Lara bars

[River Mom]

I just want to make sure I have this right. Are LaraBars Really raw?

[juliebove]

Highly debatable and some for sure are not. You have to read the wrappers.

[EZ rider]

I guess it depends on how you define raw. Some growers of nuts define pasteurized as raw. I take a pretty narrow definition of raw. For a food to be raw for me it has to be in its natural form as it is grown. It has to be complete as grown and not altered in any way from the way it was grown. Not everyone defines it as narrowly as I do. I don't buy LaraBars.

[Shell]

There was a thread not too long ago discussing this....if you do a search, I'm sure you'll find it. I think I recall the poster saying that in the cacao coconut bar, they use roasted cacao powder.....but on the wrapper, it says it's raw/uncooked. I would be very wary. I know a lot of people don't like them, but I buy SmartMonkey bars, and Pure Raw bars, and I love both brands.

[crystalmoon]

Hi I ate larabars before trying raw food & liked them alot.
Since experiencing a high raw foods diet my body really rejects the larabars. Im taking that as a sign that their rawness is dubious, especially as I don not have bad reactions to my homemade versions.
I also wonder how bad they are for candida cos I thought nuts & dried fruits can carry moulds or yeasts if not refridgerated?

[River Mom]

Hi I ate larabars before trying raw food & liked them alot.
Since experiencing a high raw foods diet my body really rejects the larabars. Im taking that as a sign that their rawness is dubious, especially as I don not have bad reactions to my homemade versions.

What is your homemade version???

[PomegranatePip]

They're not 100% raw (but they're close enough for me). If you have a look at their site, you can see that there are certain non-raw ingredients. There's lemon juice that's pasteurized, for example, and they use non-raw cocoa in the chocolate-flavoured bars. The cashews are also extracted using heat, so they probably wouldn't count as raw, either. But they claim that the rest of the ingredients are dehydrated at 118 degrees or less.

For me, though, they're a lifesaver. Sometimes you're hungry and don't have access to a blender or a bunch of fresh produce. These bars are great to just toss in your purse. I love the Chocolate Coconut Chew... it tastes like a dense brownie. :)

[crystalmoon]

Hi River Girl I just mix different nuts & dried fruits in my food processor & shape into bars until the mixture binds together. Sometimes I add coconut or gojis or superfoods like maca. I store the bars wrapped in greaseproof paper in the fridge. If Im taking some with me on a day out I dehydrate them to make them less sticky & easier to eat on the run or I freeze them so they defrost slowly until snack time. HTH

[River Mom]

Hi River Girl I just mix different nuts & dried fruits in my food processor & shape into bars until the mixture binds together. Sometimes I add coconut or gojis or superfoods like maca. I store the bars wrapped in greaseproof paper in the fridge. If Im taking some with me on a day out I dehydrate them to make them less sticky & easier to eat on the run or I freeze them so they defrost slowly until snack time. HTH

Sounds easy enough, thanks!
RM

[subbacultcha]

Nope they're not completely raw, but as far as prepackaged foods go, you could do a lot worse.

[cureteipsum]

to the person who wondered about dried fruits and nuts and candida....

dried fruits would exasperate a candida problem because of the concentrated sugar. Dried fruit should not be be eaten in large quanities unless soaked and accompanied with a rather large fluid intake.