GlutenFree Jigsaw Health Bars Review

Gluten-Free Health-Bars / Snack Bars

Update: The product reviewed here has since disappeared.  In its place, I would recommend these options:

• Make your own gluten-free Laurabars (recipe here)
• The commercial gluten-free health bars from ThinkThin (reviewed here, with links)
• The Health Warrior gluten-free / soy-free / vegan bars with chia seed as a core ingredient (product review and links here).
• And so forth.  As I may add other such bars to this blog, here is a search of this blog for gluten-free bars : recipes and/or reviews.

I have been really busy the past week since our gluten-free recipes book sales in Long Island, as various tasks backed up in the queue. Reviewing one of my new favorite products was near the top of the to-do list, and I am just now getting to it. I always wonder, where does all my time go?

That trip to Long Island did afford me the opportunity to really give these Jigsaw Bars [Sorry, I had a link, but they are no longer available] the detailed evaluation they deserved. I had a few each of the Chocolate variety and the Coconut-Almond variety along for the 18+ hour round-trip, and they came in quite handy as I was able to improve my average driving pace by not stopping for food along the way.

I also took along a couple other snack bars to compare to: the Enjoy Life "cocoa loco" bar, and a couple varieties of the "Larabar" products. Each of these products is gluten-free, casein-free, and soy-free (and a few other "frees" too) in hopes of satisfying the requirements of the allergen-avoiding consumers they are sold to. So, I'd say the comparison group is pretty well suited for a head-to-head evaluation. And, not only did I (the gluten-free guy) try them, but my wife (not gluten-free or celiac) also tried each of them and provided feedback.

Test Results
I'm going to start with the results, and then talk in more detail about the comparison. Bottom line: these Jigsaw Bars are really good! My wife and I both came to the same conclusion that the Jigsaw Bars are definitely a cut above the other products, for various reasons.

First and foremost - the Jigsaw bars' taste and consistency is quite nice and pleasing, and had I not known they were gluten-free, I would never have had a reason to suspect so. By comparison, although I don't mind the Enjoy-Life cocoa loco bars on occasion, they have a strange consistency, especially given the fact that the rice-flakes in them tend to remain in your mouth after the remainder of the bar has dissolved already (and, I'll be chewing just rice flakes for some time) -- those bars definitely make me think "gluten free" every time I eat them. The Larabars are a really nice product, but the one thing that causes my wife and I to get a bit burnt-out on them is the fact they are all date-based, and those Dates certainly contribute a dominant taste and texture, regardless of which Larabar variety is consumed - thus, if you don't like dates, you won't like Larabars.

As for which variety of Jigsaw Bar I prefer - you guessed it! - Chocolate! :)
Both are really good, but the coconut-almond variety I found more to my liking when I "enhanced" it. On the road, I simply popped a small piece of chocolate into my mouth along with a bit of the bar. At home, I melted some 70% dark-chocolate in the microwave and thinly coated the bar - the result was perfect :) I am not saying that Jigsaw Health needs to chocolate coat the coconut-almond version, but rather that they may want to consider making a third type of bar, which is a chocolate-coated coconut-almond bar... I think that could be a nice addition to the group, and I'm sure that some people who don't care as much for chocolate will appreciate having the option to get coconut-almond without chocolate still.

Now, another neat thing about the Jigsaw Bars is their health/nutrient composition. These things have Omega 3's, quite a bit of protein, a decent amount of dietary fiber, and some other added nutrients - making them a nice "health bar" as claimed.

I provided a detailed comparison below (using the nutritional values printed on each product's label) to give a side-by-side view from a more scientific approach. A couple things worth nothing when comparing between bars:

• Enjoy Life bar is MUCH smaller (just over half the weight), so its calories and carbs look favorable (until you multiply it up to the same serving-size as the other two bars).
• The Enjoy Life and Jigsaw Health bars both fortify their products, which explains why their B-Vitamin counts are so high compared to a Larabar e.g. (Larabar does not add any supplements at all, and are very simple ingredient formulas).
• Jigsaw achieves a super-low Sugar rating (and glycemic index) by using "sugar alcohols" like Maltitol (it is GF) and Xylitol. This is certainly something of interest to diabetics.

Here's the side-by-side breakdown comparison between the three bars.

	Jigsaw(Chocolate)	LaraBar(Cherry)	Enjoy Life (Cocoa Loco)
Bar Size	1.76oz (50g)	1.7oz (48g)	1oz (28g)
Calories	180	190	120
Fat g (total)	7g	9g	3.5g
Fat g (trans)	0g	0g	0g
Cholesterol	5mg	0mg	0mg
Sodium	75mg	0mg	90mg
Total Carbs	24g	24g	22g
Sugars	0g	17g	9g
Sugar Alcohol	14g	n/a	n/a
Fiber	2g	4g	2g
Protein g	12g	5g	2g
Vitamin A	20% DV	8% DV	2% DV
Vitamin C	20%	0%	0%
Calcium	8%	8%	15%
Iron	6%	10%	4%
Vitamin E	25%	15%	n/a
Thiamin (B1)	20%	4%	30%
Riboflavin (B2)	20%	8%	35%
Niacin (B3)	20%	4%	40%
B6	20%	2%	30%
Folate	20%	n/a	35%
B12	20%	n/a	n/a
Magnesium	n/a	15%	15%
Potassium	n/a	240mg	n/a
Copper	n/a	10%	n/a
Manganese	n/a	20%	n/a

Hope you find this detailed review and comparison useful! I am definitely going to be a repeat customer for Jigsaw Health bars. I will be sure to always have a few on hand for when I plan to take trips or be away from my house where I know I can safely cook up some gluten-free baked goods of my own.

The bars are a bit on the pricier side, but I'm willing to pay a bit extra for a superior product. I see they are offering free shipping on orders over $69.00 right now (which means you'd have to order 2 cases of 12 bars that come out to roughly $70.00). The price would keep me from eating these every single day, but the taste and texture are good enough I'm rather certain I could eat them every day and not tire of them. :)