”. That’s what most of these companies do - they give you weight loss but you are stuck staying on their program and paying their fees or you end up gaining it all back. They never teach you portion control, what foods to eat and that exercise is extremely important. Even so, when I saw these for .50 cents at the grocery store I couldn’t pass up getting them - at the end of the day I am a true bargain hunter. My oldest once said that if someone put a sale sign in a pile of dirt, I’d trip over people trying to get to it.
Slim Fast Optima Meal Bars
I’ve only had the chance to try out one of the flavors so far but I do have to say, if they are all as tasty as the Milk Chocolate Peanut one - there’s a change that I will go back and get more of them for the kids to munch on. I’m not really worried that they aren’t getting enough vitamins or minerals - they just like having something other than a candy bar to eat when they get the craving for chocolate. Yes, they are indeed weird children. These are touted as a meal replacement type of bar that supplies you with 220 calories, 8 grams of protein, 34 grams of carbohydrates [14 grams from sugar] and a whole slew of vitamins and minerals. This also provides you with 30% of your recommended daily allowance of calcium based on a 2,000 calorie diet. According to the wrapper this gives you a total of 22 vitamins and minerals but you have to keep in mind that the percentages that are listed are if you are doing a two thousand calorie a day diet.
Since this is a “meal replacement” bar it means that you can have one of these instead of a meal - not in addition to one. I will be honest here, one of these won’t fill me up. It’s not that I am a pig or a glutton but I need something more than this to hold me over until my next meal. Given that this has a hell of a lot of carbohydrates in it it’s not something that I will eat all the time but if I get a craving and one of the kids has one open, you can bet I will most definately take a bite out of it. I really have to wonder if these can even be classified as a meal replacement according to the usual standards that are used when classifying these types of products. There’s no doubt that this has a great taste and will kill a craving for chocolate but is it something that is going to help you stick within your daily calorie limit [if you are following the Slim Fast program] or if it just going to be a prelude to some other snack you have a half hour later.
Taste
Let’s face it, you are only going to eat a bar that has a great taste to it and part of that is the after taste. Some of them go down so smoothly that you almost forget that they are low carb or high protein - until you get that rank, nasty, vile taste in your mouth. I have to admit, as much as I loathe Slim Fast this has to be one of the best tasting bars I have had in years. There’s no fake chocolate taste to it and it’s got just the right blend of peanuts and chocolate that it tastes like a candy bar, not a meal replacement. I have only had the chance to try the Milk Chocolate Peanut but if the others are this tasty, I might pick up a few for myself and the boys to nosh on. I broke off a piece of one of these for Annabelle and you would have sworn the child never had chocolate before. She was “oohing” and “ahhing” while she chewed it and when she picked up the wrapper to get another bite, there wasn’t any left.
Price
I got this flavor at the grocery store for .50 cents. Either they had way too many of this certain flavor or they were worried that they wouldn’t be able to get rid of them before they expired. The date is stamped on the bottom flap of the package so make sure you check it before you buy these - especially if they are at a reduced price. When I checked the other Optima bars in the aisle they were priced at $1.49, that’s a .99 cent savings. I doubt I would have ever purchased these under normal circumstances but since it was on ‘sale’, I couldn’t pass it up. I guess this would be a cheap price for a meal replacement but at a skimpy two ounces it might not be enough to fill you up unless you down several glasses of water with this and eat it very slowly.
The Bottom Line
These might be nice to have around for a snack or if you are close to snapping on a diet - but with the calories and carbs that it has in it, you might be better off grabbing a candy bar or tossing a bad of popcorn in the microwave. I understand that these are marketed towards people who are on the Slim Fast program and that’s why there is a balance [for the most part] of carbs, protein, calories and fat but they could have added just a couple more grams of protein to the mix to even things out a little more. If taste is an issue for you then rest assured, this flavor is so delicious that I had a hard time believing that it was actually a Slim Fast product let alone something that was designed to help keep people on a diet.
Slim-Fast
[800] SLIMFAST
www.slim-fast.com
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
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Recommended:
Yes
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