Diet Food Reviews
Odwalla Berries GoMega Bar
By: | Apr 1, 2009
Odwalla says, "You Flaxy Thang Odwalla Berries GoMega Bar is a great-tasting way to get 1000 mg of essential omega-3 fatty acids from ground flax. Bursting with cranberries, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, it's a berry simple snack for that meal-on-the-go." And indeed, when I opened the package, the smell of berries jumped out at me. It was very pungent, but it was a somewhat artificial smell. There was the usual soft cookie-like appearance, which surprised me the first time I had an Odwalla bar (the Odwalla Super Protein Bar), but this time, I was not surprised - in fact, I was looking forward to it.
I took a bite, and my mouth was suddenly bursting with berries. However, unlike the artificial smell, the bite tasted refreshingly natural. Looking more closely at the bar, I saw whole berries mixed in with the grains - yum 
! However, a few bites in, I rediscovered that an artificial flavor did began to creep in, just as I had thought - this seems a bit bizarre since this bar is "all natural" ... perhaps one of these types of berries tastes artificial, or maybe there is too much berries (is there such a thing?). This threw me off a bit, but I still liked the flavor and texture of the bar a lot.
Looking at the ingredients of the Odwalla Berries GoMega Bar, there are a lot of them, but they are pretty much all healthy; the only thing that bothers me is that the dried berries are listed as dried "sweetened" berries, which they clarify with sub-ingredient lists of apple juice concentrate and sunflower oil. Why do the berries need to be sweetened?
One 62 gram bar has 220 calories, 4.5 grams of total fat (7% of the daily value) of which 0.5 grams is saturated (3% of the DV), 10% of the DV for sodium (230 mg), 5 grams of protein and 41 grams of carbohydrates which includes 18% of the DV for fiber (5 grams) and 20 grams of sugar.
other than that and the slightly high sugar, the bar doesn't fare too badly.
I paid $1.99 for this substantial bar, and it's decent nutrition stats (although there is a bit more sugar than I would like) and bountiful berries, makes this is one of my favorite Odwalla bars.. The cookie-like texture isn't dry in my mouth, and the berry flavors are powerful and refreshing. I'll probably buy this bar again.
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Laura, thanks for reviewing our bar. Let us know if you have upcoming needs as far as updated pictures of products or sample bars go. Thanks!
All I know about the sweetened berries is that just about all dried cranberries are sweetened with those ingredients. It's really hard to find unsweetened ones.
I bought a Box of thee bars at TARGET, along with the Chocolate Chip PB, they are both 2-DIE-4!! i can no get enough os them. The kids love them and so do I. I dont feel all that bad about having one for a morning os afternoon snack cause of all the wholesome ingredients. I HIGHLY suggest these to "healthly" tasting food lovers!! Great Price and Size to