PowerBar is leaping into the low carb food arena with its Carbselect Pria bars that are full of nutrition and low carb as well. They're not half bad!

These aren't chocolate bar replacements - they're more like breakfast bars, loaded with Vitamin C, Folates, Zinc, Copper, etc. They actually supply good vitamins to you while giving you flavors like Cookies n' Caramel.

There are only 2g net carbs but with only another 2g of fiber in there, there is a whopping 18g of sugar alcohols. These come in the form of maltitol syrup. Some people don't have problems with maltitol while others have serious issues. This would be a good bar to try once at home and watch for results, before you try it out in an office meeting.

The bar itself is resaonably tasty. I went through two of them (on different days) without really giving much thought to them. I suppose they weren't good enough for me to go back and buy boxes of them. The volume of maltitol in there is what's giving me pause.

There are 170 calories per bar, and 4g saturated fat out of 7g total.

Low carb diets recommend eating adequate healthy meals 3-4 times a day so the idea of a 'breakfast bar' really isn't a good one in low carb terms. If you enjoy this as a mid-day snack, you'll get some extra nutrients as a bonus! But again, test your reactions first.


Lisa Shea's Library of Low Carb Books