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.

Restaurant Review - Blossoming Lotus in Portland; Gourmet Foods and Sensitive Tummies: What's the Culprit?

We went to visit Phil's brother and sister-in-law in Portland this weekend. They are vegetarian. I mentioned that I wanted to visit Blossoming Lotus and they were happy to try something new.

Before we left, we played with their adorable labradoodle dog

- hard to get a good picture of her, because she's always in motion. She has the most winsome, huge eyes.

...And after we finally got home, their big bruiser of a cat showed us how to relax

On to the food porn in just a moment!

Restaurant Review

We showed up to the restaurant at around 6.15 and immediately saw that it was packed. We were told it would be about a 25 minute wait, but we finally sat down after 7! I kept watching the list, and was frustrated because many parties of two who came in long after us were seated ahead of us: our in-laws just said 'welcome to Portland!' Of course, we took it as a good sign that it was so busy. I was excited that a vegan restaurant with raw options should be doing so well. We people-watched while we waited, and my cohorts insisted that I got something so that I didn't keel over from low blood sugar! I got an apple-lemon-ginger-kale juice, which was delicious. It was a very good idea.

Once we were seated, we didn't have to wait too long for our food, which was a relief! The servers were friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable, even on an evening when they were so very busy (and it was a Saturday night, after all).

Food photos courtesy of my sister-in-law's iPhone - I couldn't get the flash to work on my camera for some reason, and her iPhone took some gorgeous pics.

After all that mushroom hunting, I had to order the live wild mushroom pizza, which was the day's special:

- three kinds of mushrooms, marinaded with bell peppers and onions, with a tahini pesto, on a dried tomato-walnut crust, with a side salad.

I really can't do bell peppers, so I picked them out. I was a little concerned about the dried tomatoes in the crust given recent experience, but didn't seem to have any immediate trouble.

This was delicious - the marinaded mushrooms were delectable, and even though the peppers themselves make me sick, I enjoyed the slight taste infusion from their presence alongside. The crust was delicious and I'm impressed that they use a lot of walnuts rather than any other nut (that's what it seems like): walnuts have the best omega-3 to 6 ratio and one of the highest antioxidant levels of all nuts. (Is this bad of me to be thinking in those terms in a gourmet dining experience?)

My sister-in-law had the seasonal stir-fry - we'd watched another diner eating this while we were waiting and it was immediately obvious to my s-i-l that that was what she wanted, no matter what else might be available!

She had it with soba noodles and extra broccoli. She said that the tofu was so meaty, it almost worried her, and then she realized that it had been rolled in nutritional yeast, for extra yumminess. Considering that it was love at first sight for her, she didn't seem disappointed!

Phil had the lasagna, which had semolina noodle layers, lots of veggies, a tofu ricotta and sesame parmesan, with cashew sour cream on top -

- sumptuously beautiful presentation, and he said it was pretty good. Considering that he's not generally very impressed by 'alternative versions' or substitutions, this was pretty high praise. He also had the house-made chai with coconut milk, served over ice. It was an eclectic spice blend - strong ginger note, cinnamon, cardamom and clove more subtle, but the nutmeg really pronounced. I liked it a lot - but I am just a chai fiend!

Our brother-in-law had the salud salad (cool name)!

- salad with tomatoes, avocado, cashew sour cream, black beans and quinoa. He has recently quit eating dairy and felt so much better as a result, so they were intrigued by the cashew sour cream, especially when I told them how easy it is to make.

And of course, we had to try dessert! I was excited to eat a raw dessert (and just make an exception with the sugar and cacao) and to see what everyone else thought of them too. The main raw choices were the german chocolate cake and the cheesecake of the day, which was a chocolate turtle swirl. We got one of each between the four of us.

The german chocolate cake was a cacao-walnut-date crust, a creamy layer that tasted like walnuts, almonds (or maybe almond extract), agave, shredded coconut, maybe some coconut oil, a fudgy cacao-nut-coconut layer, another walnut/almond layer and a fudgy cacao-agave topping.

The cheesecake had a cacao-walnut-date crust, and the filling was a typical cashew-coconut oil-agave-type cheesecake mix with a cacao swirl. Cacao nibs and dried pecans on top - yummy crumbles.

