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 By: Matt Canning
PowerBar is a great company for nutrition bars, and some of their other products include 'PowerBars', 'Protein Plus Bars', and 'Triple Threat Crisp Bars'. Pria bars are another particularly delicious bar from PowerBar. It is nutritious, but it is also a snack. Each bar contains 3.5 grams of fat, 2.0 grams of saturated fat, 16 grams of carbs, 10 grams of sugars, 1.0 grams of dietary fiber, and 5.0 grams of protein, as well as a myriad of vitamins and minerals in each bar. Some of the vitamins and minerals include antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E. Each bar is relatively low in sodium with only 85 mg of sodium per bar, and also includes other essential nutrients such as calcium, folic acid, and iron which will help your body to stay strong and healthy.
At 110 calories per bar, the bars are great for a quick energy boost, although one would want to eat a little more than that if they are seeking a full meal. For people on the run, one bar may be sufficient in curtailing hunger pangs temporarily, but more calories are in order for someone seeking a complete bodybuilding meal. These bars are a great component of that meal though.
What I mean by that is that it was somewhat like a snack, but for those familiar with what health supplements taste like, you will recognize a distinct taste unique among energy bars, much like nitric oxide drinks have a distinct taste as well. This taste/aftertaste is not particularly enjoyable, but it didn't bother me that much and I look at Pria Bars more as snack bars than as health bars given how they taste. They are crunchy and delicious and a normal person might not even realize they are consuming a healthful treat when eating Pria Bars.
  Click Image To Enlarge.It Was Somewhat Of A Snack.
Another consideration that people will pay special attention to is price. At $11.89 for a box of 15, the cost per bar works out to a lowly $0.79 each, which is pretty well the lowest price among energy bars that you will find - and I encourage you to shop around and try to find the lowest prices possible. Overall I am definitely satisfied with Pria Bars and look forward to including them more regularly in my bodybuilding diet in the time to come.
Protein bars and related energy bars are a great supplement to include as a part of your bodybuilding or general health diet because they can provide all of the essential vitamins, minerals, and calories required for fitness goals and do so in a convenient snack form which is almost the same as eating a candy bar. With that in mind, there will be numerous considerations you will want to keep in mind before selecting one, if you choose to select one at all. To me, a primary consideration is the caloric breakdown and overall nutritional content. You want to select a bar which provides nutrition which is in line with your particular fitness goals, whatever they may happen to be.
 Click Image To Enlarge.A Primary Consideration Is The Caloric Breakdown And Overall Nutritional Content. If you are bulking up, you will not be too concerned with the specific breakdown of calories, but if you are cutting, you may want a bar which contains a lower quantity of carbohydrates. Promax bars claim to be the best tasting bar on the market. It contains the same type of protein found in the Promax formula, which is a high biological value (BV) protein that aids in the process of protein synthesis. There are a myriad of companies on the market, creating a myriad of energy bars to choose from, so the goal of any particular company will be to make its bar stand out.
Other considerations include price of course, and all of these will be considered in the review to follow.
Promax claims that "The Promax Bar has been elevated to "candy bar" status by many consumers because of the great taste, but we would like to emphasize that this is a high protein bar, designed for the hard working individual." I would tend to agree with this claim, although I would say there are a few bars that are closer to being a candy bar than the Promax bars, although they are quite good, and very close to being the best example of this status, although a few bars I have tried came a little closer.
I would tend to agree with the claims by Promax that the texture is quite good. High protein bars sometimes have uneven textures, but the Promax bars are quite good in this area. Although I only tried the Cookies 'n Cream flavor, here are the other flavors the Promax bars come in:
I do wish bars like this would sometimes keep it a little more simple, since I don't want to spend hours or even days researching ingredients before consuming a product, although it is a habit that I think comes in handy and that everyone should be willing to have if need be. That said, I do think the Promax nutritional content is better than most. As for the cost, a box of 12 can be yours for $13.99 which is a low price compared to other bars, working out to only $1.17 per bar, or 240 calories for $1, which is definitely pretty good as far as health supplements go, and particularly good as far as energy bars are concerned.
Protein bars are a good supplement to include in your diet if you are looking for a snack item which also meets all of the criteria for a healthy diet. AllMax Nutrition has come out with "WaferPro Bars", which are a great addition to the protein bar lineup available on the market today.
A "BIG TURK" candy bar, by comparison, has three grams of fat (one gram of which is saturated), 50 grams of carbohydrates (35 grams of which are sugar), and one gram of protein. It additionally contains 0 cholesterol and 20 mg of sodium. Here is this information in the table below:
The WaferPro bar contains seven times the amount of sodium as the Big Turk bar, and less sugar, but still has a whopping 15 grams of it. There are more carbs in the BIG TURK bar, with twice the quantity, and obviously a lot less protein, but the saturated fat, sugar, and sodium content of the WaferPro bar are high, and the protein content is not particularly impressive. I know the comparison above does not seem very favorable for the WaferPro bars, but the high protein content and low carbohydrate content should be emphasized. WaferPro bars still have enough protein in them to be worth it for me to eat them, just not quite the other qualities which I generally look for.
So since the comparison taste-wise to candy is reasonable, the comparison in terms of caloric breakdown makes sense too. Again, I need to emphasize that the WaferPro bars did not compare evenly to BIG TURK bars, but just had some unfavorable qualities when shown side-by-side, at least relative to other protein bars on the market. That said, WaferPro bars are in all probability the best tasting protein bar I have ever tried, so that is worth it to me. They tasted like a candy bar, and had the texture of one too. This is one protein bar that I would barely even think is a health supplement if I didn't otherwise know it. Even specifically looking for certain tastes common amongst health bars, I did not notice any, so WaferPro bars really, REALLY pass the test for taste and quality. I tried both delicious flavors: chocolate peanut butter, and white chocolate peanut butter, and they were both fantastic.
Although those with peanut allergies do need to be mindful of the ingredients, which do include Peanut Butter (Dry Roasted Peanuts, Hydrogenated Cottonseed, Rapeseed Oil, Salt, TBHQ, Citric Acid), in both flavors.
That said, nutritional content is very important to me, and WaferPro bars are high in saturated fat, sugar, and sodium, at least compared to other bars on the market. This is definitely not a good thing to me, although that is the consequence of a bar being produced which tastes as amazing as this one - truly like a candy bar. Additionally, the price is reasonable at $14.99 for a box of 12, which works out to $1.25 per bar, which is pretty good, and definitely competitive compared to other bars.
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