We tested the Feed Repass bars: real substitutes, but the impression of having ate
Il y a deux ans, j’ai pu m’initier à la smart food, et tester la nourriture liquide de Joylent, ou ""Jimmy Joy"". Une poudre, mélangée à de l’eau dans un shaker, qui correspond à un repas complet, et qui permet de gagner du temps dans la journée, en ayant juste à ingérer un breuvage au goût de banane ou de chocolat. Seulement la lassitude s’est vite installée au cours de mon test : difficile de se motiver à boire uniquement une boisson au goût assez fade, quand votre corps réclame du solide, du sucré ou du salé, et que vos collègues mangent, devant vous, une entrecôte grillée avec des patates. Résultat, pour réussir à ne consommer que du Jimmy Joy (35 euros pour 5 sachets de 15 repas), le mieux est de manger seul, tout en essayant d’oublier le plaisir de manger, qui plus est en société.
After having also without success the food coaching apps to lose weight, I told myself recently that I could test the ""solid"" version of Jimmy Joy, the ""Twennybars"" - chocolate or vanilla bars, containing ""proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals, so that your body remains healthy "", from a mixture of oats, sugar, coconut oil and powdered milk, as well asof a “cocktail of 27 essential vitamins and minerals”.According to Jimmy Joy, this is ""a real meal, not a snack"", which allows you to ""save time and save money"" (a Twennybar costs 2 euros).
I told myself that there too, weariness was likely to settle quickly, at the end of the fourth or fifth bar swallowed, the body being this time no longer lacking in solid, but just in lack of variety...Not having the patience to order and wait to receive the Twennybars, which would have been sent to me from the Netherlands, I preferred to be simpler: it was indeed several weeks since I saw, at the cash deskCorner monoprix, near my job, ""feed"" bars - Jimmy Joy's French pendant, who also offers liquid food and food substitutes disguised as chocolate bars.
Un ""repas complet et équilibré"" en barre
You will also find them at Carrefour, in Intermarché, in Franprix, or on the Internet ... Yes, the feed bars are everywhere right now, they are tearing out, and I must say that the temptation was great to try, to taste.So, I got started, determined to test all this for CNET - in addition to trying to lose a little weight and replace lunches taken on the go, or mischievous evenings because of my procrastination at the stove.But obviously, the irremediable question arose, even before I taste these famous bars with chocolate, red fruits or coconut: is it good for health, or in any case healthy?Are they really worth a full meal?Is it a good way to replace a sandwich, and even lose weight a little?Is frustration less than with a meal in the form of a powder to reconstruct?
Already on the price side, it must be admitted that these bars, especially intended for young trendy, mowed and/or sports workers who want to save time, do not cost relatively expensive, compared to bad food or a meal in a Parisian brewery -Between 3.50 and 4 euros depending on the supermarket.On the nutrition side, Feed promises that its products (vegan, gluten -free and lactose -free) correspond to a ""full and balanced meal"", containing ""100% of the recommended contributions, without any deficiency"".What more ?
On the practical side, these nutrient bars have the big advantage of keeping easily in a pocket or in a bag, and of being easy and quick to eat.Much easier to transport and eat than the Bouteille-Shaker version.In terms of design and flavors, there is something for everyone: chocolate, cranberries-chocolate, fig figs, cocoocolate nuts, red fruits, banana-chocolate.And it looks like a classic cereal and fruit bar.The icing on the cake, the star chef Thierry Marx participated in the design of the ""organic"" and ""light"" version of these bars.
A practical meal substitute, but acidic
After a week to have eaten (one or two, on three meals a day), I must confess that the reality is ... different.Even if there is not only negative.First of all, I insist: these are not hypocaloric bars, intended to help lose weight, or ""energetic"" bars, but real meal substitutes, with lots of proteins, fibers, vitamins andof minerals - for a result of 400 kilocalories (Kcal).When I tell you that I wanted to use them to lose weight, it is because I hoped to calm my hunger, and therefore my greed, by ingesting something consisting but healthy - in addition to cost less thanfast food.
First, yes, this kind of meal substitute has proven to be very practical, addictive even by its practicality.I kept one or two bars in my bag, permanently, and when an unforeseen event occurred, preventing me from eating with my colleagues or cooking in the evening, I just had to open the packaging,and eat the 5 pre -cut pieces there were there.Then, I must also admit that these bars brought me the energy necessary to ""hold"" a whole morning, a whole afternoon, or a whole evening, without any concern.The impression of satiety was there, and my desires for bad food as well as my gluttony was surprisingly stifled in the egg by an impressive appetizer effect.I do not know if I would have lost weight by continuing to eat more than 5 days, but in any case, it is clear that it allowed me not to eat something else, or to want tosomething else.Note also that digestibility is more than correct: I felt light after each ""meal"" feed, and I don't remember having a ""bar"" then.
Let's go to the taste, now.This is where the building begins to hurt.At the beginning, the proposed taste (cranberries-chocolate, red fruits, cocoocolate nuts ...) is there.It's neither good nor bad: it is eaten easily, and there is a little pleasant ""sweet"" side.But at the end of the second bar, we quickly see that this meal substitute, which actually looks more like a brown rectangular paste without personality than a classic chocolate bar, is pasty, heavy, acid, chemical.At the end of a bar, you have an irritated throat, and it is better to drink a lot of water in parallel (this is what Feed recommends on its site).
Bars not necessarily healthy, even dangerous
Regarding the nutritional interest of these bars, I preferred to contact a nutritionist - Professor Monique Romon, doctor and former president of the French Nutrition Society (SFN), more precisely.After analyzing their content, the specialist did not hide her skepticism, and even her concern.
