Clif Luna bar - wheat free energy bar for sport

The wheat-free kitchen reviewed the chocolate peppermint stick, although there are currently 12 different flavours to choose from. No preparation was required, so the wheat-free kitchen simply unwrapped the bar and tucked in.

Initial appearance was that the bar was dry and solid, so it wouldn't break up during sporting activities, which makes it ideal to carry for example in the back pocket of a cycling top.

The bar was chocolate brown in colour with the base dipped in white chocolate and looked reasonably appetising, and based on our sporting experiences carrying Clif bars for sustenance, it's amazing just how much better they look when you're almost crawling on your knees from your exertions and need to fuel up rapidly.

From a taste point of view we didn't think that the peppermint or the chocolate flavours were very strong, but we liked the texture which was both crunchy and chewy.

For the purist who likes to keep the ingredients to a minimum in products they eat then the Clif Luna bar will not appeal to them as the bar has a long list of ingredients, but none of them are what we consider 'bad' ingredients, and indeed some of them are organic. The bar is also fortified with vitamins and minerals.

We have used Clif bars for quite a few year so we have prolonged experience of their effectiveness as a sport supplement. However there are a lot of supplements on the market now that provide a far higher carbohydrate delivery for equivalent size of bar. And so these may not suit everybody, but the main selling point we think of these is their wheat free nature as Clif source ingredients that do not contain wheat.

Now the bad news. A few years ago Clif decided to pull out of the UK/Europe and concentrate on the North American market. This was a black day we feel for all those sports fans who used them as vital energy replenishment, and also the people that just used them to snack on during the day. However all is not lost, while it's a bit tedious you can order them from the Clif bar website and they will ship them to you. The costs aren't horrendous for shipping, and we think that the quality of the bars makes it worth the effort.

The Clif Luna bar is advertised as 'the whole nutrition bar for women' but in our experience it appeals to both women and men, and there is no reason for men not to enjoy them too.

Our testing panel is made up of people with wheat allergies and also people who can eat wheat as part of their normal diet.

nutritional information:

Typical values per bar (chocolate peppermint stick):
Energy - 180 kcal
Protein - 10g
Carbohydrate (total) - 29g
Carbohydrate (sugars) - 15g
Carbohydrate (other) - 12g
Fat (total) - 4g
Fat (saturated) - 3g
Fat (mono-unsaturated) - 0.5g
Fibre (dietary) - 2g
Fibre (insoluble) - 1g
Sodium - 130mg
Potassium - 135mg
Cholesterol - 0mg

allergy advice:

Wheat free
Dairy free
Contains: soya & seeds
Not suitable for nut allergy sufferers