What the Heck Are You Eating is a new YouTube nutrition show created by Everyday Health and Joy Bauer. In each brief episode, Joy answers pressing food questions in a fun and engaging style that reminds us of Alton Brown. Here are our two favorite episodes.

Do artificial sweeteners actually promote weight gain?

What is actually the healthiest choice: frozen yogurt, ice cream, or non-dairy?

For more information: 

Follow our new Pinterest Board – What’s in Your Food?

Watch Joy Bauer recommend NuGO Slim on the Today Show 

Read about Dark Chocolate Deception

Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Michael Roizen posted this fascinating article, “Sugar vs. Artificial Sweeteners: Which Is Healthier and Safer?” on the RealAge YOU Docs Daily blog. The two popular doctors coauthored the best-selling YOU books. If you are eating foods with artificial sweeteners, they can have a negative impact on your health and may actually cause you to gain weight, not lose weight!

“In fact, sweeteners have been studied far more than most drugs (there’ve been at least 100 studies on sucralose/Splenda alone). The problem is that they subtly mess with how you react to food.

• Sometimes it’s a mind game. For instance, diet sodas can cloud common sense, making you think your no-cal drink “cancels out” the fat calories in burgers and fries.

• Sometimes they make you eat more, not less. Because no-cal sweeteners essentially don’t register in your brain’s satiety center, instead of satisfying a sweet craving they can send you hunting for something else . . . and then something else. They also train your taste buds to go PING only when they detect intense sweetness.

• Sometimes there’s something going on no one even understands yet. Recent Texas research has linked drinking diet soda to bigger waists — 70% bigger than in people who didn’t touch the stuff. “Huh?” That’s what we said. More to come on this. But Dr. Mike, who used to drink a daily diet cola (or six), is glad he gave ‘em all up over a year ago.”

There’s also evidence that fake sugars and diet sodas don’t help you lose weight, and up your risk of metabolic syndrome, which precedes diabetes, heart disease, and more. So it’s hard to be enthusiastic about them.”

NuGo Dark, NuGO Organic, NuGO FREE, and NuGO Slim protein bars are coated in REAL dark chocolate, available in scrumptious flavors, and perfect for National Chocolate Day (October 28) or anytime. All of our dark chocolate protein bars are vegan and dairy-free, except for NuGO Slim. NuGO FREE and NuGO Slim are certified gluten-free and high in fiber. All NuGo products are certified Kosher by the Orthodox Union.

To celebrate National Chocolate Day, we are holding another exciting giveaway. The winner receives one mixed box (12 bars) of NuGo REAL dark chocolate bars. The winner gets to choose the bars to meet their special dietary needs.

Here’s how to enter:
1. Like NuGo Gluten Free or NuGo Nutrition on Facebook.
2. Leave a comment on this blog post telling us which page you liked and which bars you are excited to try.

For extra entries:
3. Like both of our Facebook pages and leave a comment saying you liked both.
4. Follow us on Twitter if you aren’t already and tweet:
@NuGoNutrition Giveaway: REAL Dark Chocolate Protein Bars! Healthy bars for many lifestyles. http://tinyurl.com/3ke2cqz #Kosher #gf #vegan
Be sure to leave a comment telling us that you tweeted it.

One winner will be randomly chosen and announced on both of our Facebook pages on Friday, November 4, 2011. The winner must live in the continental United States. Use code COCO621 to receive 10% off online orders of all of our product lines, except NuGo 10. The code is valid only October 27-28, 2011. Good luck!

We are so impressed with the many great reviews of our new Slim bars. With only 2 grams of sugar from REAL Dark Chocolate and chicory root, these revolutionary bars make an exciting blog post. Here are some of our favorite quotes from gluten-free bloggers.

Gluten-Free Cat posted a glowing review of NuGO Slim and took some great photos of the bars!

“I’ve found a gluten-free product that meets all of my personal nutritional and taste requirements. The only thing that could make this product better is if it didn’t have a wrapper, and it sprouted from a NuGo tree.”

“The deep chocolate taste of the brownie crunch was perfect for satisfying a sweet tooth, not too powerful, not too sweet. Just perfect. And the bar fueled me perfectly for teaching back to back BodyPump classes. I was concerned that the 180 calories in the Brownie Crunch bar wouldn’t be enough for a two hour workout, but the combination of carbs, protein, and fat couldn’t have worked better.”

Nosh – The Gluten-Free Kosher Critic also praised our Slim bars, appreciating their unique benefits.

“These bars are unique to the line of gluten-free, kosher goodies, because they’re geared toward the low-sugar, high-protein consumer without artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols found in a lot of other products.”

“The Roasted Peanut was just right, like a chocolate-peanut butter sandwich. Definitely a go-to when you are hungry and need something to keep in your bag.”

The Gluten Free Traveller reviewed both our Slim and FREE bars.

“The roasted peanut bar (Slim) has a good texture and bite to it and contains 15g of protein. Most of the protein bars I’ve tried are squishy but this one has some crunch to it. If you like dark chocolate and peanuts then you’ll like this. It tastes just like dark chocolate covered peanuts..in bar form.”

“The Dark Chocolate Trail Mix bar is probably my favourite of the bars I tried. The mixture of sweet nutty granola mix goes well with the dark chocolate making it sweet and tasty.”

The Delicate Place loved that the bars contain only 2 grams of sugar.

“If you are looking for a tasty bar and watching your sugar, I’d definitely recommend picking one of these bars up asap!”

Read more reviews of NuGo bars. Order NuGO Slim on our website, and look for them in stores soon.

Kimberly Bouldin, a gluten-free blogger and runner, published a fantastic review of NuGO Slim on the popular website, Celiac-Disease.com. Kimberly was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2006 and reviews many gluten-free products.

We loved this review because Kimberly did a great job of highlighting the features that make NuGO Slim so unique from other low-sugar protein bars.

1. No Maltitol or Artificial Sweeteners

“Artificial sweeteners and I do not get along. Never have. I do what I can to avoid them at all costs. A lot of diet bars that are high in protein have artificial sweeteners which makes them a no-no in my book.”
“My stomach was not bothered in the least by these bars, another amazing fact!”

2. Flavor, Texture, and Size

“I tried both the brownie crunch and the roasted peanut. Both bars had a nice flavor & texture and were not overly sweet. The size of the bar was decent. There is nothing I hate worse than eating something in this same calorie range that is tiny and feeling unsatisfied when I am done.”

3. High Protein and Fiber

“I felt satisfied when I was finished with these bars and they held me over until my next meal, which is not an easy task. With all of the running & training that I currently do, I am always eating. Snacks that don’t have protein and fiber in them don’t hold me over and I find myself hungry again in the next hour.”

Kimberly also mentioned that NuGO Slim is made with REAL dark chocolate and chicory root fiber. Read the entire review here.