I was glad that I'd only eaten just over half my pizza and left room: these were just delectable. A chorus of 'yums' from around the table. It was weird to me to be eating 'regular' gourmet raw desserts after over a year of only making non-sugar treats (these are way richer even than the couple of lara bars I tried last week). Especially the cheesecake, with the smooth, creamy, dense middle - it tasted almost alcoholic!  Even with four of us working on them, we had leftovers of both of them that I had for lunch with my leftover pizza yesterday. But I definitely ate more than I needed of them that night. In a way, I preferred the german chocolate cake with its dense nutty layers: it was more up-front about what it was, so it was easier to stop eating it. Somehow, the cheesecake was more deceptive and beguiling - 'eat more of me!' More on that in a moment.

Overall verdict: our brother and sister-in-law were excited to be introduced to this place and the whole concept, and plan to go back with their daughter (who was at a sleepover that night) as soon as possible. Phil was a little taken aback by how pricey it was, but was glad to be shown some of what juices me. I was excited to go to a restaurant with so much more of the menu accessible to me, although I've long learned that even at raw restaurants I can't just stick a pin in the menu - there are so many things like bell peppers, and now maybe tomatoes, that are a problem. And the rest of my response to the experience is much more complicated - that's what I'll turn to now.

Gourmet Foods and Sensitive Tummies - What's the Culprit?


That 'almost alcoholic' comment above should have been a clue. Although I didn't eat my whole pizza or a whole serving of the dessert, I felt kind of hungover first thing yesterday. I had a green drink in the morning and then, at brunch with lots of family - brother and sister-in-law, sister and brother-in-law and her sons - I ate kelp noodles and sauerkraut that I'd picked up at the co-op, and some apple slices, so super-light.

Early afternoon, on the way home, I ate my leftovers - bit of live pizza and bits of the two desserts. And I should have remembered from earlier raw restaurant experiences that eating any of that kind of food on consecutive days doesn't work well for me. It threw me right back into a strong nauseous-hangover feeling that lasted the rest of the day! This was partly because I accidentally ate a bell pepper piece on the pizza - in the car and not being careful enough picking through, and it's really a bad idea for me. We ended up going out to town for dinner with Phil's mom and her sister (eating out three nights in a row? I don't think I've ever done that in my life before!) to a beautiful riverside restaurant recently reopened as a Vietnamese and sushi place. I ate super-light there too - a bit of lettuce from inside a summer roll, a little cup of miso soup (picking around the tofu) and a veggie roll -

I picked all the rice off, so it was just a bit of asparagus, cucumber and avocado with a bit of nori. And I actually ate that entire leaf of wasabi, with a little help from Phil, just about straight up! Had a few eye-watering moments that contributed to a hilarious evening, which began with the waiter spilling ice-water all over Phil's mom! We laughed all evening - it was sweet.

Now today, the food hangover is gone, I'm back to work, and I'm ravenous! I've been hungry all day! And this is the phenomenon that I've noticed before with gourmet raw food - I feel hungover the next day and can't eat, and then the day after, I'm starving! If the 'hungover' feeling was due to sheer excessive calories, you'd think that by the third day I'd be back to normal, not ravenous.

So, What is the Culprit?


Back in the days when I lived in the Bay Area and went to Cafe Gratitude occasionally, I was firmly in the 'high fruit/fat-phobic' camp, so of course I was sure that the feeling came from having eaten more fat than I'd eaten in a month. Nowadays, I eat almost no sugar and quite a lot of fat, so must I conclude that the hungover feeling comes from all the sugar? After all, alcohol, that causes hangovers, is a sugary thing...

I'm actually going to have to say that I think it's the combination. I also think that I was on to something when I mentioned that the chocolate cake, with the ground nuts, was more forthcoming with the 'you've had enough' signal than the creamy coconut oil/cashew creme cheesecake, which was more beguiling and 'eat more of me.' The ground nuts are closer to whole foods, I guess. I'd also add that back when I was fat-phobic, yes I ate a lot of high glycemic food, but it was all fruit - bananas and dates, not bottles of agave. I think it's the combination of rarefied, refined sweeteners, and a very lot of fat put together, that makes it borderline intoxicating to my system.

Well, shucks! Look in any honest book about treat-making and it'll tell you that lots of sweet, lots of fat, and a little salt to bring out the flavor, is the key to a wonderful dessert. Am I just going to have to accept that I'll need to keep it to a tiny taste of these treats, or not eat them at all? Actually, there's a part of me that has my gander up and really wants to pursue the making of delectable no-sugar treats. I've never had a problem with the fat by itself: without the sugar to stimulate the appetite, I simply can't eat enough of it to bother me. With all the sweet-tooths I live among, I'll have some exacting taste-testers - who will probably also not see the point, since this kind of food doesn't make them feel bad even if they eat the whole pie!

Should I pursue my no-sugar treat endeavors? Will anybody care? How do you feel after super-gourmet food?

with love...