Review: GG Scandinavian Bran Crispbread by Amy Dungan

At first glance the GG Scandinavian Bran Crispbreads don’t look like much. They are brown, flat and resemble the chipboard my dad used to pick up at the lumber yard when I was a kid. They seriously look like they should taste like cardboard. Thankfully they don’t. They actually remind me of the All-Bran cereal I used to love, minus any sweetness. They have that cereal texture too. While pretty dry by themselves, these little babies are a tasty way to transfer some of your favorite toppings.

If you like crackers and cheese, these will do nicely. Add some sliced meat and you have a nice little snack. (Keep in mind these are not going to be like your average saltine or buttered cracker.) When I was a carb addict, I used to love peanut butter and jelly on toast. I tried the same mixture (sugar-free of course) atop one of these little crackers and was pleasantly surprised at how close it was to my old favorite. Right now my favorite way to enjoy these is with a little Nature’s Hollow Sugar-Free Strawberry Preserves.

Other uses for these crackers could include serving them with soups, homemade cheese spreads, hot dips, sour cream or cream cheese-based dips, and salsa – pretty much anything you would use a regular cracker or chip for. Granted the texture is a bit different and might take some getting used to, but if you really are jonesing for a cracker substitute, I think this will work just fine.

One whole, somewhat large, cracker gives you seven carbs, with five of those being fiber. That’s two net carbs per slice since fiber isn’t digested by the body.  These servings are filling too. With all that fiber it won’t take much to tame the snack monster. And fiber works as a natural laxative, so if constipation is an issue for you, this is another option for handling that.

Each slice contains 12 calories, 0 fat, 0 cholesterol, 30 mg of sodium, 7 carbs, 2 fiber, and 1 gram of protein. Each package will give you 10 slices. The ingredients in these crispbreads are pretty simple: unprocessed wheat bran, rye flour and salt. It nice to see a product without lots of crazy chemicals added that we can’t even pronounce, let alone understand without looking them up on Google. Do keep in mind this is not the kind of product you’d eat on induction or most other low-carb beginning phases. These should most likely be saved for pre-maintenance and up, depending on what is allowed on your chosen plan. Since some people are less tolerant than others with grains, this is certainly an item you want to gage your personal reaction to. The saying your mileage-may-vary definitely applies here, so be smart about it.

Overall I give this product a thumbs up. With your favorite additions or condiments, it makes a nice treat. If you are missing that crunch in your snacks, these should fit the bill.

Disclosure: I was provided this product free of charge in order to review it. It in no way affected my opinion of the product.

© 2011 Amy Dungan. Article and photograph used by kind permission of the author. Send Amy your comments to Amy Dungan.