How Tasty Is a Snack Designed for Body and Mind?
Along with being a fitness trainer and goal coach, I’m a journalist who covers marketing and customer experience. In that role, I’m sometimes asked to review books or test products—usually apps or software. Recently, I received an email asking if I was interested in covering the launch of Mindright Bars. I thought, “This sounds like something my Fit Life Over 50 community would be interested in learning about.”
Here’s why: Mindright Bars are designed by nutritionists to be what the company calls mental-wellness snacks. The ingredients include Mindright’s signature “Happy Brain Blend” of medicinal herb ashwagandha for calm, cordyceps (a type of fungi) for energy, ginseng for mood, and MCT (medium-chain triglyceride oil) for “brain fuel.” Mindright’s goal is to provide a snack that helps enhance your mood and reduce stress by blending adaptogens (claimed to reduce stress), antioxidants (delay cell damage), and nootropics (claimed to improve cognitive function).
Finding filling and healthy on-the-go snacks isn’t always easy, so I asked Mindright for more information and the samples they had offered. They sent me six Mindright Bars to try (two each of three flavors: blueberry almond, peanut butter cup, and toasted coconut).
I also asked if the bars have any specific benefits for women over 50. Via email, Mindright co-founder and chief mood officer Chris Bernard said, “Mindright Bars are a great snack for women over 50 as they're high in protein and fiber, formulated using only premium, plant-based ingredients, and are non-GMO and gluten-free…. We really wanted to create an on-the-go snack focused on taste-good, feel-good nutrition that could be enjoyed by everyone and these bars are just that.”
Mindright Bars are packed with protein, and have coconut sugar, which means they’re also higher in calories than some other snack choices. (And they have 8 or 9 grams of fiber, depending on the flavor.) At 210 calories per bar, they’re somewhere between what I would consider a big snack and a small meal. For context, I generally aim for snacks that are 50 to 120 calories; a small meal for me is 280 to 350 calories.
Fortunately, they’re filling. At least they were to me. When I tried the samples this week, a couple hours after an early, light breakfast, I wasn’t hungry again until well into the timeframe I’d normally eat lunch.
But was I in a better mood or more alert after eating a Mindright Bar? Well, that’s a tough one, because I’m pretty cheery most of the time and rarely experience a mid-afternoon slump. That said, the first day I tried a Mindright Bar I was feeling sluggish post-COVID vaccination and definitely felt a little a boost that kept me going for a while. I didn’t notice much of a boost the other three days I ate a bar as a mid-morning snack. But that’s just me. You might have a different experience.
What about flavor? I enjoyed the toasted coconut, which has a hint of coconut flavor rather than an overpowering one; plus, I like how you’d bite into a chocolate chip and it would kind of melt as you ate it. I liked the blueberry almond flavor more than I thought I would. It has just a hint of blueberry; it’s not overpowering, so it makes for a nice balance with the almond flavor. The peanut butter cup flavor was OK.
Mindright Bars remind me of some Larabar flavors in terms of consistency. I like that the blueberry almond bar has actually blueberries and almond bits that you can see, and that the peanut butter cup bar has bits of peanuts in it. None of them are overly sweet, which I like about them. But none of the flavors were “wow,” either.
Pricewise, Mindright Bars are about $2.75–$2.85 each (bought in a box of 12) versus, say, Larabars, which about are $1.50–$2.00 each in your local deli or CVS. I’m guessing that the “brain blend” elements of the Mindright Bars are the differential. They’re not your average protein bar.
If you’re someone who’s often on the go or has too many back-to-back meetings, these could be a good option for you. “Mindright Bars are a well-balanced snack that can be enjoyed at any time of the day,” Mindright’s Bernard said. “To us, it doesn't matter when you eat a bar, it's simply meant for when you need to get your mind right. Whether you're in between meetings, rushing to a workout class, or simply having a stressful day, Mindright is your good mood sidekick that's there for you at any time and any place.”
Enjoyed this post? Subscribe to our free newsletter and be among the first to see our latest articles, exercise tutorials, assessments, and lots more.
