Kindling Protein Pretzels do the job, even if they're a bit boring
Kindling Protein Pretzels offer the traditional twists you'd get from Snyder's or Rold Gold. Except inside that 120 to 130 calorie serving size is eight to nine grams of protein. It comes in a modest variety of flavors (or "flavours," as the website notes even though the founder is from Nashville). It's ready to go in snack form and looks generally appealing. Let's see what we've got.
Note: There is also a dill pickle flavor. Er, "flavour." I absentmindedly ate my lone bag before realizing there weren't any more. It was tangy, slightly sour and extremely dill. Pretty solid! But I don't have enough data for a real review.
Honey Mustard: B-
Dumping the bag onto the plate uncorks roughly 20 small knots, solidly dusted in dark yellow honey mustard powder and big crystals of salt. The smell is sweeter than it is spicy, but there's a small, lingering protein powder musk lurking underneath.
Despite what looks like a proper heap of flavor, Kindling comes up short when it comes to making sure the honey mustard lasts through each bite. It starts off crisp with a solid sweet tang -- the honey outweighs the mustard, for sure -- but after it wears away you're left with a slightly bland pretzel that's left to fight against the chickpea protein powder with which it's been infused.
The texture is pretty basic -- not as layered and crisp as Crisp Power or as soft and crumbly as Moore Crunch. Kindling doesn't go above and beyond with its offering. You're getting regular pretzels with a low calorie count and useful amount of protein (130 and eight grams, respectively). But they do it well enough to be worth a few bags.
Sea Salt: B-
Yep. These are pretzels, all right.
That's pretty much it. Salt, bread, crunch. If you like regular pretzels, this will feel a lot like a Snyder's production. Not much to say about that other than they taste like pretzels, even with that extra protein inside.
Garlic Parmesan: A-
Opening the bag is a vital reminder. If you *can* put garlic on something, you *should* put garlic on something. These smell more appealing than Kindling's other options, even if there's a bit of a stale tinge to the parmesan sprinkled across each twist.
The power of Italian staples goes a long way here. While the other varieties are underseasoned, these are full-bodied with tangy flavors that linger through the end of each bite. While there's no doubt my breath is a borderline tragedy after a few of these. It's well worth it.
Garlic Parmesan serves as proof Kindling can make a compelling snack as long as it's willing to get a bit creative and find flavors that extend the appeal of otherwise boring pretzels. The honey mustard wasn't enough and the dill pickle was basic. But this cacophony of flavors settles together to give you a garlic bread vibe in a significantly healthier package. And garlic bread, it must be noted, rules.
This was a bit of a big swing, but this and a punched-up honey mustard would serve Kindling well. There's potential here, even if the current lineup is a bit boring.
Would I eat it instead of a Hamm's?
This a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I'm drinking or eating to my baseline cheap beer. That's the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm's. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I take a bag of Kindling Protein Pretzels over a cold can of Hamm's?
A different vibe, certainly. But if we're talking a one-to-one comparison... gimme the Hamm's.
This is part of FTW's Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
01-08-2025
- New York Post
How drugs like Ozempic can help treat asthma — even if you don't have diabetes
Asthma sufferers, get pumped! Managing asthma often requires a two-pronged approach — long-term medicines to prevent attacks and rescue strategies to stop attacks when they happen. It's important to avoid triggers and monitor breathing. New research out of the UK suggests that GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Victoza may provide long-term asthma relief — in addition to shrinking waistlines. Advertisement 4 Asthma sufferers may benefit from GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, a new study finds. Pixel-Shot – 'This study is a good reminder that GLP-1s shouldn't just be labeled as 'weight loss drugs,'' Dr. Michael Snyder, who was not involved in the new study, told The Post. 'They're part of a broader shift in medicine toward treating chronic diseases at the systems level.' Advertisement Researchers from the University of Aberdeen and the Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute studied over 10,000 obese, asthmatic patients taking GLP-1 drugs, comparing them to about 50,000 adults who had similar medical histories but were not taking GLP-1s. The GLP-1 users had fewer asthma attacks and symptoms after a year, though there wasn't much difference between that group and the asthma patients not on GLP-1 drugs. 