The RAW-view:

Laura's Wholesome Junkfood Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bite-lettes

Reviewed on:	2009-06-26
Manufacturer:	Laura's Wholesome Junkfood
Where I found it:	Whole Foods

Vegans may find these okay, but for the raw foodist or aspiring raw food beginner, you may want to avoid them.  Here's why...

Ingredients:
Rolled Oats, Chocolate Chips (Dehydrated Cane Juice, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Vanilla), Dates, Expeller Pressed Canola Oil, Evaporated Cane Juice, Fruit Juice, Natural Grain Dextrins, Unbleached Enriched Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Unsweetened Coconut, Water, Non-GMO Soy Protein Isolate, Non-GMO Soy Powder, Non-Aluminum Baking Powder (Cornstarch, Sodium Bicarbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Sea Salt, Orange Oil, Citric Acid

I'm not entirely sure what makes these bite-lettes so wholesome.  We all know the 5-ingredient rule, which is something to keep you focused while at the grocery store: if there are more than 5 ingredients, it's probably going to give your body a hard time.  With that in mind, I knew that this product was going to be tough, but I was in a hurry and didn't check the ingredients specifically until I got home.

Of course, as all raw foodies know, the oats are a bell ringer that this one isn't a great choice.  Next, the chocolate chips...  They've got some nice whole ingredients in them, but once you get to the oil, it all goes downhill - Canola oil is mentioned, a specific first turn off - and the fact that it's expeller pressed is another bad sign.

Fruit juice is listed, but it doesn't tell you what kind of fruit juice or if the juice is natural or from concentrate or powder.  Finally, and this is where I couldn't stand to read any further, it lists "Unbleached Enriched Wheat Flour" - this is a common cover up for many products.  I believe the manufacturers feel that if they word it this way, we'll be duped into believing it's good for us.  Remember, if it doesn't say Organic Whole Wheat Flour, then it's not good for you, and to be totally honest, even Organic Whole Wheat Flour can be hard on our bodies - so we take it in tiny amounts.

Finally, she uses baking powder...yipes....and finally, she throws in some sea salt (what for? might as well use table salt at this point) and tops it off with orange oil.

The orange oil brings me to my experience.  I couldn't just by these and review them without giving it a shot.  After all, I can hear my grandmother in my head saying "Don't knock it till you try it, sweetie!"  After one bite, I couldn't eat anymore.

First of all, the orange oil throws the flavor off in a direction I cannot even explain.  Who pluts orange oil in a chocolate chip cookie anyway?  Second, the texture was oily and rich, just like those fake brownies I used to eat in my SAD days by Entenmann's - totoally fake-ish, nothing homemade about it.

In conclusion, I don't recommend this product for any raw food eater.  It's not raw and in my opinion, it's nothing more than SAD with a nice label sold in Whole Foods stores.  Just because it's at Whole Foods doesn't make it good for you - always remember that! 

*Rawr!* to you!
Misty