My all-time favourite protein bar for dieting is the Aussie Bodies HPLC Bar.
While dieting, my expectations of any food tasting half decent, goes out the window. On a calorie restricted diet, food that I would never eat due to bad taste, doesn’t taste that bad.
The reason I am talking about this is – well – the HPLC bar does not taste good at all. Producing a protein bar that is very high in protein and low in fat and carbs that tastes good seems to be a major challenge at the moment. It seems you can either go for genuinely high protein or good taste but not both.
I have even noticed quite a few companies selling overpriced protein bars using the term “protein bar” in the marketing when the bar contains a low ratio of protein compared to carbs and fats.
Who makes the HPLC Protein Bar?
The company behind this great protein bar is Aussie Bodies which is an Australian based supplements company. They are based in Sydney Australia and are a division of Vitaco. Vitaco owns other nutrition brands such as “Balance Sports Nutrition”, “Bodytrim”, and the well known “Musashi” brand. Vitaco was established in 2007 with a merger of two well know Australian Health and Wellness companies.
What exactly is the HPLC Protein Bar?
The bar is marketed as a High Protein Low Carb Bar or HPLC Bar. It is a fairly large bar weighing 100g. Most protein bars weigh around 65g.
It comes in two flavours “cookies and cream” and “chocolate”. The cookies and cream bar has 42g of protein together with 5 grams of carbs and 13 grams of fat. The chocolate flavour comes with 45g protein, 4 grams of carbs and 13 grams of fat.
The protein content is a blend of whey protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, calcium caseinate, as well as soy protein isolate.
It doesn’t contain sugar and is sweetened with sweetener. According to the manufacturer’s website, the protein comes from Australian and New Zealand cows that are predominantly grass fed. Australian and New Zealand protein is thought to be of the highest quality globally, so this is a very good thing.
How Do They Taste?
Not great to be honest although that is to be expected from such a high protein bar. I have no problem eating these when on diet however the rest of my family is not a fan of the taste. That can be a good thing. Whenever I buy great tasting protein bars they tend to be stolen from the cupboard and devoured. I know I can leave these bars safely and they won’t be touched.
How Much Do They Cost?
The recommended retail price is around $6. This is at the high end for a protein bar even though this is a large bar with probably the highest protein of any bar on the market.
They are sold at Coles, Woolworths, and Chemist Warehouse who often have some pretty good specials on them. At the time of writing they are reduced from $5 to $4 at both Coles and Woolworths. Catch.com.au sometimes stocks them and I was lucky enough to purchase my last box (short dated) for $24.99 plus shipping for 12.
Would I Recommend the HPLC Bar?
It depends on what your goals are. If you are looking for a great tasting snack bar to use as a healthy alternative between meals, then I would not recommend these.
They are too big for an in-between snack. They are also too expensive and there are plenty of cheaper better tasting bars available such as quest bars.
Alternatively, if you are looking for a meal replacement as part of a calorie-controlled diet then these bars are perfect. Currently I am using them as a meal replacement for lunch. I eat a proper breakfast and dinner but find it easy to pop one in my bag before leaving in the morning.
The cookies and cream bar which I just ate for lunch contains 410 calories and fills me up until my mid-afternoon snack.
