If you have any health-oriented friends on Facebook, I’m sure they’ve been filling your feed with photos of them proudly holding an RX Bar and proclaiming how thrilled they are at its simple, natural ingredients. Many people rave about these and many people absolutely hate them. Most notably, the Food Babe has decried their ingredients list and marketing as misleading and toxic. As a general rule, I don’t listen to anything Food Babe says since she has no nutritional education whatsoever and her concerns are rarely if ever based on actual science. See this article here for more on that.

Given all the love it or hate it out there on these bars, I wanted to give you my take on them as a certified health coach and human who likes food.

Ingredients/Nutrition

I am all for simple, short ingredients lists and these bars deliver on that. However, short simple ingredients does not a healthful food make. While these bars do not contain added sugars, they still contain dates as a sweetener and a binding agent. In fact, these are listed as the first ingredient. Looking at the different flavors, the amount of sugar in them ranges from 13 grams to a whopping 17 grams! These are not a low-sugar snack and their stickiness really underscores that. That being said, they are a great source of fiber and protein which help slow the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream. However, I wouldn’t make this a staple of your daily diet.

Some critics (cough cough Food Babe cough cough) will say that these bars are poison because their ingredients are not organic and may be genetically modified…….. if you know me you know that my eyebrow went way up at this. Yes, organic is always preferable  but it is unreasonable in today’s world to expect everything to contain small-scale, completely unprocessed, entirely organic ingredients, especially if you are eating a food that comes with a wrapper. I would much rather have you eat a snack bar made with whole food ingredients (like these) than chips or cookies made with trans fats and preservatives.

Texture/Flavor

As I alluded to above, these bars are STICKY. Like hillbilly Halloween costume smile after a few bites sticky. They’re similar in texture to a Larabar….but stickier. Given their stickiness and sugar content, these could be a good money maker for your dentist if you eat them frequently.

As for flavor, the only one I truly like is the Coconut Chocolate flavor. It tastes like coconut and chocolate, what’s not to like? The other flavors are not so good. I’ve heard this same exact thing from a number of people as well. The date flavor tends to come through and doesn’t always play well with the other flavors. It’s all about personal preference though.

Satiety

RX bars contain just over 200 calories per bar so they’re not at a meal replacement level. However, given their high protein and fiber amounts, they will fill you up and keep you feeling satisfied for a while. To me, those are two great things to look for in a snack, not too many calories and long-term satiety.

Conclusion

There are definitely some texture and flavor issues with RX Bars, but if you don’t mind those, they’re not a bad option for a snack. While I wouldn’t recommend eating them every day or regularly, they are a solid occasional snack and are definitely a better option than reaching for some cookies or chips. They contain far more nutrition than most prepackaged snack foods and are missing the troublesome ingredients that prepackaged snacks often have, such a artificial colors and flavors, preservatives, trans fats, and added sugars. Having some fruit or veggies or nuts is definitely a healthier snack option, but these will do on the go or in a pinch. The key here, as with most things, is balance and moderation.