For a few months now I've been fretting about what I'm going to eat for snacks once I go back to college. Because my boyfriend and I are going to be in the same building, I have decided to go allergen-free. However, that means a complete overhaul of my eating habits.
The meals I'm not so worried about. However, snacks were where I took in most of my gluten as well as my Red 40 and artificial flavors. It was getting hard for me to start thinking about healthy snack foods that I would actually want to eat. I'm not in the habit of eating fruit unless someone hands it to me and everything salty or sweet has gluten, casein, corn, and soy. And then came Larabars, down from the heavens like a majestic eagle of snacking. If I am waxing overly poetic, it's because I love them.
If you haven't encountered them before, Larabars are snack bars. Unlike other snack bars they use very minimal ingredients. For instance, their Cashew Cookie flavor contains only dates and cashews. That's it. Plus, they have a huge number of flavors that couldn't be pulled off by other snack bar companies. I don't think any other company could convincingly pull of a coconut cream pie flavor, let alone one that only uses five ingredients.
Okay, so we've well established that I love the taste, but why is it great for being allergen-free? It says right on the label that they are gluten and soy-free. There are no corn ingredients that I can see as well. The flavors that contain chocolate say that there might be some milk in that, but there are a bunch of great flavors that don't have chocolate so it will be easy for me to avoid those. Plus, the greatest think about the labels in my opinion is the fact that not only are the ingredients listed clearly and bluntly, they also put the nut products in bold print so that they stand out. They are drawing attention to the potential allergens contained in the product. They do this too with the warning about milk.
This is such a simple thing and yet I appreciate it so much. I like the company's honest statement about the ingredients as well as the fact that they blatantly admit that there are allergens to some people. With just a glance you can see if the product is safe or not. On checking their website, it appears that they are committed to being gluten-free, ensuring no cross-contamination and testing for gluten. They also explain that although they use milk and soy-free chocolate chips, the manufacturer shares the equipment with chocolate chips that contain milk and therefore there is potential for contamination. Why is it so hard for other companies to be this honest? Why don't other companies spell out the potential for allergens in clear and concise language on easy-to-find web pages? Why is it always buried deep in the depths of the FAQ page or in the wishy-washy language of customer service emails?
Larabar definitely has my business, both for their honesty and the fact that I now have an allergen-free way to get my sweet fix.
If you're curious, check out their list of products or pick up a few flavors. From what I've seen, their pretty easy to find if you go toward the natural food section. Enjoy!
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