New Year, Tastier You!

Last February, a Canadian reader alerted me to YouBar, a small California-based company created by a mother-son duo that allows customers to create their own nutrition bars from a variety of healthy and organic ingredients ranging from almond butter to dates to ginger, cacao nibs, and oat bran.

I liked the idea enough to blog about it, but never tasted a creation. Until now.

Wow!

One suggested bar (these are mainly offered for first-time customers who may not be fully ready to experiment) named "Great Date With Chocolate" beautifully blends four simple ingredients -- dates, whey protein, honey, and cocoa -- in a 1.8 ounce bar that delivers:

140 calories
1.5 grams of fat
15 milligrams of sodium (that's 0.6 percent of the recommended daily limit)
4 grams of fiber
8 grams of protein

The Breakfast Bar, meanwhile, arrives at an almost identical nutritional profile by mixing dates, egg white protein, honey, coca, coffee crystals, and cinnamon. Deliciously decadent!

If you are feeling creative, head on over to YouBar's website and begin crafting your own delicacy (which you even get to name!).

Give yourself plenty of time, though, as the options are endless. Before you even think about choosing ingredients, decide just how big of a bar you want (the small weighs 1.25 ounces, while a large delivers almost two ounces.)

My favorite part of the process? Once you start mixing and matching ingredients, a nutrition facts label appears on the screen, reflecting your personal bar's nutrition information. No surprises here!

Even the pickiest of creators should be satisfied thanks to the "special requests" option, which enables you to specify preferences like "I want ginger and cinnamon, but could you make it mostly ginger and just a pinch of cinnamon?"

If bars aren't your thing, YouBar also now offers customized protein shakes.

I am not at all surprised at their success and wish them the absolute best as they continue to provide healthy snacking -- and the freedom to choose!