Product Review (of Sorts)- Nuts ‘n More Fortified Nut Butters

So, true confession time:

My name is Katie, and I’m kind of a peanut butter addict. While delicious, I am also the first to admit it is not the healthiest food out there: it’s sort of in the middle of the food spectrum, not terrible for you, but not terribly great either.

I stopped by my local GNC recently and noticed this Nuts ‘n More fortified nut butter (and legumes! Because, peanuts) spread, and decided to try their chocolate peanut butter version.

 

I glanced over their nutritional information before purchasing: first and foremost, while the product is low in sugar, there’s no sucralose, which is a big plus in my book. After ingesting the stuff for years, taking a break from all artificial sweeteners, then trying it again, I noticed sucralose made me feel out of sorts- more forgetful, sort of in a brain fog. Also, I started to notice a bitter undertone to the sweetness- so, since then I’ve cut pretty much all sucralose out of my diet. While the Nuts ‘n  More brand does use artificial sweeteners, they use xylitol which according to Wikipedia is derived from fruits, vegetables, corn husks and hardwoods (mm, is that an oak undertone I’m picking up in my fake sugar?) (bad joke, sorry). And, apparently it doesn’t assist in the development of cavities, due to the fact that xylitol is a non-fermentable sugar alcohol, and therefore cannot act as food for bacteria. Hooray!

Here are all the other nutritional facts, if you would like to take a look. In addition to the xylitol, the company has also put in flax seed for omega-3 fatty acids, and whey protein…

…which didn’t hurt my stomach.

If you may recall (which if you don’t, that’s totally fine, I probably wouldn’t either) in a previous post I explained how I was under the impression that I could no longer consume whey protein due to the stabbing stomach pains I would experience afterwards. But, I ate an entire jar of this stuff and at least for now I have not experienced any discomfort.

The (sort of) cons to this product: I am focusing on the xylitol aspect because a) it’s not sucralose, but also b) there were very visible crystals of the sweetener that sunk to the bottom of the jar. Personally, not a deal breaker, and it does state on the label to stir with each use, but it was a little odd. Second was the price, which is really not that big of a deal unless you seriously walk in and expect to purchase a jar of this stuff for approximately the same amount you would spend for an average jar of peanut butter. So, basically you’ll be fine as long as you don’t start off with the expectation you are purchasing a normal jar of peanut butter.

Also, they have more flavors, and they also offer several almond butter spreads- almond butter and milk tend to make the back of my throat itch, but if you don’t have any reactions to the stuff, go for it and let me know what you think.

So, will I purchase more jars of this stuff? Especially since I found there’s a pumpkin spice peanut butter version you can purchase on Amazon?

And guys… Real talk, for anyone that went to Pans this year and visited the açai bowl tent- remember how they offered peanut butter on top of your acai? What if they offered these peanut/almond butters instead?

 

 

Just wanted to share with you guys: have a great day everyone! 

IsoPure Low Carb Protein Powder

A quick report: while my stomach seems to handle their RTD beverages just fine, my stomach and IsoPure’s low carb protein powder are currently in a tussle. I’ll have a full report tomorrow-ish.

Oye.

Muscle Pharm Assault Pre-Workout Supplement

So Max got a bunch of supplement samples at work from a GNC rep and brought them home to try. One of the samples that happen to catch my eye was a pre-workout supplement from Muscle Pharm called Assault. I decided to give it a try and possibly give you all a review.

The intended purpose of this supplement is to help you “train like an unchained beast”. And by that, the company means this supplement is intended to provide you with energy and supplements to help preserve muscular endurance as well as assist in muscle recovery.

First there is the look of the product itself. Other than the fitness keywords/buzzwords plastered all over the product (high performance! Anti-fatigue! STRENGTH DOMINATION) (btw I am totally not making this up, these are actually on the package) it’s pretty par for the course, geared toward males who either train hard, or think they train hard.

They come in different flavors that I can’t think of off the top of my head at the moment, but I tried the fruit punch flavor. The box we had contained separate single serve packets with a variety of flavors. The directions advise you to mix one full packet into 8-16 oz of water 20-30 minutes before working out. I took a packet with me to work, and decided to give it a try an hour before working in case there were any adverse effects.

Half of the packet into about 6 to 8 oz of cold water and stirred. The water turned a bright watermelon hue and didn’t completely mix, even after a couple of tries stirring, whisking even, if that’s possible with a small plastic coffee straw.

The taste was overly sweet, and was pretty off putting in that regard. I pushed through and waited for some sort of effect. As far as I could tell I didn’t feel much of a difference, but maybe it was because I only took half of the recommended amount.

It may be for some, especially for those with a raging sweet tooth, but not really for me. A photo of my mixing efforts:

Review: Isopure Zero Carb Protein Drinks

In an effort to consume more protein while not eating pounds upon pounds of meat, a friend of mine suggested I try a protein drink from the brand Isopure: which produces drinks that have 40 grams of protein, a whole ton of BCAAs, no carbohydrates, no sweetened with apartame and a relatively low amount of calories, all of which I am happy to get behind.

I tried two flavors, their Alpine Punch and Pineapple Orange Banana. I tried the Alpine Punch when I was at work, and the Pineapple Orange Banana after working out.

The Alpine Punch tasted a little funny, but I still powered through and drank the entire bottle throughout the afternoon. It wasn’t bad, but I couldn’t really get around the odd aftertaste. Not necessarily bad, but odd considering the sweetener in it is sucralose, aka Splenda, which I totally put into drinks on the regular.

Also, I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this: hell, maybe it was something I ate for lunch…but my arms and legs started to feel tingly. Maybe it was the BCAAs: I don’t know, but it was an interesting experience to be sure.

This was all before a workout. I tried the Pineapple one the next day after practice- and to be honest, I was so thirsty I didn’t quite give a damn whether there was an aftertaste or not. I drank about a little more than half and then gave the rest to Max, but that’s more because I wanted to share and less from funky aftertaste.

This time there was no tingly feeling, but this was also after a workout, only 1/2 of the amount I had previously consumed, and a different flavor. I’ll have to try the alpine punch one after a workout and see if I can notice the aftertaste or not. Essentially, it seems like a pretty good drink, I just need to be more science-y and objective-like about it.

Anyone else try the Isopure drinks? Any thoughts?

DMSO: What The F&!;*^??

My arm was bothering me this week, and my instructor suggested I buy some DMSO to put on, as it’s known to block some of the pain receptors and essentially numb what ails ‘ya.

I decided to give it a try, because while the pain has been rating from something that I could manage to something I could downright neglect, it’s been getting worse while training.

I bought some from a local organic food store, patchouli scented and all, came home and smoothed a little over the area it hurt.

And then it started to itch.

And then it started to burn.

Holy Crap it was like getting a nasty sunburn at the beach!

I was then informed you REALLY have to wash and disinfect the area you put the DMSO, since it’s so strong.

….Well crap.

There was some decrease in pain, but for now I think I would rather pop some more Advil before I resort to that again.