Eat Natural Light and Lovely Bars Review

After quite enjoying the Protein Packed Eat Natural bar, I decided to give the new Light and Lovely bars a go as well. Rather than a protein hit these are all about fibre and a lower calorie count with 115 calories per bar. This is around half of what you would find in your typical Eat Natural bar.

The multipack of four has a nice and clean ingredients list with gluten free oats, buckwheat and cornflakes as the base stuck together with glucose syrup and red apple, plums, coconut and chia seeds for flavour and texture.

I have to say this combination really worked for me. I mean really worked. Whereas the protein packed bar is brittle, hard cruncher of a bar, this has a deliciously squidgey texture that is sticky, bendable and a little chewy that doesn't fall apart. It's so soft to eat with a satisfying lightness to it that is perfect for when you just want something sweet but you're not really hungry.

The bars are pretty fall but because of the lovely texture and delicious flavour, I really found myself really chewing each bite properly and focusing on the flavour. It has a sweetness to it that is really fruity and cinnamon brings a little warmth and spice. The chia seeds also really work in this adding little crunchy explosions of texture in every mouthful and a small helping of brazil nuts for a nice little crunch too.

Sure the sugar content is a little high at around 30% but a lot of it is natural sugars and because the bars are so small, each bar has less than 10g in which I was happy with. As I said, it just conquers a sweet craving in a refreshingly light and uplifting way that is based on fairly natural ingredients, which can only be a good thing in my book.

Price: £1.99
Bought at: Sainsburys

Nutrition per bar: 115 calories, 4.8g fat, 1.7g sat fat, 9g sugars, 0.05g salt

Score: 8/10

Eat Natural Protein Packed Bar Review

Eat Natural isn't usually a cereal brand I go for. It's too much of a half way house between treaty, tasty cereal bars and properly healthy, nutritious ones. Eat Natural aren't as fake and artificial as things like Alpen bars or Belvita but at the same time they do have a fair bit of sugar in them. Often as much as a third of the bar.Obviously a lot of it is from natural sources like the fruit but there's also a fair whack of glucose syrup in them as well. They are also more calorific than other cereal bars. Again, this isn't necessarily bad as a refuelling option but again there are more natural and nutritious products like Trek bars, which I would rather use after the gym.

However, this protein packed version caught my high. Sugar content is much better with this - 10g a bar and this a pretty big and substantial bar as well, It also contains 10g of protein per bar, which is kind of the main attraction for me. It seemed like a good snack before the gym this evening - protein and filling too boot.

The ingredients is pretty clean - all things I recognise and that are pretty natural. It's obviously a high quality bar with lots of more premium ingredients - 45% of it is peanuts rather than the bulk coming from cheap flour like most cereal bars. 12% dark chocolate is also a nice touch espeically as it's proper dark chocolate containing more cocoa mass than sugar). Coconut flakes add a bit more interest and there's some soya protein crispies to add to the protein from the peanuts.

It's certainly a good sized bar and looks chocolatey without looking overly so and sickly sweet. One thing that is very noticeable about this bar is that is a lot tougher and solid versus other Eat Natural bars. It's certainly not a chewy bar and actually you need to work your jaw just to even bite into it. I didn't mind this as it adds to the substantial feel of the bar but I think this would put people off.

Taste wise, as it is so solid (partly due to being nearly half made of peanuts) it is also a lot drier than other Eat Natural bars with the chocolatey hit being more cocoaey with hits of dark chocolate now and then rather than being indulgent or meltingly chocolatey.

I enjoyed the bar and would have them again before the gym as it did fill me up and stop me snacking beforehand. It's not the tastiest Eat Natural but it is also less sugary and a good protein hit versus the others so it depends on what is most important to you.

Bought at: Whole Foods Market
Nutrition per bar: 215 calories, 13.3g fat, 4.7g sat fat, 9.8g sugars, 10g protein, 0.2g salt