Work Oat Bar by Body and Fit review

Geschatte leestijd: 4 minuten The Work Oat Bar from Body&Fit. What can you expect from this bar and where does it fit into your diet?

Work Oat Bar: energy drink in the form of a chocolate bar?

Last week, when I arrived at the office, I was offered the Work Oat Bar from Body and Fit. After taking a quick look at the ingredients, my first impression was: An energy drink in the form of a chocolate bar. This bar contains the three main ingredients found in popular energy drinks:

• Caffeine
• Sugars
• Taurine

Substances aimed at providing quick physical and mental energy.

Dark chocolate

Regarding the taste, I can be very brief; fantastic. If you like dark chocolate. Unfortunately, I do not. The bar has a coating of dark chocolate. However, I had already taken a bite before reading this. That resulted in the familiar baby-eats-lemon face. Bitter and sour are not my favorite flavors. But I attribute that entirely to my personal aversion to dark chocolate. So, let’s quickly move on to more important matters: the ingredients and what you can expect from them.

Caffeine

We have already written extensively about caffeine as a stimulant. The amount of caffeine in a Work Oat Bar is slightly more than in a cup of black coffee. Namely 100mg in the 50-gram bar, compared to 70 mg per 100 grams of coffee. In most energy drinks, there is about 30mg of caffeine per 100 grams. The dosage of caffeine in the Work Oat Bar is therefore not low. So it should certainly be enough to get your nervous system into a more active mode. We will soon delve into the many studies on taurine and the remaining uncertainty. For now, I would not have high expectations of the added value of taurine myself. The greatest added value is probably the conscious or unconscious association with wings.

Carbohydrates and sugars

The bar earns its name (well found, by the way) from oatmeal and oat flour. Both are sources of carbohydrates with sugars that are absorbed more slowly. The bar therefore offers a combination of fast and slower carbohydrates. Per Work Oat Bar, you get 34 grams of carbohydrates, of which 15 grams are sugars. We have written an article about the difference between the two. The “sugars” refers to the carbohydrates that consist of one or two chains of sugars. This says nothing about a difference between natural or added sugars (which can also be natural). The number of chains can normally say something about the speed of absorption of sugars into the bloodstream, but does not tell the whole story. For example, the maltodextrin in the Work Oat Bar does not fall into the category of ‘sugars’ as this is a polysaccharide, consisting of multiple chains of glucose. Yet this is absorbed very quickly.

Taurine

There is not yet enough known about taurine to know if it adds to alertness and energy. Researchers have found little evidence so far that substances other than caffeine and sugars in energy drinks increase physical and mental performance [1]. They also looked at the effects of taurine. We will soon delve into the many studies on taurine and the remaining uncertainty. For now, I would not have high expectations of the added value of taurine myself. The greatest added value is probably the conscious or unconscious association with wings.

Carnitine

(L-)carnitine is quite popular as a supplement, although it is not part of the standard ‘energy recipe’ like caffeine and sugars. In some animal studies, carnitine has led to better athletic performance [2]. However, these results have not been repeated in humans. Carnitine is involved in burning fats to release energy. In some of the studies, improved performance by carnitine (in mice) was accompanied by a saving of glycogen in the muscles. This saving probably occurred because more fats were used as fuel for the efforts. These results have not been seen in humans yet. Probably because it is very difficult to increase your natural levels of carnitine by taking carnitine from food or supplements. Until 2011, it was even doubted whether this was possible. Then it turned out that you can increase these levels with supplementation, but you have to do this for almost half a year [3]. In that study, they took 2 grams of carnitine twice a day for 24 weeks. You can translate this to the amount of carnitine in 4 Work Oat Bars, for 24 weeks. By the way, those two grams were supplemented with 80 grams of carbohydrates, which probably facilitated absorption. The Work Oat Bar contains 34 grams of carbohydrates per 1 gram of carnitine.

Work Oat Bar: A pre-workout bar

I doubted whether I should compare the Work Oat Bar to an energy drink because its reputation is not exactly rising. But the ingredients make such a comparison obvious. An energy drink does not have to be bad either. We know that caffeine can have beneficial effects and that sugars are the body’s favorite fuel. Products that contain relatively high amounts of sugars and caffeine are therefore not bad; they can be used badly. I personally think that the people who buy the Work Oat Bar are consumers with more awareness of nutritional values than the average student who buys an energy drink. With that in mind, I would also dare to guess that the bar will have a more considered place in the diet. Especially when you actually intend to use the energy for physical activity. Like a pre-workout. But that’s why it’s called the Work Oat Bar and not the Chill Oat Bar. Also a good idea, by the way, but with more proteins, fewer sugars, and of course… milk chocolate! References

1. McLellan TM, Lieberman HR. Do energy drinks contain active components other than caffeine? Nutr Rev. 2012 Dec;70(12):730-44. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2012.00525.x. Epub 2012 Nov 9. Review. PubMed PMID: 23206286.
2. Jain S, Singh SN. Effect of L-carnitine Supplementation on Nutritional Status and Physical Performance Under Calorie Restriction. Indian J Clin Biochem. 2014;30(2):187–193. doi:10.1007/s12291-014-0437-1
3. Chronic oral ingestion of L-carnitine and carbohydrate increases muscle carnitine content and alters muscle fuel metabolism during exercise in humans. Wall BT, Stephens FB, Constantin-Teodosiu D, Marimuthu K, Macdonald IA, Greenhaff PL J Physiol. 2011 Feb 15; 589(Pt 4):963-73.