FYI, here is the composition of a chocolate feed bar, guaranteed ""gluten -free, rich in vitamins and minerals"": agave syrup, vegetable proteins (pea, soy, rice), isomaltulosis (a slow sugar), rapeseed oil, ""lean"" cocoa in powder, corn and acacia fibers, mineral salts (calcium phosphate, potassium carbonate, zinc gluconate, selenated yeast, chrome picolinate ...), as well as vitamins, D3, E, C, B1, B2, PP, B5, B6, B8, B9 and B12.
And now, here is the composition of a ""light"" bar with ripe-chocolate scent: vegetable proteins (soy, peas), sweetened ""sweetened"" sugar, rapeseed oil, maltodextrin (a mixture of different sugars, derivedcorn), raspberry pellets, Maltilol (a sweetener), citric acid (to correct acidity), then the same minerals and vitamins as for classic meal bars.By the way, we will wonder where the blackberry has gone ...
""I am really struck by the quantity of ingredients: some minerals and certain vitamins are neither necessary nor essential,"" observes Monique Romon.In detail, she wonders what Chrome picolinate comes for example - a chemical compound used to treat type 2 diabetes and promote weight loss - in what is presented as a simple meal meal substitute.Likewise for selenium (selenated yeast), an antioxidant trace element used to prevent prostate and lung cancers, to treat asthma or to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.""If we take too much selenium, DNA can be impacted, there can be mutations, and paradoxically, we can have cancers,"" explains the nutritionist.
Ditto for vitamins (A, B3, D3, E, C, B1, B2, K, PP, B5, B6, B8, B9, B12 ...) present in these bars: ""If you consume a vitamin too much, it comes back toeven as having a deficiency.For example, an excess of vitamins C can cause stones to the kidney, an excess of vitamins B3 can cause liver disorders, and excess B6 vitamins can cause neuro-muscle disorders and ultimately increase the risk of lung cancer"""".
These meal substitutes being full of additives but also with proteins, also pay attention to your kidneys: ""as soon as we exceed a certain dose of protein, we can develop kidney failure"", explains the doctor ... who advises to drink a lot of'water during the ingestion of such bars.Not to calm the throat in the face of their acidity, but to eliminate metabolic waste resulting from protein digestion.
Finally, soybeans, probably present among the ingredients to stick in vegan fashion, ""is completely useless, but also dangerous for men, because it is an endocrine disruptor"".In short, all this is hardly reassuring.Especially when Monique Romon adds: ""A pregnant woman normally does not have the right to eat this.But nowhere, there is no warnings, explanations.Information on the recommended nutritional intake (ANC) and the quantities for each ingredients is also fairly vague, and can only be viewed on the FEED site "".Going exceeding the ANC can therefore be risky, especially since ""depending on age, you have different needs"".In other words, if you are between 18 and 50 years old, you can certainly consume more feed bars than a senior.
However, you should know that after having analyzed the quantities by portion for each vitamin and minerals, I noticed that it was almost each time a third of the daily food ration of the recommended contributions.So you shouldn't eat more than 3 bars per day.Even if you find that you are still hungry, and that 400 kilocalories, it is not enough for you.""How can a brand provide that 400 kcal correspond to a meal? By making averages.It is therefore not the ideal meal substitute for a particular person but for a population.And that makes all the difference, ""writes Quentin Mayet, dietitian-nutritionist on his blog.
Not a diet product, but risk of drifts
For Monique Romon, ""Better to avoid eating only that"".But these bars can be consumed without problem in the context of a conventional diet.Moreover, Feed explains on his site not to share the ""extremist"" vision, which consists in fully replacing classic food, in favor of a unique product "".And the French brand to recall (timidly) that it is not a ""diet product"".
Obviously, most people will limit themselves to a bar from time to time, in troubleshooting solution, to replace a sandwich or a chocolate bread.But others may very well be tempted to make a ""cure"" of feed bars, and to consume it with each meal, for weeks, especially to lose weight, without necessarily saying it.Or to do like Charlton Heston in the film ""Sun Vert"": to have the impression of eating food ""of the future"", practical, with each meal.In this kind of case, ""be careful not to take more than 15 days, because beyond, it can be dangerous"", warns the doctor.
As for the weight loss power of these meal substitutes, note that they are also made up of agave syrup, and as a rule, sugars.""It won't make you lose weight as such, but it can prevent you from eating badly.You will avoid junk, but if you eat too much, your bars can very well turn into junk, ""notes the nutritionist, which is surprised that the composition of these marketed products is discussed anywhere and does not do theobject of a real debate.Caution, so ...
The impression of having ate anything
There remains the ""social"" limit posed by the consumption of these meal bars - whether those sold by the French Feed, the Dutchman Jimmy Joy, the English Huel or the Austrian Saturo.After eating it, I actually feel like I haven't eaten anything.I am no longer hungry and I feel good, certainly, but I feel like I'm still hungry and I'm a little frustrated, because I swallowed my bar in 4 minutes Top Chrono.Where is, moreover, the pleasure of eating?And the ""gourmet"" side of a real cereal bar?
Even if I am no longer hungry, my brain needs to have the impression of having eaten.Also, while it is normally a ""full meal"", I surprised myself several times to complete it with a banana or a yogurt.Leaves, at one point, to risk ""cracking"", eating junk food.On the taste side, I repeat, it's not bad, but it's still quite disgusting in the long run.Agave syrup and added sugars cover quite badly, in the end, the chemical and acidic taste of these bars.
Conclusion, meal bars cannot, and should only be suitable for consumers in search of practicality - young ""nomadic"" or pressed workers in search of a good meal substitute, including hikers,Travelers or skippers ... because as Monique Romon says so well, ""food is not just nutrients and a list of artificially added ingredients: you also need to feel fun while eating.And it will never be worth a real meal.""
