Diet Food Reviews

Mothers Natural Plain Sodium Free Rice Cakes

By: Delia L | Jan 2, 2009

Rice cakes typically have an image of being plain and boring, but I disagree. There is a huge variety of sweet and salty flavors, and the crunch makes even the plain rice cakes delectable to me. The best tasting, lowest cost rice cakes I have ever had were the Trader Joe's Lightly Salted Rice Cakes that are just 99 cents per bag of 14 rice cakes, but I am always on the lookout for other brands. I came across Mother's Natural Plain Sodium Free Rice Cakes and with such a healthy sounding name, I couldn't help but pick it up and do a taste test.

All Mother's products are 100% natural and are specifically developed to meet the requirements of the natural foods industry: no additives, no preservatives, no artificial flavors or colors, no hydrogenated or tropical oils, and no maltodextrins or starches. Molasses and honey are the only sweeteners used in Mother's products.

Unfortunately, all my optimism did not pan out. While the sodium free claim may be undesirable to most people, the lack of crunch was what was really disappointing to me. These rice cakes were very well shaped with a definite cylindrical form, but chewing the rice cakes made me of think that this is what it would be like to munch on styrofoam. On the upside, though, each rice cake was quite large.

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Each one of Mothers Natural Plain Sodium Free Rice Cakes provides 35 calories and no fat, cholesterol, or sodium. There are 7 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of protein. Although these rice cakes are made with whole grain brown rice, one serving does not have a significant amount of fiber, vitamins or minerals.

One 4.5 ounce bag of 14 rice cakes is regularly priced at $2.19 at Kroger. While I didn't find these rice cakes that tasty on their own, perhaps adding a topping as advised on the bag would make them better. Some of their topping suggestions include peanut butter, preserves, cheese, and salad. While I do appreciate the low/ nonexistent salt content, the texture was just too terrible for me to ever consider buying these again.

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