Healthy Food: Go Lean Banana Bread Bar

Okay, this may seem like it is coming out of nowhere, but as I refine my blogging interests, I’ve decided to open up a new area for discussion: food. I’m not going to go into a long preamble about this, though I will say that driving weekly from the San Francisco Bay Area to Mendocino, healthy foods are hard to find along the 101/128 corridor, especially when you have kids in the car or are in a hurry or are transporting perishables or pets or are relocating turkeys.

I’ve learned over the years to always carry some kind of food with me. Mothers of toddlers can attest that food related meltdowns are ugly affairs. At this point, I’m working on foods for my crash pack, i.e. foods which can be eaten which don’t push my blood sugar to bad places or encourage me or others binge-eat. As one of the many pre-diabetic Americans, I consider it my duty to share anything I encounter which is supported by unbiased scientific or medical data or by my own experience.

Today, I’ll talk from experience. Go Raw  is quickly becoming a mainstay of my crash pack. You can find their product line at Whole Foods Store, Nob Hill Market, and similar stores, though they can also be found on Amazon. Today’s review is for their banana bread bar.

The bar is thin, light, and intriguing to look at. My first thought was, “It’s tiny,” but I bought it anyway since I don’t expect to eat Banana Bread ever again and craved that taste. 

The bar cost me about $1.29, though it costs much more at Amazon (almost a dollar more per snack.)

It’s thin, thin enough I can use mine as a bookmark and keep it handy as a snack. I like this duality of design. The wrapper indicates that it is certified as non-GMO, gluten free, vegan, nut free, and it has the appropriate certifications to show this. It is also USDA certified as organic and is made locally by Freeland Foods in San Jose, California. This is what it looks like inside:

I pull it out and took my first bite. Not bad at all. The flavor is strongly reminiscent of banana bread, enough to get that craving off of my back. The healthy oils of the sprouted flaxseeds in the bar are already giving me satiety, the feeling of fullness I need so that I can stop eating. This could actually work. I may need to brush my teeth afterwards to release the bits and pieces, though the chewy texture and the fact that I can’t just gulp this down, must actually stop and masticate, is a big plus for the mindless-eater-attempting-dietary-mindfulness.

I have to mention here that my sister Sparrow was the one who first convinced me that raw food was not a death sentence when she introduced me to her delicious butternut squash soup made with her Vitamix blender. Ever since, my cautious forays into the world of the uncooked have been positive in every way.

I checked what information I could find on the Go Raw product line from Freeland Foods, and while their website does not have too much information, they don’t seem to be part of the processed food industry or have known associations with Donald Trump and/or the antichrist.

This bar is tasty and chewy, almost like candy. I’m feeling happy, and grow afraid, scrambling to check the ingredients list. The bar includes: sprouted flaxseed, banana, unsulphured coconut, dates. That’s it.

Here are the other particulars:

• Serving Size: 1
• Calories: 70
• Total Fat: 3g
• Sat. Fat: 1g
• Potassium: 100g
• Total Carb: 9g
• Dietary Fiber: 2g
• Net Carbs: 7g
• Sugars: 4g
• Add. Sugar: 0g
• Protein: 1g

Not bad for a little bar. But will it keep hunger at bay? Well, I ate this at 1 p.m. and it’s now 4:35 p.m. I forgot to eat lunch, but I wasn’t hungry until just now.

In terms of storage space, I could keep at least thirty of these bars in the space it would require for me to store one bag of potato chips, though the bars are date stamped for freshness suggesting they would eventually go bad.

For more about Go Raw, watch this inspiring and tasty video:

Bottom line: one more product to add to my crash pack.

Next week on this topic: An Ode to my Vitamix Blender