The Good Bean: High Protein Chickpea Snacks

Snacking often is challenging for those trying to lose weight or eat healthier.

I recently received some samples of The Good Bean, a new line of snacks made from all natural roasted chickpeas.

Printed on the packaging is “100% Goodness! 0% Badness! “, however, you can’t always believe what you read, so let’s take a close look at the inside of these Good Beans.It’s no secret that chickpeas are a great food choice. Full of plant proteins, good carbs, and fiber, they are often a staple of healthy diets, so making a snack food out of them seems like a great idea.

The Good Bean has simply roasted the chickpea and added some seasonings to them in order to make a heathy, high protein alternative to chips, pretzels, or crackers. Here’s an analysis of the four varieties they currently offer.

Sea Salt

Ingredients: Chickpeas, evaporated cane juice, coarse salt, gum arabic, expeller-pressed canola oil, vitamin E

Nutrition: (35g serving or 1/4 cup) 140 calories, 2g of fat, 260mg of sodium, 23g of carbs, 6g of fiber, 2g of sugar, and 7g of protein, 8% iron, 8% calcium.

Taste: These have a slightly salty and sweet chickpea flavor and are my favorite because I like the simplicity of them. I’m not sure why sugar has to be added to these and I would be curious as to how they would taste without any. However, at only 2 grams, it’s not a huge issue.

Cracked Pepper

Ingredients: Chickpeas, evaporated cane juice, coarse salt, peper, gum arabic, expeller-pressed canola oil, vitamin E

Nutrition: (35g serving or 1/4 cup) 140 calories, 2g of fat, 260mg of sodium, 23g of carbs, 6g of fiber, 3g of sugar, and 7g of protein, 8% iron, 8% calcium.

Taste: This Good Bean flavor was a tad too peppery for me. The bag suggests to use this flavor also as a salad topper and they might be less intense this way.

Smoky Chili & Lime

Ingredients: Chickpeas, evaporated cane juice, spices, coarse salt, lime juice concentrate, gum arabic, expeller-pressed canola oil, vitamin E

Nutrition: (35g serving or 1/4 cup) 140 calories, 2g of fat, 260mg of sodium, 20mg of potassium, 23g of carbs, 6g of fiber, 5g of sugar, and 7g of protein, 8% iron, 8% calcium.

Taste: These were nice as long as you like spicy food and also would be nice as a salad topper. It seems there is a discrepancy in the nutrition information. This product has 5 grams of sugar, but the same amount of total carbs and calories as the previous two versions that have the same serving size, but only 2g of sugar. I suspect some mislabeling somewhere here.

Sweet Cinnamon

Ingredients: Chickpeas, evaporated cane juice, spices, coarse salt, gum arabic, expeller-pressed canola oil, vitamin E

Nutrition: (35g serving or 1/4 cup) 140 calories, 2g of fat, 160mg of sodium, 23g of carbs, 6g of fiber, 5g of sugar, and 6g of protein, 6% iron, 8% calcium.

Taste: These have a nice slightly sweet, cinnamon flavor and would be great for dieters craving a sweet snack. Again, I found labeling errors on this version as well. The front of the bag says 7g of protein, but in the nutrition label it only shows 6 grams. The calories from fat states15, however, the other varieties list 20 calories from 2 grams of fat. 2 grams of fat should yield 18 calories, so 20 seems the most accurate.

Conclusions

The Good Bean varieties are all gluten-free, GMO-free, and an all natural whole food snack.They would be a great high protein alternative to other snack foods. However, I would like to see them clean up their labels a tad and also to perhaps offer a sugar-free variety.

Overall, it’s nice to see healthier snack choices like The Good Bean enter the marketplace as they can make sticking to a healthier, lower calorie eating plan easier.