MuscleMeds Carnivor Protein Bar Review

Musclemeds is a supplement company based in Little Falls, NJ and is one of the few companies that has put a beef based protein on the market (that actually tastes good)
First came the Carnivor beef protein powder, now they also followed up with a beef protein protein bar.

The promo video with Kai Greene is a bit lame, but let's give them a chance, shall we?

When you put "beef" and "protein powder" in the same sentence, this might sound a little odd, but the folks at MuscleMeds nailed it. We tried the chocolate flavor and loved it, so when we heard about the soft baked protein bars coming out, we couldn't wait to try them.

The bar comes in 2 flavors:

- Cookies & Cream
- Chocolate Peanut butter

Since we're not a fan of Cookies & Cream flavors (except Oreos), we got the Chocolate Peanut butter.

We always judge protein bars in 2 ways:
Macros & Ingredients
Is a bar low in crazy & artificial ingredients and has good macros? Score: Green
Has a bar a few 'meh' ingredients, but is not like a candy bar and has good macros? Score: Orange
Is a bar basically a glorified candy bar with some protein thrown in and packed with sugar? Score: Red

Taste
Score between 1 - 10, 1 being awful and 10 being awesome.

First, let's have a look at the macros:

The bar is definitely not for the small stomachs, weighing 91 grams and at 380 calories, this is pretty much a meal for most people. The 30 grams of protein is quite unique, there aren't that many bars around with such a high protein content, whilst having a low sugar count, totaling at 5 grams*. The bar filled us up nicely.

Next up, the ingredients:

If you've been using the carnivor Beef protein powder because of lactose intolerance, you're going to be disappointed. The second ingredient is whey concentrate and third is milk protein, so the name is a bit deceiving, because it give the impression you're getting the same type of protein as in the powder.

Second part, is the low sugar claim on the label (*) The 2 sweeteners used are sorbitol & maltitol. These are sugar alcohols, and not sugars. This makes it easy to label products as "sugar-free" or low-sugar" (purely marketing purposes)
However, looking at the graph below, these sugar alcohols do contain calories and have a GI:

In fact, looking at maltitol, the numbers actually don't differ that much from regular sugar.

Unfortunately, the label doesn't tell us how much sorbitol & maltitol is actually in the bar, but they most likely take up the majority of the 27 grams of carbohydrates that are left-over.
So if you are on a low carb diet, this is something important to take note of.
More on sugar alcohols here.

Number 8 on the ingredient list are peanuts, a place in the list that reflects on the taste.

Score: Orange

Look & taste test

Since we're already nit-picking, we might as well continue. The package shows the bar like a solid rectangular bar, but reality is a bit different:

The peanut butter is layered on top of a cookie type base, but since the base is quite thick and chocolaty, the peanut butter taste is not very present.

The base is quite chewy, so the description soft baked doesn't quite hit the mark here.

The chocolate taste is rich and sweet, so this definitely satisfies a sweet tooth.

All in all, this a good tasting protein bar, very filling and a high amount of protein. It's not the best protein bar we've tasted, but certainly does the job! Taste score: 8

Video review:



Get the Musclemeds Carnivor Protein Bars at AllStar Health:

MuscleMeds Carnivor Bars 12 bars - $23.99

At A1 Supplements:

MuscleMeds Carnivor Bars 12 bars - $27.95