Where to begin... OK. Let me start a few months back, when I tried my first Quest bar. It was Vanilla and Almond and I REALLY didn't like it. I thought it was too hard, too chewy, and too sweet.
I made a post on facebook about how disappointed I was and, within minutes, BAAAAAM! dozens and dozens of people took to the thread to comment about how Quest bars are the best protein bars on earth. A lot of OMGs ensued, followed by "you NEED to microwave the bars!"and "you MUST try another flavor!" But, after my first experience with Quest bars, I just wasn't that convinced. They just didn't do what
my Protein Pow bars do to me: they didn't set off a huge cascade of nommage.
But the aforementioned facebook thread grew and grew and passions rose to an unprecedented high with people proclaiming an undying LOVE for Quest bars. I thought, "Zeus! What is this!?" So I decided to try Quest's other flavors. And I did. I got a box full of bars - a sample pack of sorts - and, there, I found two favorites.
The first bar I tried and loved was their Banana Nut bar. I was so impressed! It tasted of banana nut muffins! It was crunchy yet soft and... ah, it was absolutely delicious. I tried the rest of the bars in the box and there were high and lows - some bars I REALLY liked - like the Mixed Berry ones! Others I REALLY didn't - like the Vanilla & Almond and the Lemon ones.
After a few days of going through the bars though, my box was empty so I bought a couple more boxes of my favorite flavor bars from
Predator Nutrition (Quest's exclusive UK distributor). And boy, did I enjoy them! Especially toasted,
they're magical! Crunchy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. Like a delicious intergalactic cake :-D I recommend you try them. You can
get there here if you're in the UK and
here if you're in the US.
Every time I ate a bar though, I wondered about their secret formula. I tried to dissect the bars in my mind while reading their ingredients' list. I'd chew the bar slowly while carefully chewing over various ideas regarding their making and composition. I thought about them a LOT. Why? Because there's nothing like them in the market! I mean, they're incredibly low in (net) carbs (about 4g), very high in fiber (18g) and remarkably high in protein (24g). How could it be!?
I tried to make a few similar 'uncoated' bars but could never come remotely close to Quest's. I used a lot of the same ingredients they did, except... well, I didn't use Isomalto-oligosaccharides (IMO)- an ingredient that I noticed ALL Quest bars contain. I tried to get some IMO but it proved almost impossible to source the stuff! UNTIL I stumbled on
bioneutra.ca - a Canadian company that sources IMO to wholesalers ;-)
What's so special about IMO? Well, IMO binds all ingredients together and retains moisture like nothing else does! It also changes composition dramatically when it's heated as opposed to when it drops below room temperate. It's a fascinating ingredient, it really is. And, as it turns out, an essential ingredient to making Quest-like protein bars.
I've made quite a few bars using IMO. These chocolate ones here were pretty sweet! I WAS going to use ground nuts, like Quest do, for a texture that isn't as dominated by the whey's stickiness. But I wanted to see whether using whey alone would work and, guess what? It does ;-) Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
2 tsps of
VitaFiber™(IMO)
1 tsp of Walden Farms sugar-free pancake syrup
1 scoop of chocolate whey protein pow
1 tsp of cocoa powder
Directions
First, heat up the liquid IMO in a pot until bubbles start to form. Once this happens, add the syrup and mix it. Then, add the whey and cocoa until you get a sort of sticky dough. Remove the whole thing from the heat and mold it with your hands into a bar. Press this bar onto a silicone brownie tray and stick it in the fridge for an hour so it sets. Done.
Let me walk you through the process of how I went about making them because it's pretty interesting. OK. I figured that the IMO had to be heated up first because the bars change texture very dramatically depending on whether they're heated up (microwaved, or toasted) or eaten in a cold environment. They go from soft and sticky to extremely hard. So I heated up the IMO and then added in all the stuff. At first the mix is really sticky but as it cools it behind to set! Until a proper bar is formed. Macro-wise, my bar probably amounted to mostly protein, a small amount of fat (from the whey and the cocoa), virtually no carbs, and a LOT of fiber. I'll add in the macro breakdown when I get the IMO stats re its carb/fib content in gs.
Now, here's a Q&A so I can deal with what I foresee are some questions you may have about IMO:
Q & A
1.
Q: You mention that you got your IMO from a Canadian wholesaler. But where can I - a regular consumer - get IMO from? A:
Bioneutra.ca will soon open an online shop to enable anyone in North America to get some IMO! In Europe, OZ, and NZ, however, IMO has yet to gain full regulatory approval. Either way, I predict IMO will sart selling commercially pretty soon. I'll keep you posted though and, as soon as it does, I'll share with you the intel through
The Protein Pow Newsletter!
2.
Q: Anna, now that you've dabbled into the world of these kind of bars, would you say they're better than your Protein Bar Bars? A: No. I wouldn't. I wouldn't because I think my bars are far more nutritious in the long run - they contain more regular ingredients and less (or no) artificial sweeteners and/or 'artificial flavorings'. Sure, my bars higher in kcals and not as low carb, but they feature a lot of natural ingredients (including fresh fruit and even veg!) and pack a hefty punch of antioxidant, vitamin, and mineral goodness. Don't believe me? Get
my Protein Bar Ebook and try the bars in it. They can't be beat! They're easy to make, feature basic fresh ingredients, and they're nom nom nom: delicious. Make them. Make them and compare them then to ANY store-bought bars. You'll see what I mean.
3.
Q: Could you tell me more about isomalto-oligosaccharides, or IMO? A: Ah, yes. IMO is a prebiotic fiber used as a food ingredient that is completely devoid of vitamins, minerals, fats, and proteins. It's basically comprised of '
digestion resistant carbs' i.e. carbs that 'go right through ya' ;-) IMO can be found - in veeery small quantities - in honey, miso, sake and soy sauce. IMO has a caloric value of 2.4kcals per gram. Flavor wise, IMO has a relative sweetness level that's 60% that of sucrose.
4.
Q: But what IS it? A: It is a "mixture of glucose oligomers with alpha (1-6) linkages" (
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/gmf-agm/appro/isomalto-oligosaccharide-eng.php).
Precisely, "Isomalto-oligosaccharide is composed of 15-20% of smaller saccharides and 70-80% of the larger oligosaccharides. Thus, IMO contains both digestible and non-digestible saccharides. The fractions composed of isomaltose, maltose, and panose would be digested in the small intestine and absorbed as glucose following oral administration. The non-digested oligosaccharides would pass through the small intestine and undergo microbial fermentation in the large intestine. The non-digested oligosaccharides would consist of the larger oligosaccharides" (ibid).
5. Q: Is IMO good for me? Or... what's the deal? A: There have been a few studies conducted that have looked at the potential health benefits of IMO. Most of them have concluded that, as a prebiotic, their effect is far from harmful; that, in fact, IMO can be beneficial to one's digestion. Wikipedia links a pretty solid list of studies about IMO worth checking out if you're interested (click here to see it).
6. Q: What's YOUR take on IMO though, Anna? A: If you're asking whether I think IMO is GREAT as a prebiotic to include in one's diet regularly, as a form of fiber, I'd say... hmmm... I'd rather get by fiber from food like fruit and veg, coconut flour, gluten-free grains, and psyllium husks! But hey, that's just me ;-)
