Zone Imperfect

One of the staples of any diet that requires eating 6 times a day is the protein bar and mine is no different. I have the necessary mix to make protein shakes at the clinic but nothing beats the convenience of munching away at a bar between patients while working. I've tried almost all of them from the ultra-low carb ones, which are expensive and taste pretty freaking awful, to the moderate carb, and therefore more palatable, ones.

I discovered the ZonePerfect bars while visiting my good friends Karen and Larry in Bellingham. Karen's been incredibly successful on the Zone diet mixed with a healthy dose of exercise and she fed me one of the Zone bars while we were on a hike and I was hooked. We headed off to Costco the next day where I loaded up on a couple boxes, figuring I could get more once I was home. Much to my surprise, I couldn't find the same yummy flavours of the ZonePerfect bars here in Canada so I sampled my way through the available ones until I discovered something important: only the Chocolate Peanut Butter and the Fudge Graham bars that I'd bought in Bellingham are any good.

The next trip to Bellingham I loaded up on bars again (as well as the veggie Smart Bacon that is no longer available in Canada - another rant entirely) and we've happily munched our way through those. I was therefore thrilled yesterday when I discovered the Fudge Graham ones at my local health food store. I bought a couple boxes - eep, they're way more expensive in Canada, even with the exchange - and headed back to work. Snack time came around and I cracked one of the new bars. Much to my surprise, it was gross. Completely different to the ones sold in the States by the same company under the same name.

What the hell is with that? Why do we get the crappy ones in Canada? Is this because we wouldn't help bomb Iraq?

It seems absurd to me that a company will sell a completely different product under the same name to two different countries. I know British Cadbury's chocolate is better than ours, but they're far away. The US is so close and I'd think something like a protein bar would be more consistent because they're making them to fit specific nutritional guidelines.

Gah! I guess it's back to driving to Bellingham to load up. Either that, or I'll have to start packing real food to eat during the day... Who am I kidding? "Stella, let's go for a drive!"