Review Time! Vega Wholefood Vibrancy Bars; Sprouted Buckwheat Caution...and Snowy Angels

Speaking of looking forward and looking back...

Right before we left for England, the folks at Sequel Naturals were kind enough to send me a couple of their Vibrancy Bars to review: 'Green Synergy' and 'Chocolate Decadence.' I shared them with Phil, who has a very different palate (read: much more picky and 'standard dieter,' whereas I'm picky and 'greeneater'). So there's a contrast of views to share there.

Sorry it's taken so long! But here it is at last. One little tiny gripe first: I had a 'banana-peanut butter-spirulina' smoothie for lunch today, similar to the one that blissed me out at Organic Oasis, and per my Naturopath's instructions to eat something I think I 'shouldn't' 25% of the time. I was blissed out the other time I made it - ecstatic - but today, my tummy was so unhappy afterwards: as painful as a full-blown ate-something-I'm-allergic-to thing. Why? Only difference was I used half a banana and a few frozen cherries instead of a whole banana: I've had frozen cherries before recently with no problem and would have guessed that if anything that would have sat better with me. OK - griping over. Our bodies are so mysterious sometimes.

Back to the bars. They are so beautifully packaged: I like how the text is 'portrait' rather than landscape as most bar wrappings are - it looks sophisticated and striking.

Looking at the ingredients, I loved to see that there were so many good sprouted nuts and seeds and so many good essential oils and green powders. And pea protein powder is definitely the protein that works best for me. I wondered why it was necessary to have both dates and agave: since I generally avoid sugar as much as possible, I prefer if just dates are used. I was also interested and a little apprehensive about the sprouted buckwheat that is the first ingredient: I've had terrible stomach pain from buckwheat before, but it may not have been fully sprouted. **But please see my note below for a general concern about sprouted buckwheat** However, I liked that they use a sprouted, non-gluten carbohydrate source as a main ingredient. A lot of raw bars are mostly sugar and fat with a little protein added, the sugar really tweaks my equilibrium, and I've recently been overcoming my carb-phobia and recognizing that for energy bars and for prolonged satiation, it can be a good idea to have a carb in the mix that isn't just a sugar. The 'sorghum puffs' that are the final ingredient are presumably a textural addition.

I happen to think that buckwheat groats are beautiful. I love how you can see them in the matrix of the bar - and how well the bar holds together.

OK - now for the taste test part. I apologize in advance if Phil's comments seem unkind: I'm sharing them partly because they were so funny and partly because they balance my own. If it tastes green, I'm going to love it and Phil is not, and if you're reading my reviews it's worth knowing where my biases lie!

I liked the bar a lot. I love the 'green' taste and actually enjoyed the earthy texture and crunch of the buckwheat. I liked that you could taste the hemp, almonds and dates individually but that it didn't overpower the integral flavor of the bar. To me, it was very, very sweet, but the buckwheat actually toned that down a bit. For me, if they weren't so expensive and perhaps if they had less sugar (cut the agave), they would probably be the best raw bar I've tried for being satiating without tweaking my blood sugar. I was grateful that I garnered no excruciating stomach symptoms from the sprouted buckwheat. However, I'd caution against eating anything with sprouted buckwheat every day, and I'll explain further after looking at the chocolate bar.

Now, here's what Phil said: "When I was a kid and we had sheep on the farm, we had these alfalfa cubes that we fed them, that we'd dip in molasses as a mineral supplement for them. So, as a little boy, of course I tried them too. And they tasted pretty much exactly like this!" Phil is a textures guy and loves crunch, so I was a little surprised when he said that he didn't like the texture. He clarified (with my ingredient-explication) that he felt that the buckwheat groats tamped down in his teeth rather than providing crunch. That, I can understand. It's very hard to maintain a crunchy texture in a sprouted seed when it's included in a bar with all other kinds of softeners. Phil said he definitely preferred the Amazing Grass bars we sampled a little while ago.

On to the chocolate bar!

This has the same basic ingredients, but doesn't have the green foods and has some more added sugar with the added chocolate. As you can see, the chocolate is added into the general mix of the bar, as opposed to being a coating or internal chunks. That isn't usually my favorite way to enjoy chocolate, and it wasn't this time. I liked the bar perfectly well, but think I would have liked it even more if it had had green foods and chocolate! And maybe some cacao nibs whole in there, or something like that. Otherwise, this was fairly similar to the green bar (although some would say the absence of greens is an important difference). For me, it worked less well because of the adrenal-tweak factor of the cacao.

As for Phil, he first said 'it tastes less like fodder than the other one,' and then added that the effect of the chocolate just mixed in with everything else was to seem like it was lower-quality chocolate in there: enough to give you a jolt, he thought. He said it tasted like it was 'very good for you and very expensive!' He still didn't love the buckwheat texture, but he did prefer this bar to the Green Vibrancy.

Bear in mind, Phil and I are both loons. I think this makes us great reviewers, actually, because we're so imaginative and open to trying things. But neither one of us has tastebuds exactly in the middle of the ballpark.

**In all conscience, I have to talk a bit about buckwheat sprouts. Buckwheat sprouts and greens contain a compound called fagopyrin that can accumulate in your tissues when eaten on a regular basis and can cause a photosensitive rash. A few years ago, when I still lived in CA, I was living with another raw-foodist. He loved sprouted buckwheat and loved to make buckwheat hummus, but before we lived together he only ate it rarely because he didn't get around to making the sprouts. Along comes Miss Well-meaning sproutathonic, and now he can have his buckwheat hummus every day if he wants to! I didn't eat it because I don't tend to do well with starches and the other main ingredient was bell pepper, which makes me sick. Well, after a week or so of this, he came out in blotches all over his body and wasn't so pleased about it, as well as mystified. I racked my brains and remembered that I had read something years before about buckwheat lettuce causing photosensitive rashes. I asked him if the rash was worse in sunlight and he found that it was.

So, I quit sprouting buckwheat, he quit eating it and his skin cleared right up. I felt badly that my helping him out had led to such unpleasant symptoms but also thought that it was good to know and be aware that you can have too much sprouted buckwheat. I should add that he really was having a lot of it every day: many times more than is contained in one of those Vibrancy Bars, and was possibly more sensitive than most as well. But having experienced this reaction, albeit vicariously, I feel that I need to share the story.

Snow 'angels' on the beach today - Phil

..and me, all bundled up! And yes, that is the sun!

Much love.