Low Sugar and High Protein Cookies- They Do Exist!

What treat do you grab when you're craving something sweet?  What about the harder to come by typical "comfort" food that's actually healthy?  Well friends, good news!  Zest brands has a variety of cookies and cakes that have nutrient dense, quality ingredients that taste amazing!  Perfect for a healthy snack.

Why try them?

Nutritional Facts

• Simple, real ingredients. No chemicals. No flour or sugar.  For instance, in the almond lemon coconut cookie, the ingredients are: almonds, coconut oil, agave, coconut, lemon, vanilla and lemon extract, baking soda and salt.  Can't get much simpler than that.
• The base of their products is almonds.  These sweets are actually low in sugar, about 4 gm per cookie- who would have thought of such a thing?
• Zest foods will fit into almost any diet plan.  They are gluten free, antioxidant rich, free of trans fat, low carbohydrate, dairy, soy and corn free, high in fiber and plenty of vegan options.  That covers a lot of bases.  Note however, they do not claim to be low calorie.  One cookie contains about 300 calories.  I often will eat half or less of a cookie at a time.  Not only does this bring down the calories, but this way they last longer too!
• They taste good, and you can feel good about the ingredients that you are putting in your body.  My new favorite is the Shortbread Sandie.....yummmmmm!

Shortbread Sandie and Almond Cherry

Zest Brands are relatively new but advancing fast and furious.  They can be found in many Whole Foods locations in Colorado and some other specialty places.  They are quickly expanding so check Zest locations for where they are growing to.  You can also order online.

Flavors include:

• Lemon coconut cookie
• Ginger chocolate cookie
• Almond cherry cookie
• Shortbread sandie cookie
• Almond Lemon coffee cake
•  Almond chocolate coconut cake

Almond Cherry is vegan!

You can also make some cookies at home that don't have extra sugar or use flour.  I often make these no bake cookie balls from One Green Planet.  I use almonds instead of peanuts, but you can use any nuts you have on hand.  Along with some dark chocolate chips, add dried cherries or blueberries for some extra nutrition.

The Food at a Fitness Conference

As part of all conferences or trade shows, there is the mandatory schwag*(see disclaimer note at the bottom) and free samples.  I know that we really all love this part of conferences or expos, don't we?  We love free stuff, especially when we know it's good for us, right?  At a fitness conference, you better believe all the food vendors giving out samples and food were considered a "healthy" food. Which food products represent at a fitness conference? 

The Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference was at the brand new Anshutz Health and Wellness Center on University of Colorado Medical Campus.  I had the privilege of attending and meeting some amazing other health/fitness bloggers, and we learned a lot of new information.  We got to hear from some of the top researchers in the field on health, nutrition and exercise topics, take fun fitness classes (I took zumba for the first time) and get a tour of the facility.  The other highlight, for me, was checking out the food vendors :).   

Which conferences or trade shows have you been to that you enjoyed the extra "perks"?  I have to say, some of the TOP samples/swag from conferences I have been to include the annual American Dietetics Association conference (now Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) and the expo at the Boston marathon.  My friend and I went 2-3 days to this expo because there was so much.  Do you go crazy at these events and take as much as you can?  I certainly have done that before, but  I think it as common conference courtesy to take 1 (maybe 2) samples from a company.  The exception is if the company is asking participants or voluntarily gives away extra amounts of a product.  For instance, at this conference, Driscoll's Berries was handing out multiple containers of berries to us, as they had a lot of extra.  Score!

Some of these companies you might not have heard of, but they deserve some recognition!  Here's who represented some healthy food and samples at the fitness conference:

• As mentioned above, Driscoll's berries gave us samples of lovely strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.  Berries are a power house of vitamins, phytochemicals, fiber and taste delicious!  What's not to love about berries?  How can you get more berries in your diet?
• In the mornings, the berries were often paired with  Better Whey of Life Greek yogurt.  This yogurt was high in protein, providing about 17 grams in fact and 4gm sugar in the plain.  It tasted great and comes in a variety of flavors.  And, research linking protein at breakfast shows that eating protein in the morning may help lower appetite the rest of the day.
• Attune Foods featured whole grain cereals like Erewhon's Gluten Free Cereals and high fiber Uncle Sam cereal.  Tasty crunch with the yogurt!

Love Grown Foods

Simply Oats Flavor

• Love Grown Foods gets a Colorado shout out!  They are locally produced, made with real quality ingredients and not overly sweet.  They are also gluten free!  A must try if you haven't had them.
• Cherries represented and made us some AMAZING cherry smoothies, juice and dried cherries.  Did you know tart cherries have anti-inflammatory benefits?  They are also packed with anti-oxidants.  Check out the red recovery routine to see how drinking cherry juice may help you with pain management in workouts.  

Goodness Knows bars

Goodness Knows Bars

• Goodness Knows is a snack bar that uses real dried fruit, nuts, whole grains and some dark chocolate.  A serving of Goodness Knows provides 200mg of cocoa flavanols, which may help our bodies circulate oxygen better.  These bars can be ordered online or in some Colorado locations.  They are going to release some new flavors this fall- stay tuned!
•  Canadian Maple Syrup- this stuff is the real deal, and can be a good addition to a pre or post workout snack.  Did you know it has over 54 antioxidants and a source for many minerals?  I didn't- that's sweet!  It can easily be added into a smoothie or yogurt.
• Chocolate Milk- one of the most perfect post exercise recovery snacks.  Why?  It has a ratio of carbohydrates to protein that is optimal for muscle recovery.  Make sure to choose a low fat kind and 8-12 oz is a typical serving.  You can get sponsored as a chocolate milk athlete too!
• Smart Foods also provided bags of chips for us to try.  They have multi-grain cinnamon chips, garlic tomato basil hummus chips and other flavors.  These were good....use with caution.  You can eat a lot without realizing!

These are companies that feel confident representing at a fitness conference.  Check them out; they all have some good health benefits!  Make sure to thank healthy companies that give out samples to us at various events.  We need to promote healthy food companies, agree?


(Note: schwag in this post refers to promotional items gotten at trade shows, NOT the definition from urban.com of low grade marijuana ;)