4 GLP-1s often cause weight loss, which has been shown to reduce the severity of asthma. Other factors may also be at play. millaf – The researchers attributed this outcome to 'large numbers of missing data' due to disruptions in information collection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advertisement Though the data was limited, the study authors noted that the GLP-1 group shed an average of 7.7 pounds while the other group lost an average of 2 pounds. It's unclear if the GLP-1 participants suffered side effects like nausea or vomiting. The results were published recently in the journal Advances in Therapy. This is not the first study to demonstrate that GLP-1 drugs can help asthma sufferers, particularly those with Type 2 diabetes and obesity. Advertisement Obesity is a well-known risk factor for asthma. One reason is that fat tissue can produce inflammatory substances that negatively affect the lungs and worsen asthma. GLP-1 drugs often cause weight loss because they mimic the GLP-1 hormone the body naturally produces after eating. Appetite decreases as users feel fuller for longer. The meds are prescribed to people with obesity and/or Type 2 diabetes. 4 Managing asthma often requires a two-pronged approach — long-term medicines to prevent attacks and rescue strategies to stop attacks when they happen. Pixel-Shot – Snyder, medical director of the Bariatric Surgery Center at Rose Medical Center in Denver and in-house obesity specialist at FuturHealth, suggests that these drugs could be useful for asthmatics who aren't obese or diabetic. 'These drugs appear to have anti-inflammatory effects, which is key since asthma is, at its core, an inflammatory disease,' Snyder said. 'They may also help calm airway hyperresponsiveness — in other words, making the lungs less reactive to common asthma triggers like allergens or pollution,' he added. 'And of course, the weight loss many patients experience can also improve lung function and reduce asthma severity, so it's likely a combination of these effects working together.' Snyder said more research is needed to confirm the effects in people who are not obese. Advertisement Dr. Thomas Kilkenny, director of the Institute of Sleep Medicine, Pulmonary & Critical Care at Northwell's Staten Island University Hospital, said the participants' better breathing is simply due to the weight loss. 'It has been shown multiple times in the past, and various studies show that weight loss alone improves asthma control,' Kilkenny told MedicalNewsToday. 4 Researchers have long been exploring uses for GLP-1 drugs beyond obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Fernanda – 'This study did not comment on whether the GLP-1 medication had a direct effect on the physiology of asthma control,' he added. Advertisement Since the first GLP-1 drug was approved 20 years ago to treat Type 2 diabetes, researchers have suggested that these meds can also relieve knee osteoarthritis pain, calm skin conditions, lower the odds of heart troubles and reduce dementia risk. 'Conditions like asthma, diabetes, sleep apnea, dementia and even cardiovascular disease don't exist in silos; they're deeply interconnected,' Snyder said. 'The fact that GLP-1s may impact all of them suggests we're entering a new era where the focus is not just on symptom management, but on rebalancing the underlying biology driving disease.'
USA Today
01-08-2025
- USA Today
Kindling Protein Pretzels do the job, even if they're a bit boring
Protein snacks are having a whole moment, and I'm here for that. In recent years, there's been a swell of healthier-for-you chips, crackers, even donuts that promise the protein to provide gains and minimal calories. Crisps made out of chicken? Wilde's got you. Tortilla chips and peanut butter cups? That's Quest's purview. Pretzels? Well, Crisp Power made a pretty solid impression last year. Now, here comes Kindling. Kindling Protein Pretzels offer the traditional twists you'd get from Snyder's or Rold Gold. Except inside that 120 to 130 calorie serving size is eight to nine grams of protein. It comes in a modest variety of flavors (or "flavours," as the website notes even though the founder is from Nashville). It's ready to go in snack form and looks generally appealing. Let's see what we've got. Note: There is also a dill pickle flavor. Er, "flavour." I absentmindedly ate my lone bag before realizing there weren't any more. It was tangy, slightly sour and extremely dill. Pretty solid! But I don't have enough data for a real review. Honey Mustard: B- Dumping the bag onto the plate uncorks roughly 20 small knots, solidly dusted in dark yellow honey mustard powder and big crystals of salt. The smell is sweeter than it is spicy, but there's a small, lingering protein powder musk lurking underneath. Despite what looks like a proper heap of flavor, Kindling comes up short when it comes to making sure the honey mustard lasts through each bite. It starts off crisp with a solid sweet tang -- the honey outweighs the mustard, for sure -- but after it wears away you're left with a slightly bland pretzel that's left to fight against the chickpea protein powder with which it's been infused. The texture is pretty basic -- not as layered and crisp as Crisp Power or as soft and crumbly as Moore Crunch. Kindling doesn't go above and beyond with its offering. You're getting regular pretzels with a low calorie count and useful amount of protein (130 and eight