Get a load of this - The Hooah Bar

Orange Fish

This is funny...and it's not even April 1st...

"The sports nutrition bar, created by the Army's Natick Labs for
energy-craving soldiers five years ago, is now being marketed to the
general public, and in June it will debut nationwide in some 15,000
stores, including Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, 7-Eleven, and GNC. CVS will
beginning selling the $1.99 energy bar in July.

The vendors, the Los Angeles-based D'Andrea Brothers, hope that public
admiration for the military will help them carve out a niche in the
competitive energy-bar market. Its silver wrapping bills Hooah! as
''the performance nutrition bar created by the US military."

Whether ''hiking 30 miles in the woods, battling a deadline at work, or
commanding a platoon of unruly children at home, Hooah! helps you
soldier through," promises the energy bar's website, www.hooahbar.com.

Mark and Christian D'Andrea, who won exclusive commercial rights to the
energy bar, said it gives consumers a chance to experience cutting-edge
military technology at a reasonable cost.

''The military is one of the country's most respected institutions,"
Christian D'Andrea said. ''We think a lot of people will like the idea
of eating the same energy bar as the soldiers." They pointed to the
success of the Humvee to show civilian interest in military products.

Soldiers tested various prototype bars to help researchers determine
the optimum mix of ingredients for good taste and sustained energy. As
a result, the bar provides nutrients and complex carbohydrates instead
of a sugar spike and ensuing crash, said Gerry Darsch, director of the
Combat Feeding Directorate at the Army's Soldier Systems Center.

''In field tests with Army Rangers, it produced a 17 percent increase
in physical endurance" compared to other energy bars, Darsch said. ''It
enables warfighters to think faster, move quicker, and run farther."

Soldiers not only tested the bar, they named it, choosing the popular,
all-purpose exclamation that apparently derived from the acronym for
''heard, understood, and acknowledged" and usually signifies firm
approval and conviction. More than 70 percent of surveyed soldiers
voted for the name.

''Hooah means anything and everything, except for no," Mark D'Andrea
quipped.

Darsch said Army researchers got the idea for an energy bar when they
noticed that soldiers were spending part of their wages on sports
nutrition bars for extra energy. So they set out to make a
high-performing energy bar tasty enough to eat, yet durable enough to
meet the Pentagon's requirement that combat rations last for months at
high temperatures.

''It's mostly the same ingredients" as commercial energy bars, he said.
''But it's the amount of those ingredients that makes the difference."

The bar provides 280 calories, 17 vitamins and minerals, 14 percent of
the recommended daily amount of fat, and 13 percent of carbohydrates.
It comes in chocolate crisp and apple cinnamon flavors.

Marines and Army Special Forces are now using the bar in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and starting next year, the Army will include the bar in
thousands more MREs (meals ready to eat) and carbohydrate supplement
packs.

The military benefits as well. Under the agreement, a portion of the
bar's commercial proceeds go back to the military for research and
development. Neither side would disclose the amount, but the D'Andreas
said it was ''several cents on the dollar."

While hunters and Humvee drivers would seem the most receptive audience
for the bar's military theme, the D'Andreas expect Hooah! to bridge the
conservative-liberal divide.

''Regardless of where people stand on the war, everyone supports the
troops," Christian D'Andrea said."

wilmar13

Uhhh for 1.99 you must be a hardcore military supporting monkey to buy that thing... for .99 at the same Walmart you can pick yourself up a Cliff-bar that tastes better (ok probably) and will work just as well.

wilmar13

I just went to website to look at the nutritional stuff... I guess in addition to wanting to emulate "the troops", I guess you have to not care about nutrition to enjoy the product: 5 grams of saturated fat, and the first 5 ingredientes of which 3 are crap: Corn syrup, soy protein isolate, fructose, maltodextrin, fractionated palm oil

Mmmm yummy Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Orange Fish

Yay, another non-supporter of the Hooah bar! I ended up writing this company and telling them basically what a load of crap this bar was (literally a load of crap). You're exactly right about those ingredients. If that's what the military is using all their money to research - optimal nutritional foods like this one - then I want a new military! haha.

wilmar13

Yeah well this is probably one of the poorer examples of goverment waste you could find I am sure... But if the private sector wanted to get serious about it, they could come up with something better... I am sure all the crap ingredients were necessary to have the shelf life necessary for military specs... but geesh I have eaten two year old power bars (as in been in my possession for two years) and while it was stale and hard, it tasted about the same.

Orange Fish

That's true. I guess we should be glad it's only an energy bar that they're wasting their money on.
I didn't think about the crap ingredients for shelf life. That's a good point, but still, for them to market it the way they did is just a joke. Maybe they should promote the crappy ingredients and get people to "eat like the troops." Then we could all feel like we're in the military when we eat the Hooah Bar after 12 years of sitting in the back seat of our car. That's why they don't use healthy or organic ingredients! I got it now!

I have to say, those old Power Bars aren't all that bad tasting, even after a couple of years. Same for the Power Gels...I actually prefer the stale ones. I'm going to start a company that promotes stale Power Bars. "Eat like a cyclist...eat a stale Power Bar!" hehe

YesOuiSi

Luv you guys, I really do... But all of you are obviously completely in the dark when it comes to military rations. You know nothing about MRE's; you know nothing about field stripping; you know nothing about the way we operate in combat situations. Granted, it would be nice if we could have organic ingredients and/or non "crap" ingredients (as stated so arrogantly in previous posts). Us folks here on the front lines are really more concerned with scheduling our meals on an AS-NEEDED basis. It is not a lifestyle for us, it is just a matter of what's necessary to get the job done; stay alive; and come back home where we can do fun things like join little bicycle clubs and such.

Induray

Have you ever eaten at a galley on a military base???? Not the finest or most nutritional food around. That's why they call it "grub" Maybe they should call it the "Grub" bar.........yuck