I don’t do product reviews often, but maybe I’ll start. These are kind of fun.
I get asked about the Quest Bar all the time. Quite honestly, I’ve eaten a lot of them and tried nearly all the flavors. I owe it to you to break these down. In the process, I’ll be squashing your fantasies and kicking your dog on my way out.
Mama said to always give you the good news first. Quest bars taste great, especially relative to the other bars on the market. They are consistently kind to the buds in almost every flavor (I’m partial to the varieties which contain “chips”). They have very few ingredients and have a low calorie count for those of you into that sort of thing.
Quest bars have no sugar or sugar alcohols added. That’s good and bad. We know sugar is the enemy, and you’re well aware of the Kaplifestyle mantra, “fat doesn’t make you fat, sugar makes you fat.”
Here’s why it’s problematic. Without sugar, how are Quest Bars so damn sweet? Have a peek at the two ingredients below.
Lo han guo, also known as monk fruit, is the Chinese equivalent of stevia. Monk fruit extracts, called mogrosides, are processed and result in a powdered sweetener 200 times sweeter than sugar. You remember my post on Stevia? Something tasted artificial to me. I don’t know; it just doesn’t feel “right.”
At least that’s semi-natural. The other sweetener they use is sucralose. They use it because it is non-caloric, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to ingest it. From Wikipedia:
It is manufactured by the selective chlorination of sucrose (table sugar), which substitutes three of the hydroxyl groups with chlorine. This chlorination is achieved by selective protection of the primary alcohol groups followed by acetylation and then deprotection of the primary alcohol groups. Following an induced acetyl migration on one of the hydroxyl groups, the partially acetylated sugar is then chlorinated with a chlorinating agent such as phosphorus oxychloride, followed by removal of the acetyl groups to give sucralose.
Sounds yummy.
Natural flavors? Cryptic. Here’s a funny definition from grist.org:
Natural flavor is a catchall term for any number of (naturally derived) chemicals concocted to enhance the taste of your snack. They’re dreamed up, extracted, and blended by flavorists in labs to preserve what your food would have tasted like before it was processed, frozen, heated, pasteurized, or otherwise addled on the way to your grocery store. Even stranger, that chemical cocktail doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the food in hand. The raspberry essence in your smoothie may come from orris root; that vanilla-flavored item may get its signature spice from — I kid you not — the anal glands of a beaver.
Let’s be honest – you eat the Quest bar because you can’t find something natural that tastes like candy but provides 20 grams of protein in only 170 calories. I don’t have to tell you that this isn’t real food with ingredients that are good for you. But what good would I be if I didn’t offer you an alternative?
How about a chicken thigh for roughly 160 calories and 15 grams of protein? Toss in half an apple for another 50 calories and you have a snack with 210 calories that is made of whole foods. It will hit both your sweet and savory desires while being the true definition of natural flavors.
Mama also told me to end with some good news. Quest bars come in convenient little packages.
Why does doing things right take extra effort?
Kap
wanderedlife says
Thank you for this review! Everyone worships these bars yet I’ve always been a little skeptical towards them. Now I know I’ll just stick to my unprocessed goods.
Gabe Kapler says
Thank you for chiming in.
Tom says
Kap – speaking of sugar, you might appreciate this:
http://ruhlman.com/2014/05/on-seeing-fed-up/
Gabe Kapler says
Thank you, Tom.
Jeff Loring says
Mmmm beaver ass. Anyone up for a snack?….. Lol
Gabe Kapler says
Killing me, Jeff. Thanks.
Chad says
How do Advanced Athletics bars compare?
RyRy says
Thanks Kap! I’m ready for the Advanced Athletics breakdown as well.
Gabe Kapler says
I’ll look into the comp.
Ed H says
That stuff has like 30 ingredients including many “ites” and “ades” among several other weird things including a stevia derivative and monk fruit…. Why not just eat a boiled egg and an apple? Keep a thermal lunch bag with a ziplock of ice and you are good to go….
Ed H says
Eating has a lot of similarities to working out. Everyone is always searching for easier ways to do it while getting the same results. Both are subjects of charlatans promising the results with their simplified approaches but instead only offer a way for themselves to prosper. Eating and exercise… practice fundamentals for the best results!
Thanks Gabe for continuing to preach about the fundaments.
Gabe Kapler says
You’re like a teammate now, Ed. Thanks.
