Adapt and Primal Kitchen Bars

Edition: 2017-06-10

Quest Nutrition	Primal Kitchen	Adapt Keto

Introduction

I no longer recommend Quest bars (although in the interest of full disclosure, two Quest bars were purchased as props in support of this article  I do keep an eye on the nutrition bar market, and in the recent past, two brands have become available that are interesting:

• Mark Sisson’s Primal Kitchen Bars
• Eric Westman’s AdaptBar(s)

These bars are low net carb (the original Adapt bars are full-on ketogenic), and have fewer troubling ingredients than Quest. I’m using Quest as a reference here because it is likely to be familiar to readers in terms of price, size, taste, texture and nutritional profile.

Primal Kitchen bars overview

There are now four flavors. These products (and the Adapt Protein bars) might the closest to a safe meal replacement bar presently on the market. They also include 6 or 9 grams of Fiber, presumably mostly IMO, and thus provide ¼ of the day’s suggested prebiotic fiber in the Wheat Belly and Cureality programs.

These are available on the web from multiple sources, including Sisson’s own site (Dark Chocolate Almond, Coconut Cashew). The bars in the photo above were obtained at a retail in a regional Whole Foods store.

The product page linked above has a generous although not exhaustive FAQ for the ingredients.

As you can see from the photo, the nut chunks in the Dark Chocolate Almond flavor are prominent. Despite a recent reformulation (unless the bars I bought on 2016-05-23 were old stock), they are also still quite chewy, and I would not recommend them for anyone with dentures or loose fillings. On the other hand, I consider extra chewyness (in low carb foods) beneficial for children.

I find that these bars have a very pleasant and non-candy like taste (probably due to the collagen). I also find them satisfying. The only objectionable ingredient is the honey, and their FAQ, although it disclaims HFCS dilution, neglects to address what the hive is fed to replace the harvested honey. In any event, there’s less than 3 grams of sugars per bar.

Adapt Keto overview

This information is about the original Adapt Bars, now called Keto Bars. I have not yet tried any of the new Adapt Protein Bars, but they’ll be the next bars I order, and I’ll update this article at that time.

The original bars may be the only ketogenic bars easily available on the US market. They are small (20 grams), at ¹⁄₃ the weight of a Quest bar (and the main reason why I included the photo). Note that the carton quantity is an atypical 15 bars. They are also (and originally) available in South Africa.

Adapt suspends sales of this product during the summer, due to melting in transit. They tried cold packs in 2016, but that apparently didn’t solve the problem. Whether they will reformulate to address this, and what it all implies for any eventual storefront sales, is unknown to me.

There are four flavors available at the moment. So far as I’ve been able to discover, the bars are (in the US) only available from Westman’s Adapt Your Life web site (store page). I am only considering the standard bars here, and not the kid’s bars or the “Shots”. The FAQ page is here, but it doesn’t really address product formulation.

The only objectionable ingredient is the sunflower lecithin, an emulsifier and suspect microbiome antagonist. Note that there is only 1 gram of Fiber.

Due to the coconut content, all of the flavors taste at least a bit coconutty, so if you don’t like coconut, these aren’t for you. Also, due to the fats used, they have a low melting point, and will easily melt in your hand.

As regards the small size, although one might be tempted to conclude that they sized them to hit an under $2/bar price point, I think it more likely that they are sized to satisfy, which they do.

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Bob Niland [disclosures] [topics]