With all of the food bars on the market for athletes, it’s important for a company to have a great blend of nutrients and flavors. For those who follow a paleo diet, the options may be more limited. I recently tried AMRAP Nutrition’s Bars, which might just fit the bill if you follow a paleo diet.
About AMRAP
AMRAP Nutrition is a company dedicated to providing quality bars with a focus on the CrossFit community. CrossFitters frequently follow the paleo diet and also undertake a workout that demands quality nutrition.
The bars are each based on nuts, fruits, and simple sweeteners and flavors like honey and cinnamon. Each bar also gets a protein boost from egg white protein to supplement the protein from the nuts.
Each of the three flavors has a fair amount of fats, since nuts are a major ingredient. As such, the bars also have a fair number of calories, making them great for workout recovery and for people trying to build muscle. They might not be ideal if you’re trying to lose weight.
The Flavors
Almond & Honey
These bars have a warm, nutty flavor that is sweet but not too sweet. The flavor you will notice the most is the cinnamon, which you may find to be too strong if you’re not a big cinnamon fan. Overall, the flavor is what you might expect, given the name. This bar has only a moderate amount of sugar at fifteen grams and an equal amount of protein. It also boasts the highest fiber content of the three flavors, with five grams.
Cashew & Vanilla
Like the Almond & Honey, the Cashew & Vanilla flavor has a warm flavor, but this bar is only lightly sweet. Personally, I find that more appealing. It is a nutty vanilla flavor, and it goes down easy. A major flaw in most bars of this type is an over-reliance on honey or vanilla (or both) for flavor and sweetness, but I found the balance of flavor in this bar to be surprisingly good. Consistency-wise, the bar is not too sticky, loose, or chewy. I found this to be the case with all the bars I tried, in fact. This flavor also has the least amount of sugar at fourteen grams, but also the least fiber and protein (at three grams and fourteen grams, respectively).
Fig & Cacao
These were the sweetest tasting of the bars due to their date base. This bar had an odd flavor I couldn’t put my finger on. The date base had a lot of natural fig taste to it, which is much better than the normal sugary date flavor. Although there were cocao nibs in the bar, they didn’t impart much flavor. This bar is stickier and slightly chewier than the other bars. At 22 grams of sugar, it’s no wonder that this one is the sweetest. However, it has the same amount of protein as the first flavor, with fifteen grams.
Downsides
The bars didn’t have many downsides. Since concentrated protein is one of the ingredients in each bar, some people may not consider the bars to actually be paleo. That’s not a particularly crippling downside, but it could be a factor in your buying decision.
The bars are also a little pricey. At $3.75 a bar, they certainly aren’t priced out of their market, but if you’re on a budget, you might want to set aside funds to spare for a product like this. If you’re good to go after all your nutrition is taken care of, this could be a great snack for any athlete.
Out of all the flavors, the Cashew & Vanilla was the standout. Of the many health food bars I’ve tried that are directed at athletes, the Cashew & Vanilla is one of the better flavored and textured bars I’ve had. With a good balance of nutrients, these bars are great for athletes to enjoy as a snack or to refuel between workouts.
AMRAP Nutrition Bars are available for $29.97 for eight bars at AMRAPNutrition.com.
