eDiets Breakfast Review: Peanut Butter Bar

by Marianne Plunkert                                   

Overall rating:  4.0 out of 5.0

Meal Description and Cooking Instructions

The eDiets breakfast entrée substitution list includes a couple of different types of nutrition bars.  In the interest of reviewing as many different types of entrées as possible, I decided to choose the Peanut Butter Bar breakfast entrée to replace a meal I had had on my menu in a previous week.

The peanut butter bar that I received was a Solo low-glycemic nutrition bar—the same Solo bar that you can find on the shelves of many grocery stores.  Like all nutrition bars, it required no preparation of any sort—all I had to do was tear open the wrapper and enjoy it.

Peanut Butter Bar

I was instructed to augment the breakfast entrée with a serving of dairy, however, so I opted to have some nonfat, plain Greek yogurt with my peanut butter bar.

My General Impressions

I had a very active morning planned, so I was hoping that the peanut butter bar would tide me over until lunch.  As I was eating it, it seemed more filling than the muffins I had had for breakfast on a couple of the days I’ve been on this diet. 

I have sometimes packed along a nutrition bar to eat on the run on a day when I knew I wasn’t going to have time for lunch.  I haven’t cared for some of the different ones I’ve tried, so now I always rely on a couple of tried-and-true favorites. I had never before tried Solo, but I’m now adding it to my “favorites” list.

The Solo peanut butter bar had a rich chocolate coating and tasted as good as many of the candy bars I sometimes enjoy.  I felt like I was eating dessert.  It had a slight crunchiness that I found satisfying.  Some other nutrition bars seem to me to be lacking in substance.

Nutritional Content

The Solo peanut butter bar does not provide for a low-fat breakfast.  Thirty-five percent of its 200 calories are from fat.  The bar contains 13 grams of protein and 23 grams of carbohydrates, with 3 grams of fiber and a whopping 15 grams of sugars. 

It has a lot of nutrients, however.  It supplies 10% of the recommended daily average doses of Vitamins A, C, D, E, K, B₆, B₁₂, riboflavin, iodine, copper, niacin, biotin, manganese, pantothenic acid, zinc, chromium, thiamin, selenium, and molybdenum.  It also provides 15% of the recommended daily intakes of magnesium and phosphorus, 20% of folate and calcium, and 8% of iron.

There are no fruit or vegetable components to this meal.  The nonfat yogurt I supplied provided me with a full serving of dairy, however.

Food Rating/Quality

I am giving this Solo peanut butter bar a rating of “4.”  I have tried a number of nutrition bars and haven’t liked many of them.  This ranks among the best.  It was very tasty and filling.  I wasn’t hungry again until lunch time, and I had spent the morning running errands and playing two hours of pickleball.

The big negative for me is the high sugar content of this particular nutrition bar.  Fifteen grams of sugar is 75% of the maximum daily sugar intake that the American Heart Association recommends a woman have.