Are Coscto Açaí Bowls Actually Healthy?

In fact, in recent years, it's become quite the health and wellness destination. You can load up on organic foods in bulk, grab a new yoga mat, and even stock up on workout gear all in the same trip.

Costco is even trying to up the good-for-you factor of their food courts, adding a $5 aa bowl to menus across the country.

Curious about this "healthy" new offering (uh, what's in it? total sugar bomb?), I decided to do a little digging.

S o, w hats in a Costco aa bowl, exactly?

Almost immediately, my hunt for the deets on Costco's aa bowls turned into a bit of a wild goose chase.

I reached out to Costco for the down-low on the aa bowl's ingredients (which are nowhere to be found on the interwebs) and was told that "management has no comment at this time." Huh.

Given that Costco is being a little cagey about this one, I turned to whatever aa gossip I could find.

According to Vegan News , the bowls are made with Sambazon aa mix (and who knows what else) and come topped with blueberries, strawberries, banana chips, and Kirkland's signature granola mix (a blend of ancient grains, oats, nuts, and cane sugar).

My best guess at the Costco aa bowl's nutrition stats...

Since Costco wouldn't officially share the aa bowl's nutritional information, I called up my local store and asked about it.

An incredibly helpful food court manager offered to look up the stats and put me on hold, only to return, apologize profusely, and say that their stat sheets were unavailable. He did add this, though: All we know is that, out of all the desserts we serve, it's a lower-sugar option.

Since my hunt for official nutrition stats again proved unsuccessful, I turned to the streets to at least score some speculation. The best I could find: Multiple MyFitnessPal entries report the Costco aa bowl as the following:

Calories: 330
Fat: 8 grams
Saturated fat: 4 grams
Carbs: 72 grams
Fiber: 9 grams
Sugar: 41 grams
Protein: 3 grams

Again, take this with a grain of salt, people!

So...are Costco's aa bowls healthy?

With my crowd-sourced deets on the Costco aa bowls in-hand, I asked a couple of dietitians for their thoughts on whether this food court option is actually healthy.

The answer, based on the secondhand information I scrounged up: not really.

They tend to provide a lot of carbohydrates and larger servings of fruit than someone would eat in solid form in a single sitting, but contain minimal protein, says Jessica Cording, RD, author of The Little Book of Game-Changers . This sets you up for a major blood sugar spike and energy crash.

Even though the sugar in aa bowls is (typically) naturally-occurring sugar from fruit, without protein, fat, or fiber to slow it down, it still hits the bloodstream pretty quickly, Cording explains. This can leave you famished not long after downing a bowl, causing you to overeat.

I applaud the offering of fresh blueberries and strawberries in [the Costco] food court, but am concerned about the 41 grams of sugar, says Keri Gans, RD, author of The Small Change Diet . Its hard to know how much of that is naturally-occurring and how much is addedbut, regardless, its a lot.

Aa bowls do contain antioxidants, though, Gans saysso at least theres that.

You can make your Costco aa bowl a little bit healthier, though.

If you want to make your Costco aa bowl a little healthier or more balanced, Gans recommends ordering it without the granola and adding some fiber by mixing in chia seeds, hemp seeds, or ground flax seeds. (Heck, you could probably stock up on all that before you hit the food court!)

Adding some kind of proteinlike protein powder , nuts, or nut buttercan also help make aa bowls more balanced, Cording says.

Still, its probably best to think of a Costco aa bowl as more of a treat than an everyday staple. But really, it's not like you hit up Costco every day, sowhy not?