grams, respectively). But they do it well enough to be worth a few bags. Sea Salt: B- Yep. These are pretzels, all right. That's pretty much it. Salt, bread, crunch. If you like regular pretzels, this will feel a lot like a Snyder's production. Not much to say about that other than they taste like pretzels, even with that extra protein inside. Garlic Parmesan: A- Opening the bag is a vital reminder. If you *can* put garlic on something, you *should* put garlic on something. These smell more appealing than Kindling's other options, even if there's a bit of a stale tinge to the parmesan sprinkled across each twist. The power of Italian staples goes a long way here. While the other varieties are underseasoned, these are full-bodied with tangy flavors that linger through the end of each bite. While there's no doubt my breath is a borderline tragedy after a few of these. It's well worth it. Garlic Parmesan serves as proof Kindling can make a compelling snack as long as it's willing to get a bit creative and find flavors that extend the appeal of otherwise boring pretzels. The honey mustard wasn't enough and the dill pickle was basic. But this cacophony of flavors settles together to give you a garlic bread vibe in a significantly healthier package. And garlic bread, it must be noted, rules. This was a bit of a big swing, but this and a punched-up honey mustard would serve Kindling well. There's potential here, even if the current lineup is a bit boring. Would I eat it instead of a Hamm's? This a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I'm drinking or eating to my baseline cheap beer. That's the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm's. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I take a bag of Kindling Protein Pretzels over a cold can of Hamm's? A different vibe, certainly. But if we're talking a one-to-one comparison... gimme the Hamm's. This is part of FTW's Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Yahoo
Scientists Say Your Body Starts Aging Faster After 50—but Not All Parts at Once
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: Aging doesn't occur uniformly throughout our lives, but accelerates during certain periods. A new study from scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences found 48 disease-related proteins increase throughout the body at around the age of 50. This correlates with previous studies that found that human aging accelerated around the ages of 44 and the early 60s. As soon as we're born, we start aging, but scientists are quickly learning that not all aging is exactly the same. A new study, led by a team of scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and published in the journal Cell, details how humans experience accelerated aging after the the age of 50. The study identified that certain tissues (i.e. blood vessels) experience this aging faster than others, and the scientists also identified the proteins responsible for this accelerated process. 'Based on aging-associated protein changes, we developed tissue-specific proteomic age clocks and characterized organ-level aging trajectories,' the authors write. 'Temporal analysis revealed an aging inflection around age 50, with blood vessels being a tissue that ages early and is markedly susceptible to aging.' In the study, scientists collected tissue samples across the body's major organ systems from 76 individuals of Chinese ancestry—aged 14 to 68—who all died from accidental brain injury. The tissues showed that certain organs aged at different rates. The adrenal gland—one of the body's hormone factories—showed accelerated aging at around the age of 30, and also saw an increase in 48 disease-related proteins as tissue samples trended older. The scientists also spotted large changes in protein levels around the ages of 45 and 55. One of the biggest shifts was in the aorta, and scientists suspect that blood vessels carry these age-accelerating molecules throughout the body. This isn't the first study to surmise that aging isn't quite as linear as we once thought. Last year, a study from Stanford University similarly confirmed that humans largely experience a period of accelerated aging at around 44 and the early 60s, which Stanford University's Michael Snyder, a professor of genetics and the study's senior author, surmised at the time could be related to aging. Speaking with Nature about this new study, Snyder says that the findings largely align with his own scientific conclusions. 'It fits the idea that your hormonal and metabolic control are a big deal. That is where some of the most profound shifts occur as people age,' Snyder said. 'We're like a car. Some parts wear out faster.' Understanding what those parts are will help human mechanics (AKA doctors) to keep things under the hood running for longer. As scientists continue exploring the mechanics of aging, findings will likely converge and begin tell the story of how the body more generally experiences aging throughout a lifetime. 'Together, our findings lay the groundwork for a systems-level understanding of human aging through the lens of proteins,' the authors write. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life? Solve the daily Crossword
