Tag Archives: energy bar

Watermelon Seeds — Not Just For Spitting

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Forca Foods wants you to energize with watermelon seeds.
Forca Foods wants you to energize with watermelon seeds.

If all you’ve ever done with watermelon seeds is pile them off to the side of a plate or spit them with gusto to see how far they’d fly, Forca Foods wants to convince you to do something entirely different: Eat them.

Its Forca Foods Energy Bites are made from watermelon seeds. In fact, they’re the first of only five ingredients used to make these one-bite cubes. The other ingredients are dates, oats, maple syrup, and fruit or coffee, depending on the variety.

Company Founder Guilherme Maia Silva studied plant sciences at the University of California at Davis, where he wondered why we were making snacks out of such water-intensive crops and ingredients as almonds, walnuts, and dairy. It’s a question that’s only gotten more attention now that California is in yet another year of deep drought.

So, a year ago, he launched his snack that’s centered around watermelon seeds, which, he says, use 94 percent less water than pistachios, 78 percent less water than almonds, and 11 percent less water than dairy. Not only that, watermelon seeds also contain iron, zinc, magnesium, and potassium.

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Bright Bar — A Different Kind of Energy Bar

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Not your typical energy bar. Bright Bars taste like real food.
Not your typical energy bar. Bright Bars taste like real food.

I’ve had my share of energy bars, but I’ve never had one quite like Bright Bar.

Unlike so many others, it’s not rubbery, nor cookie- or candy-like. Instead, it’s like shredded fruits and veggies packed and held together in bar form. The bars are a whole lot less sweet tasting than others, and actually taste like real food.

The Los Angeles company was founded by Brenden Schaefer, an avid cyclist and yogi, who was looking for a good-tasting, good-for-you snack bar. When he couldn’t find one to his liking, he decided to create his own, made with organic produce.

He likens the products, which are also vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free, to cold-pressed juice, but in bar form.

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A Different Kind of Energy Snack

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Sesame seeds, maple syrup and seaweed make up this energy snack.

Sesame seeds, maple syrup and seaweed make up this energy snack.

 

So many energy bars these days are glorified candy bars.

As much as I love chocolate and sweets, I do try to look for actual nutrition in the bars that I always stash in my purse or carry-on for when I need a boost of peppiness.

That’s why I was glad to have discovered Maple Chewnami Nibbles on the shelves of the adorable Elk Store in the teeny town of Elk, during a stopover on the coast.

Yes, these snack bars have a crazy name. And even crazier ingredients: kelp and sesame seeds — all held together with maple syrup and brown rice syrup. That’s all there is to them. They are gluten-free, too.

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