Caitlin says
I’ve known all along that quest bars were lying to me and, like Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and that I still have a chance at marrying Joe Manganiello because he isn’t married and I have read his book, these are lies I was ok going to sleep at night believing. I too have tried every flavor quest bar and when I discovered that my dream I had about the strawberry cheesecake one was in fact a reality, a tear slowly rolled down my smiling cheek as I ran to the vitamin shoppe across the street to try one. However, I am genuinely sick of people out there saying they “eat clean” and “train natural” while pouring Splenda in their crystal light with a side of diet coke and steroids and a little more aspartame to sprinkle on top. When I truly cut all that actual crap out of my life a year and a half ago (not the roids part because I enjoy being a woman and would never touch the stuff) and genuinely ate clean and natural, it honestly changed my life. I’m afraid to admit that I have indeed fallen off the wagon, but reading your articles every day have really helped me to remember that feeling I had the first time I realized that I no longer needed medication to be happy, but a truly clean diet and the gym! Cleaning out my body of all the toxins built up from over two decades of life healed me inside and out. After a bout in the hospital caused by depression, I stopped the medication, did my own research and began a vitamin regimen and change in lifestyle of what I ate and exercise and was able to wake up happy every day. Nothing really does beat the deliciousness that is real food and nature!
Ed H says
Not to sound judgmental, but I hope “vitamin regimen” means selecting foods with your targeted vitamins and not buying and ingesting supplements. My apologies if I do sound judgmental.
Caitlin says
Vitamins and supplements are completely different things. If I meant supplements I would have said that.
Ed H says
What’s your definition of vitamin? Is it a property found in food or is it a pill with everything you need to stay healthy?
Gabe Kapler says
Your commentary is always authentically you, Caitlin. Grateful.
Caitlin says
Haha. I think that’s a compliment! It’s just speaking my mind. You’re a great writer. Look forward to the follow up on your quest (get it?!) with switching your dog over to raw meat. Something I’ve always agreed with and plan to do with my future pets.
Steve says
The description of the synthesis has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not sucralose is “yummy”, and has absolutely no relevance to whether or not one would want to ingest it or its safety. It’s just a description of how it’s made. The chemicals and processes used in its manufacturing have nothing to do with the safety, taste, or really any of the properties of the final product whatsoever. The process may sound unfamiliar to the general public or anyone who doesn’t know chemistry, but that’s completely irrelevant to anything having to do with the product. Natural sugar, or water, or proteins, or any number of naturally occurring compounds can be synthesized in a lab and the synthetic steps used to make them would sound equally foreign to an untrained ear. A compound may have problems associated with ingesting it, but referencing the synthetic scheme used to make it is not actually an argument for or against anything. This is a really uninformed take – if you want to make a point, you should focus on the toxicity of sucralose itself (whatever that may be – we can’t tell from this).
Consider the following description, also from wikipedia: First, nitration of phenol with sodium nitrate gives a mixture of two isomers, from which the wanted 4-nitrophenol (bp ~93 °C) can easily be separated by steam distillation. In this electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction, the phenol oxygen is strongly activating, thus the reaction requires only mild conditions as compared to nitration of benzene itself. The nitro group is then reduced to an amine, giving 4-aminophenol. This reaction can be accomplished using sodium borohydride. Finally, the amine is acetylated with acetic anhydride.[97] The industrial process is analogous, but hydrogenation is used instead of the sodium borohydride reduction.
Does that description of the synthesis of acetaminophen (tylenol) scare you off of using it? It’s one of the most important and common medications in human history – without that synthesis, we wouldn’t have it. Maybe you’re concerned with the potential liver issues it can cause or its toxicity – that’s fine, but that’s associated with the final product, not any of the ingredients or processes that go into its production.
Similarly, your tendency towards “natural” is misleading. Uranium, lead, cyanide, ricin, tetrodotoxin (found in fugu fish), snake venom, crude oil, asbestos – all these things are naturally occuring. I’d eat sucralose or orris root or beaver anal gland before I ingest a few milligrams of any of those. Just because something is natural (produced using chemical reactions in nature) it doesn’t make it safe or beneficial (or harmful) in any way, just as just because something is artificial it doesn’t make it safe or beneficial (or harmful) in any way. It’s all a case by case basis – informing oneself about the actual risks/benefits associated with a particular food or medicine is the way to go. Broad uninformed generalizations can be dangerous.
