Lara Bars will save you from french fries (usually :-)

Finding tasty and simple gluten free snacks is a must for healthy women on the go. A good project for those new on the gluten free path is to sample a lot of different snack possibilities and compile a top 10 list. At the top of my top 10 favorite snacks list are lara bars.

In addition to being certified gluten free, Lara Bars are also kosher, vegan, dairy free, and soy free. Plus no sugar has been added. Amazingly, they're really tasty. And one bar equals a whole fruit serving.

How'd they get to be so “clean”?

Lara Bars are unprocessed. For example, the cherry pie bar's ingredients are simply dates, almonds, and unsweetened cherries. That's it. Three easy to pronounce, real food items. Basically, they're a mix of fruit and nuts ground up and blended together into a easy to carry, eat, and digest bar.

They come in 14 flavors so you can have variety while sticking to your healthy eating lifestyle. Many of the flavors are inspired by and named after beloved desserts. Including coconut cream pie, key lime pie, ginger snap, banana bread, and cashew cookie. My usual choices are pecan pie and cherry pie.

I try to always have one of each in purse. I can't tell you how many times having a lara bar in my purse has stopped me from eating McDonald's fries or some other thing I'd regret later. When you start your list of gluten free products to try, add Lara Bars to it. You'll be happy you did.

The Trouble With Lara Bars ...

Where to find them? They're not everywhere. Whole Foods Market has the best price on Lara Bars where I live. They're $1.39 there. I've never found them at a Kroger or other large chain store. They're expensive, as in $2 or more, when I've found them at small health food stores.

An alternative is to buy them direct from www.larabars.com. They're $27 for a box of 16. That's $1.69 each. You have to really love one flavor though because they don't offer mixed boxes yet!

Anyway, they're worth hunting down and paying a bit more than you'd pay for cereal bars or diet bars or any of those other bars found at chain grocery stores. Plus they're gluten free so we can eat them guilt- and symptom-free!