My Favorite Bars -- Go Lower -- And They Are From England!

Update: Andrew from Carbsmart just emailed me to tell me that he now carries these Go Lower bars in the US and they are available on his site (click here to order). These get my highest endorsement!

Folks, for long-time readers, you know that I usually can't abide low carb "bars." Most of them are just filled with maltitol, and I don't know how anyone can stand the consistency let alone the after effects; gas, bloating, etc. I have taken to eating nuts. I let my kids eat the Carbwell Cereal bars because they only have 3g of maltitol, but I wish they had none.

The employees at the Go Lower company from England read my site and said that they had low carb bars that I would like. Even though they currently don't distribute in the US, they kindly sent me some to try. All I can say is, "nirvana!" These things are the absolute best!

To my readers in England, run to try these out! And for those readers in the States, join me in begging them to distribute them over here! The Brits definitely have it over the Americans in the low carb bar department! For adults who are interested in health AND good taste, I haven't seen another product that even comes close.

According to Kevin Dorren of Go Lower Limited, website located at www.golower.co.uk :

We produce a totally natural range of bars (Nut and Seeds) bound with Inulin that are doing really well in UK retailers such as Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Fresh and Wild (part of Wholefoods - the only low carb product they would stock).

For those new readers, inulin and oligofructose are fabulous sweeteners -- and very healthy -- with little or no laxative after effects. Just make sure you drink a glass of water when you eat it, because it is basically fiber. So if you see these weird sounding names on a label, these are the GOOD ingredients to see. Frankly, the inulin and oligofructose makers should create a campaign similar to the Intel Inside campaign used in computers.

There are three flavors of bars: coconut, chocolate, and raspberry (my favorite.)

I was so excited about these bars that I just had to take a picture to let everyone see the texture and the individual whole nuts in this bar! The picture doesn't depict the whole bar because I had already taken a bite and realized I had to let everyone "see" what I was eating. Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

Kids have to like all sorts of nuts to make these a favorite, and, unfortunately, few kids fall into that category. My daughter thought they were OK, son wouldn't even try them.

To me, this is the low carb bar gold standard.  I have to be very careful and buy the single serving pre-packaged nuts or I could go overboard. Nuts do have a lot of calories. This is a way to get my nuts in a more appetizing manner, with fiber, and in a single serving package.

PLEASE distribute these in the US!

	Go Lower Carb Counter Nut Bar
Serving Size	1 bar, 34g
Calories	140
Total Fat	11.5g
Saturated Fat	2.5g
Cholesterol	5mg
Sodium	20mg
Total Carbohydrates	3.7g*
Dietary Fiber	9.3g
Sugar	1g
Other Carbo	2.7g
Protein	5.8g
Ingredients	*Oligofructose Syrup, Brazil Nuts, Whole Almonds, Soya Crispies (Isolated Soy Protein, Tapioca Starch, Salt), Oats, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Linseeds, Palm Oil, Freeze Dried Raspberries (1.2%), Flavoring, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin) * Go Lower is only currently available in England and the nutritional information package rules are different. Fiber is in a separate category (AS IT SHOULD BE!) since it does not have an impact on blood sugar. That is why the total carbohydrates don't add up as it would on an American label.

Update: For those of you with a lingering question about the ingredient palm oil, Whole Foods has a great overview of Palm Oil:

A bad rap in the eighties.
As palm oil gained popularity in the U.S. in the eighties, a campaign was waged against all tropical oils—not by the scientific community or the FDA—but by American manufacturers of hydrogenated vegetable oils. Much of this negative advertising was eventually stopped, by law, but not before it successfully destroyed demand for tropical oils in this country. Ultimately, popular opinion forced U.S. food manufacturers to switch to synthetic hydrogenated oils. These hydrogenated oils are supplied, not surprisingly, by the very same companies who started the campaign against palm oil. While this was a very good deal for hydrogenated-oil manufacturers, it was a bad deal for American consumers—and a bad rap for palm oil. As a result, added palm oil tends to raise a red flag in the minds of consumers who formed strong opinions about it during that era.

Read the whole thing. Bottom line: Palm Oil isn't bad!

Another Update: Allen, a new reader but experienced low carber writes in the comment section:

A question about the Brittish labeling system. Should I read "Total Carbohydrates" as what we would call "Net Carbs"?

My answer? I think so!

Comments

[Allen]

A question about the Brittish labeling system. Should I read "Total Carbohydrates" as what we would call "Net Carbs"?

[Kevin Dorren]

Yes, the Total carbohydrates in our bars are the 'net carbs' of the US, we label fibre (fiber!) seperately. Go Lower does not deduct any carbohydrates so what you see on the packet is the total carbs in our bars.

[reindeerlady]

Thanks for posting the info about this bar, Karen! Do you have any retail source of oligiofructose syrup and inulin? I would like to take that list of ingredients and experiment with making bars of my own!
Best,
Devon

[Jimmy Moore]

I too have had the GoLower bars and would HIGHLY encourage them to seek American distribution as soon as possible. They are the absolutely BEST non-chocolate low-carb product I have ever tasted! I wrote my own review (http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.com/2005/05/have-you-tried-golower-low-carb-snacks.html) of them at my blog recently.

For you chocolate fans, GoLower also has these delicious looking brownies that are probably out of this world. I haven't tried them yet myself, but hope to do so very soon.

WE NEED GOLOWER BARS IN THE U.S. Pleeeeeeeeaaaaase!!!

[Sultana]

Hi, could you tell me if your go lower nut bar is suitable for vegeterians.

Thanks