It's new and its gnu: the flavor and fiber bar from Gnu foods. We recently got to sample these high fiber – and of course trans fat free – bars and we're sharing the results of our experience with you!
 

The Gnu bars

Gnu bars currently come in four flavors: cinnamon raisin, banana walnut, orange cranberry and chocolate brownie. Each variety is only 130 calories, except for the brownie, which is a very reasonable 140. Doing Weight Watchers? Gnu has you covered – each bar is 2 Weight Watchers points.

Their gnu bars are incredibly high fiber, low fat and sweetened only with fruit juice (no high fructose corn syrup). The folks at Gnu also use organic whole wheat flour and their recipes are vegan and Kosher.

How much fiber? Each bar packs a walloping 12 grams of fiber (9 grams soluble, 3 grams insoluble) – almost half the recommended daily fiber allowance for most people. Already using a fiber supplement? You'd have to drink four 8-ounce glasses of Metamucil or eat four of the Metamucil cinnamon fiber wafers to get that much fiber, and those have added refined sugar or chemical sweeteners.

The small amount of fat in Gnu foods' bars comes from canola oil (and in the case of the banana walnut, also from the nuts). They are trans fat free and have a very reasonable 3 grams of fat.  

Why is fiber so important?

In case you haven't heard (perhaps you've been under a rock for the last decade), fiber is an incredibly important part of a healthy diet. What's so great about fiber?
* Fiber helps lower blood cholesterol levels; that means it helps to keep your heart healthy
* Fiber helps things, ahem, keep moving in your digestive tract. A healthy digestive system needs fiber to function
* Fiber satisfies you. Foods that are high in fiber take longer to digest; this means you are not immediately hungry again after eating. For those trying to lose weight or maintain a weight loss, a high fiber diet is natural assistance. This slower digestion process has also been shown to have some benefit for diabetics.  

Who is Gnu?

Gnu is a small East coast company, specializing in natural, healthy foods. You can find them online at www.gunufoods.com. They also sell their flavor and fiber bars through the Vitamin Shoppe (across the country), Balducci's, Stew Leonard's, Fairway Market's and Mrs. Green's retailers. Select Whole Foods locations also stock the bars. Don't have any of these retailers nearby? You can also order directly from Gnu via their web site.  

Gnu Review

So, they're really healthy and low calorie and low fat and all those good things. But, the really important thing is – How do they taste?

The fine folks at Gnu were kind enough to provide samples for us and here are our tasting notes.

Chocolate Brownie Gnu: Of course we had to start with the chocolate brownie bar. It was moist, rich, dense and chewy. We were excited that it didn't have any of the dry "chewing on hay" mouth feel that some high fiber products on the market offer. Delicious. This was a treat.

The little one in our household thought it was almost "too" chocolatey, but we maintain there is no such thing. She ate half of it, nonetheless. (Harumph. There went my bar.)

Cinnamon Raisin: Next we tested the cinnamon raisin. Wow. This is like a chewy oatmeal raisin cookie of the very best kind. Yum. The little one (who also claims not to like raisins) ate half my bar again. Four thumbs up on this one.

Banana Walnut: Ooh. Like good banana bread, the banana walnut is moist and chewy, flavorful and fresh tasting.

We haven't tried the Orange Cranberry yet, but will as soon as we can get a judge who actually likes orange flavored things to co-taste. We don't want to bias the results with our orange-disliking gang here.

The only downsides to the Gnu bars? I did have to get a piece of dental floss in one instance for a piece of fiber that got lodged in my teeth, but they didn't feel fibery when I was eating them. And, I can't buy them anywhere that I regularly shop for such things (if they were at Trader Joe's, we'd be really hooked!).

So, we highly and emphatically recommend the Gnu bars for those looking for healthy snacks or those who are looking for a way to work some extra fiber into their diets.