Are You A Snack Junkie? Stay In "The Zone" With Zone Perfect's Chocolate-Caramel Cluster Bar
Written: Dec 27 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Awesome taste, great chocolate coating, inexpensive, filling.
Cons: You can't stop at just one bite, not a low carbohydrate bar.
The Bottom Line: Looking for something to kill off your craving for chocolate? Give this Zone Perfect bar a try!
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| Freak369's Full Review: Zone Perfect All Natural Nutrition Bar, Chocolate ... |
The Zone Principal of dieting isn't new but its popularity has caught on over the past two or three years. This was once considered a huge secret in the body building and fitness world; next to the Atkins diet, this is the one that most of the mainstream people seem to enjoy the most and stick with the longest because it you still have some flexibility with the diet. The Zone Perfect series of bars are a nice thing to have around if you are doing the diet, even if you aren’t following it, you can still have them as a filling snack, to chase of cravings for sweets or something reasonably healthy between meals. Either the Chocolate Caramel Cluster is a new flavor or the local stores here never stock them; when I saw it at my local GNC, I knew I had to grab a few of them to try them out. To me Zone bars flavors are something that you either love to death or hate with a passion; there have only been a couple that I really out and out hated but I'm not the pickiest of people when it comes to food.
Zone Perfect Chocolate Caramel Cluster
soy protein nuggets, chocolate flavored coating, corn syrup, sugar, sweetened condensed milk, palm kernel oil, peanuts, butter, gelatin
This isn't a bar you are going to want to try out if you are doing any type of diet that has carbohydrate restrictions. The Zone Diet is based on a 40 – 30 – 30 set up where your dietary intake is made up of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat. This bar contains 21 grams of carbs, 14 of which come directly from sugar. Usually I'll grab one of these, cut it into fifths and have one piece a day so that it doesn’t push me out of ketosis but that was an impossible task because it tasted so good. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the Whatchamacallit candy bar made by Hershey; it has a very nice crunch to it and it takes a while to chew through all of the ingredients. The best part has to be the very generous chocolate coating. This doesn't have that fake chocolate taste to it so there is no unpleasant aftertaste to it. Being a chocolate lover, I am usually really harsh when grading bars that have a chocolate coating to them but this one tastes so good that you will swear it is a regular candy bar.
So it tastes good and there is no aftertaste but does it fill you up? If you don't wolf it down in four bites and drink it with some water it will fill you up but won't leave you feeling bloated. Since this contains gelatin, butter and milk products it isn't something that is vegan friendly. Being slightly lactose intolerant I have to watch the amount of dairy products I consume but I had absolutely no problems with this bar. It does contain various peanut products so if you have nut allergies, read the ingredient panel closely. The bar size is the standard 1.76 ounces and the stats for it are for the entire bar. If you are trying to eat only half at a time you are going to run into a huge problem, it has such a great taste that chances are you won't be able to have just half. One thing I really liked about this is that it didn't fall apart when you were biting into it; that is a common problem with bars that have soy nuggets in them. You take one bite and have to pick the nuggets off your shirt. This tastes great out of the wrapper or if you toss it in the fridge. I can see this being a little messy if you eat it in the summer months because the chocolate coating will melt as soon as you start pulling it out of the wrapper.
Like most of the Zone Perfect bars, these can be purchased individually or by the box. Since this was the first time I tried this flavor I went with the single that was priced at .75 cents at GNC. Don't get too excited, they aren't always priced that way. The bar was marked down because it expired in April of 2007, they had a couple of boxes of these on sale so I think I might stop back there and grab a couple handfuls while they are still on sale. My local grocery store sells these for .99 each which is a little less than what other stores sell them for but they don't have this flavor in stock. This is a great tasting bar with no nasty aftertaste so it is something that I highly recommend to those doing the Zone diet or people who want something that is nutritious, provides a good mix of vitamins and nutrients and doesn't kill you with a ton of sugar.
The Bottom Line
I have to admit this, I was extremely greedy with this when I bought it, if I would have passed this around to the brood to try out, they would have handed me the empty wrapper and started asking where the rest of them were. No doubt, when I get more of them they will inhale them since they too are bar junkies, especially when they taste as good as this one. The most I have ever seen Zone Perfect bars sell for is $1.50 and that was at the gym, most of the time you can find them in the one dollar range, sure that costs more than a regular candy bar but you are getting the same satisfying taste without all the extra carbohydrates from sugar. Yes, 21 grams of carbs [with 14 coming from sugar] is a lot for a 'diet bar' but this one clings to the Zone 40 / 30 / 30 principal so even though it isn't classified as something that is a good match for a low carb diet, you can still get away with having a couple bites of it without it killing your diet.
The Stats
Name: Zone Perfect Chocolate Caramel Cluster
Serving Size: 1.76 ounces
Calories: 210
Carbohydrates: 21 grams
Protein: 16 grams
Fat: 7 grams
Price: $1.09
As always, thanks for the visit…
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2006 Freak369
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Recommended:
Yes
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