Freebie Reviews!

Last Thursday and Friday was the Massachusetts Dietetic Association’s Annual Nutrition Conference and Exposition (What a mouth full! We just call it ANCE.) Which is an conference were speakers from across the country come and speak about hot topics and research and nutrition, and various organizations/ companies come to promote their products or services, and more importantly give a way free samples! I only had the chance to go on Friday, but I went to a bunch of excellent lectures, did some networking, and left with quite a few free goodies!

So since I got some free goodies I suppose I will do a few product reviews and give them some props!

One free sample was Adora’s Chocolate Calcium Disks. Generally when I hear chocolate calcium supplements, I think of Viactiv Calcium Chews which generally taste pretty good, kind of like a tootsy roll (I actually prefer the caramel ones, especially since the texture seems more like caramel any way.)

But the Adora Chocolate Disk was like real chocolate! We were given a milk chocolate disk and a dark chocolate disk, I had the milk chocolate one, and I gave the dark chocolate one to my roommate so I will have to wait for her review.

The milk chocolate chew had a great texture, just like real chocolate, and was very sweet, and well, tasted like milk chocolate! If I hadn’t known it was a supplement I definitely wouldn’t be able to tell.
Each milk chocolate disk: • Each piece contains 500 mg of calcium carbonate, 100 IU of vitamin D, 40 mcg of vitamin K and only 30 calories • Adora Calcium is certified Kosher by the Orthodox Union • Adora Calcium’s Milk Chocolate has no gluten-containing ingredients The dark chocolate has the same levels of Calcium, vitamin D and K, and is also lactose and gluten free and vegetarian friendly!

Based on the website, they are a little bit pricier than most calcium supplements, but I definitely would give them two thumbs up, and if you have trouble taking calcium supplements in the form of pills, these would be a great alternative.
check 'em out! http://store.adoracalcium.com

The World of Grains Cookies was also giving out some free treats! I sampled a pack of cranberry cookies and Oatmeal Raisin. They were both very good, I think I may have preferred the cranberry ones a bit more simply because how often do you get a cranberry cookie?

Each pack was 130 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 3 grams protein and 3 grams of fiber, and they all contain 8 kinds of whole grains including whole wheat, oats, quinoa, flax seed, brown rice, barley, rye and amaranth. One thing I really enjoyed was that you got a quite a few cookies, (I was not planning the evaluation as I was eating them, but I would guestimate about 5 cookies.) I’d rather get a few smaller cookies than one big once, because who ever wants just one cookie? That’s my dilemma with the Kashi cookies, they are great, but the serving size is once cookie, and it always leaves me wanting more. The World of grain cookies were firm, a little bit cracker like in texture, but sweet enough to still qualify as a cookie. They made excellent tea dipping cookies.

Their packaging, with the approximately 5 little cookies in a package, makes them nicely portion controlled and quick and easy to take for a snack to school or work like a 100 calorie pack, except 130 calories instead of 100. Likewise to the 100 calorie packs, I would image a lot of what you are paying for would be the packaging of the product, so I would see that as a down side. Overall, relatively healthy treat that is pretty tasty. I would probably only buy them if they were on sale, but that’s pretty much my opinion on everything.

According to their website, they also make crackers. I have not tried these yet, but I am not a big cracker person in general. (http://www.worldofgrains.com/WhoWeAre.aspx)

I got a couple of other treats at the meeting, but I have yet to try them yet, so I will keep you posted!