Ed H says
If everyone ate whole, healthy food there would be no need to synthesize anything. We know we live in a world that is less than ideal and people will eat feeding their addictions, so we need to accept some less than ideal products could improve the diets of the addicted masses.
It’s not for me.
Gabe Kapler says
“Does that description of the synthesis of acetaminophen (tylenol) scare you off of using it?”
Absolutely. If I can find some time this weekend, I’ll reply to your comments in depth. In any event, I’m beyond grateful that you took the time to provide feedback. Take good care, Steve.
Kap
Steve says
Thanks for the reply – hope I didn’t come off as too antagonistic, glad you took the high road in your response. “Chemophobia” always gets my blood boiling. I look forward to a further reply and would love engaging in a discussion. Also I’m a huge baseball fan so I’m mildly freaking out that you responded to me.
I was trying to make the point that the synthesis shouldn’t scare anyone off, since the synthesis has no effect on the properties of the final compound. This particular synthesis, in fact, primarily uses compounds that are found in nature – phenol, sodium nitrate, hydrogen, platinum or a similar metal – and are thus “natural”. Mixing them together in a particular order shouldn’t give anyone pause.
Chris says
Aren’t you missing the point though? Gabe isn’t promoting eating everything that is natural, he’s promoting natural things that will have a positive impact on the body. Whether or not it’s “safe” is not the question.
Andrew says
I would add that it’s virtually impossible to overcook chicken thighs, so you can start them beforehand and go do your workout (or anything else). Unlike breast meat, chicken thighs take to high heat really well without drying out; I cook mine at 450F for 30-40 minutes. If you salt the skin liberally beforehand, it’ll crisp up (almost) as nicely as if you’d fried it, so you can also mostly satiate that fried-crunchy craving, too.
Ed H says
Gabe: You should have your WordPress guy (or gal) add “like” buttons on comments so I can “like” this comment without adding a reply.
RyRy says
Like
Gabe Kapler says
Like.
dbreer23 says
Me gusta…
Colt says
Like
dbreer23 says
Gotta admit, I had never heard of Quest bars before this article…think I’ll stick with Clif bars (which I know have their own disadvantages).
Gabe Kapler says
But damn, they’re tasty.
Aubrey says
Love your blog but sent this review to my brother (who loves his quest bars) and he advised the following: Unfortunately this seems to be using some pseudo-science buzz words like “synthesized” as well as chemical breakdowns to indicate something bad without providing reasoning or any scientific explanation for it. “I don’t know; it just doesn’t feel ‘right'” isn’t exactly sound reasoning.
Mogrosides have been found to have many benefits and no adverse side effects, while sucralose’s negative effects were possible insulin elevation at incredibly high doses. Studies have been mixed on the subject. It’s very easy to say “natural good; artificial bad,” when in reality artificial options can be perfectly safe and suitable replacements for people looking for quick meal replacements on the run. Just my 2 cents!
Gabe Kapler says
Aubrey, “I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel right” wasn’t meant to be sound reasoning at all, rather totally my experience. The reasoning is that processed foods tend in general are less recognizable to the human body. Evolution provided us with taste buds that are supposed to help us navigate the natural food environment. Our bodies get confused by artificial sweeteners. “In a world without artificial sweeteners, a taste of something sweet preps the brain and the gut for digestion of incoming calories. When the calories don’t show, as happens with artificial sweeteners, those metabolic responses don’t fire the way they should. Insulin doesn’t increase; hormones that increase the feeling of fullness and satisfaction aren’t triggered; and the brain doesn’t get a feeling of reward from the dopamine that sugars release. After a while, Swithers said, it’s like the mouth keeps crying wolf, and the brain and gut stop listening. As a result, when real sugar and real calories come along, the body doesn’t respond to them as strongly as it normally might. Calories don’t end up making you feel as full as they should. They aren’t as rewarding. So you don’t get the signals that might stop you from eating when you should.”
Thanks for chiming in, Kap.
Sarah Stanley says
I can’t stand Quest Bars because the deceptive marketing they use. Many of the bars are made with Sucralose- an artificial sugar! AHH! Not what the body needs. Quest is also under a lawsuit for false information. Quest Bars are not real food. The ingredients are all fake. See link below for some real food bar options- that taste wonderful too!
There are plenty of bars to buy, eat and support besides some gimmick. A few of my favorites: http://sarahstanleyinspired.com/5-energy-bars-to-buy-eat-support/
xo