I was tickled by the idea of switching to the bars completely, as they are so much more convenient. That was until I took the time to check the “claims” that each bar has 20% of what you need.
If you take 520g of powder (1 bag) and 520g of bars (around 5 bars), you notice that:
Fat in the powder was 53g while in the bars it’s 72.8. Of this, while the powdered form had 8.15 g of saturated fat the bar version has 38.48 grams of saturated fat!
Carbs in the powder make up 234g while in the powder there are 267. This would be nice if not only for the fact that the amount of sugar in the bars is 62.4 of the total, while in the powder it’s only 30g…
We also have 30 grams less protein in the bars than in the powder (104 in the bars vs 134 in the powder).
If anyone was thinking on doing the switch… think again. I find the “Healthy” catchphrase on the bar misleading. “Healthy” compared to what? Maybe healthier than let’s say eating a hamburger + coke at McDonalds but it’s nowhere as healthy as the powder, which is a real shame.
i don’t know if this is because otherwise the whole thing couldn’t have been packaged into the “bar format” or what, the point is that aside from time-to-time, I will be sticking to the powdered form (and with the recent complains about the shipments, I am also not sure if I won’t completely jump ship until they sort it out).
Hi @florinvlad.olariu! If you want to have more info about the ingredients of the bars and all, you can always email our food technologist: karel@jimmyjoy.com
@isabel: a forum is not suppose to be private messages.If @florinvlad.olariu asks by email, we are not going to have a public response. You know, like public thing, etc… But maybe you can ask pablo to come here and share an answer, it would be very appreciated.
Edit:
Pablo on here more often sounds like fun, as well. Don’t think Pablo’s that “Hey look; random people! Let’s chat”-y, but if he answers things here, he only has to answer them once, and everybody can read the answers.
I agree, questions about nutritients and % in Tweeny bar came up quite often on Reddit too. The @florinvlad.olariu question sums up every concerns about Tweeny Bar I’ve been reading here and there, I think a blog post could be nice for answering.
What’s up, everybody?
I have indeed seen this question come up on reddit, but I never got around to replying as I don’t really use Reddit much!
So here’s the breakdown:
We didn’t base the macronutrient ratio of the original powder off the RDIs set by the EFSA, but rather off what the nutritional literature at the time told us. That means that we actually chose to add more protein to the product than is actually recommended as we felt the RDIs are actually on the low side for protein. But because we added more protein, we had to take away from something else, so the fat content is lower in the powder. The actual RDIs for macronutrients (based on a 2000kcal diet) are as follows:
Fat 70g
Saturated fat 20g
Carbohydrates 260g
Sugars 90g
Protein 50g
Salt 6g
Now, if we put this in the context of the bars, you will see that the Twennybar actually delivers 20% those targets nicely, with two exceptions:
Saturated fat content is actually 40% RDI per bar. Why? Because it helps with the taste and structure of the bar. Without it, the bar would be a different story. Does this mean you should be worried? No. Saturated fat is not your enemy!
Protein content is also 40% RDI per bar. Why? Because the current guidelines are simply way too low. By doubling this we get a two-fold benefit: Increased satiety (which is important you’re using Twennybar as a meal) and an increased thermic effect when digesting the bar. There are a number of other benefits to increasing your protein intake, which I totally recommend everybody to read into!
Additionally, I know some people are worried about the sugar content. A couple more remarks on this:
As you can see, the EFSA guidelines actually recommend up to 90g per day, so we’re under that. But this is an interesting figure because now we see that the EFSA isn’t always in line with other health organisations and researchers (like the WHO, which recommends staying under 25g), so this should you guys a little bit of insight on how we go about using dietary guidelines to design products!
As Isabel mentioned, if anybody has questions I’m more than happy to answer them if you mail me, or on here. I just need to be reminded to get on here
Since you mentioned the other health organizations have differing recommendations, does/could that meant that there will be an upcoming version of Twennybar that attempts to change some of those? For instance, I would imagine the sweetness from the sugar content could be done with other approaches (sucralose or whatever), although I don’t know if such approaches are a bad idea for other reasons.
Twenny bars have 387 calories and 20% of your nutritional needs, while a shake wound have around 700 calories and 33% of nutrients. So 1½-2 bars per meal should do.
I was looking around and was about to post pretty much the same question as this thread. If I were to switch over to five bars instead of one pouch of powder a day, it would be a problem. In this scenario the saturated fat would be a little over 5x higher; at 38g/day vs 7.5g/day. The American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee strongly advises:
“Limiting the amount of saturated fats you eat to less than 7 percent of your total daily calories. That means if you need about 2,000 calories a day, less than 140 calories (or 16 grams) should come from saturated fats.” -American Heart Association
In that sense, the powder is pretty good, but the bars are way to high. They also say the majority of fats you eat should be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. The nutritional facts for the bars does not mention these. I don’t know where to find this information, but I feel I shouldn’t have to ask for it. ?
…Does this mean you should be worried? No. Saturated fat is not your enemy!.. -pablo.
It shouldn’t really be packaged as healthy, if it’s not.
Could you please elaborate? I know there isn’t a complete scientific consensus on the effects of saturated fat, but I’d like to at least read your thoughts on the issue.
It’s really a long story but the reason fat (and especially saturated fat) still gets a bad rep has to do with wrong epidemiological correlations made back in the 80s. Back then the link between cardiovascular disease and fat intake was pushed strongly on the media, even though the science behind it was flaky at best. This has to do with grains and sugar lobbies in the US, mostly, who wanted this information to pushed (this sounds super conspiracy theory, I know).
The truth of the matter is that (saturated) fat is very much needed, mostly for hormone production and for fat-soluble vitamin absorption. Also, and just to touch on the subject before anyone else asks, cholesterol consumption and cholesterol blood levels are actually largely unrelated and unaffected by one another.
Ok, these are my thoughts on the subject
Additionally, we are actually working on changing up the formula so that the increased saturated fat and sugar content are reduced. Check this little vlog by Joey where the new specs are explained:
I have some experience making bars like this. It’s very difficult maintaining the structure of the bar when being this precise with macros. I’ve often found that using too little sugar resulted in the bar crumbling. The sticky sugar acts as a nice binding agent. I’ve found adding water helps a lot, but it dries out incredibly quickly, and you end up back to the crumbling problem. I worked around this by freezing my home made bars, and eating them directly from the freezer, but if I let them thaw, they start crumbling again. I suspect this has quite a lot to do with why the sugar content is so high in the bars compared with the powder.
For those who want some more sources for the saturated fat “issue”, Examine goes into some more detail and links reputable studies for further reading.
I like the bars during the day and start the day with a shake. Beside the fact that the bars are les healthy ((more fat etc. as I did read above) they are far too sweet, especially the vanilla ones.
Is it possible to make the bars as the shakes with a delicate light sweet taste please?
Thanks for joining the conversation, Carel! We are currently developing our new Twenny Bar, so hopefully you’ll like it even more! Can’t say when it will come out though, sorry As soon as we know more, I’ll let you know!
Don’t think Pablo’s that “Hey look; random people! Let’s chat”-y, but if he answers things here, he only has to answer them once, and everybody can read the answers. 
As soon as we know more, I’ll let you know!