Core Foods Review

I’m always a skeptic when it comes to “bars,” as in the energy/nutritional supplement/meal replacement variety. One look at the label and I’m transported into ingredient mayhem. Fake ingredients parade as healthy ones, added sugars galore and the list goes on. So, when Core Foods sent me a sample variety pack of their Core Defender Meals, a raw, vegan, high fiber, organic, gluten-free performance meal for athletes, I was equally skeptical. But for the sake of this Core Foods review, I wanted to try them. 

Even though the label listed minimal whole ingredients, I shoved them into the freezer (the recommended way to store them for maximum freshness) until I could investigate.

The Claim 

Core Meals combine optimal proportions of complex carbs, healthy fats and lean protein from seven raw, organic whole food ingredients. Together, they create a four-hour foundation of stable energy. I love that they do the thinking for you and the bars are portable for travel.

There are two kinds of bars:

• High-fiber Defender Meals (these are the ones that I sampled) 
• High-protein Warrior Meals (not vegan, they contain Whey protein)

My Core Foods Review

After an 8 mile long run from my Half Marathon training plan, I was rushing to get ready for a meeting. However, I knew I needed to eat something. I remembered the Core Foods bar, grabbed it from the freezer and set it out to defrost for 10 minutes while I showered.

After my first hesitant bite, I was a pleasantly surprised. The bars are dense, they taste good and aren’t overly sweet. Each bar (choose from Raw Walnut Banana, Raw Almond Raisin or Raw Cashew Cacao) container five or six whole ingredients like oats, almonds, raisins, banana, walnuts, cashews, cacao flax and spices. No strange or hard-to-pronounce ingredients. And truth be told, these bars kept me more satisfied for a long time. In fact, longer than a regular bowl of oatmeal.

There are three ways to use the bars for performance fueling:

• Pre-workout – eat a bar 30 minutes before key training sessions to increase energy 
• Endurance fuel – eat during endurance competitions for sustained energy
• Post-workout – eat 10 minutes after a protein shake to fuel muscle recovery

Eat 1 bar, drink 2 glasses of water and you’ve got yourself the equivalent of a bowl of oatmeal.

If you live on the West Coast, you’ll find Core Foods at Whole Foods. On the East Coast, they’ll be I stores soon. Until then, a box of 10 meals costs $39.99 online at www.corefoods.com.

Core Foods is a not-for-profit company.