Review : Zone Perfect Dark Chocolate Nutrition Bars

I know, I know, aren’t “dark chocolate” and nutrition a totally antonymous coupling of terms? They really shouldn’t go together, right? I mean, the only thing going for dark chocolate is that it does contain some antioxidants and has been proven, if not somewhat dubiously, to be good for your heart in certain ways, although us women have always known that chocolate, in any form, is almost always at least good for the soul, but is it really “heart healthy”?

While that is definitely debatable, we can say that these nutrition, or protein bars, are often nothing more than glorified candy bars with some vitamins and minerals added in for good measure and better, more appealing nutrition labels for the health conscious dieter. However, I do think that protein bars have their place in the healthy American diet.

It’s not as meal replacements, which is pretty much a joke since these things normally don’t stabilizy your blood sugar past an hour or two unlike a balanced meal, but as a snack, perhaps before working out for an extra carb and energy boost to power you through.

Or maybe it could be that midafternoon snack where you’re not really sure what else to eat, or you’re really craving something that’s slightly sweet, that maybe tastes a little “naughty” but you don’t want to go full tilt into a candy bar since you know that will spur on a full on sugar bomb.

The Zone Perfect Bars are pretty popular protein bars, and you can get them at most major drugstores and many department stores, like Target and Wal-mart as well. The dark chocolate ones caught my eye because they fit my criteria for a protein bar, being just under 200 calories per bar, and also having the right carb count and fiber count for me.

I purchased the marshmallow and chocolate ones, which are kind of like a smores flavor. That’s one of my favorites in the Luna bar, so I figured I’d like it in the Zone Perfect bar as well. I liked that these bars were actually heavy in weight too. Some of them are so light you wonder if they have any substance at all. The flavor was good, no funky sugar substitutes or anything, and no maltitol, which tends to make you gassy. Overall, I’d buy them again!