AP Prime Bites: High Protein Brownies with Amazing Texture!

If you asked us about one functional food that’s taken the entire fitness world by storm this year, the answer is simple: AP PrimeBites Protein Brownies. And it’s not even close.

The rumors are true – the protein brownies that have taken over the entire industry — AP PrimeBites — are coming in hot with Birthday Cake Blondie and Blueberry Cobbler flavors!

These delicious protein-boosted delicacies from Alpha Prime Supps seemingly came out of nowhere, but can now be found nearly everywhere, from gyms to specialty retailers to convenience stores and beyond. And with the latest flavor expansion announced mid-June of 2022, we expect them to go even further:

AP PrimeBites now over half a dozen flavors!

Alpha Prime promised something big this year, and given our beta testing earlier this year, we know it’s true: PrimeBites are here in Blueberry Cobbler and Birthday Cake Blondie flavors, and many others have come out since then!

Let’s show the flavors available right now, see some of our videos, and then dig into the details on the label:

AP Prime Bites Ingredients

There are a lot of ingredients in AP Prime Bites, and some of them won’t have much nutritional impact one way or the other (as is usually the case with food). In this article, we’ll highlight a few that are likely to be of significant benefit – but understand that there will be a few different ingredients for different flavors:

• Protein Blend

  

  AP Prime Bites Chocolate Cookie Monster Ingredients – other labels will differ a bit!

  Our body needs many different amino acids to function properly. Moreover, we must take in these aminos in the correct ratios. Here, Alpha Prime Supps uses a blend of several protein types in order to achieve a good amino balance.

  • Collagen Hydrolysate

    In addition to water, skin is made up of about 80% collagen. This protein forms the structural backbone of your skin, as well as some other bodily tissues. It’s the extracellular matrix,^[1] akin to a type of glue, that holds your body together.

    Collagen contains a triple helix molecule structure consisting of the amino acids glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline, which account for about 57% of all the amino acids in collagen. Your skin owes its flexibility and elasticity to the triple helix molecules. They bond to each other easily and fold effortlessly at the structural level without breaking those bonds.^[1,2]

    While the modern diet consists mostly of muscle meats, collagen is actually the most abundant type of protein in mammals.^[3] And given humanity’s nose-to-tail carnivorous past, our metabolic intakes are probably calibrated for a higher collagen intake than what we get in modern diet.

    

    Not just birthday cake, but Birthday Cake Blondie

    In fact, a deficiency in glycine, one of the main amino constituents of collagen, has been identified as a risk factor for metabolic derangement and obesity.^[4]

    We theorize that the absence of collagenous cuts of meat in the modern diet makes supplementation with collagen a very good thing to consider, especially if you’re not eating a lot of meat off the bone, skin, marrow, or other dietary soft tissue.

    In modern research, collagen supplementation has been shown to:

    • Enhance joint and connective tissue health^[5,6]
    • Improve hair, skin and nails texture, strength, and durability^[7,8]
    • Improve cardiovascular health^[9]

  • Whey Protein Blend Whey Concentrate and Isolate

    Whey protein has been the supplemental protein of choice among consumers and manufacturers alike for several decades.

    One big reason is that the specific amino acids contained in whey are extremely bioavailable,^[10] much more so than plant-sourced protein.^[11] Whey is fast-acting and highly insulinogenic, which during recovery from exercise is actually a good thing. Whey is also extremely high in essential amino acids, i.e. the amino acids that your body isn’t capable of synthesizing from precursors, which means you must obtain them in their whole form from food.^[11]

    

    New in late June 2022: Blueberry Cobbler

    Research on whey consistently finds that even in the context of a nutrient-dense, high–protein diet, supplementation can increase strength and muscle gains.^[12-15]

    Concentrate vs. Isolate

    You may have noticed that AP Prime Bites contain both whey concentrate and whey isolate. The difference between these two forms of the protein simply has to do with the extent of filtration, and thus the purity of the whey. Isolate is pure whey, whereas concentrate ranges from 25 to 89 percent protein, with the rest of it consisting of carbs and fats from the milk used to source the whey.

    Using whey concentrate isn’t inherently a bad thing, as the carbs and fats in milk have benefits of their own. But people who are sensitive to milk and dairy should be aware of the difference, as whey concentrate may cause GI issues in these individuals.

• Egg

  AP Prime Bites also contain whole egg, which is great from the perspective of micronutrient content.

  For one thing, eggs are high in choline, an essential nutrient, meaning that although it is required for optimal health, your body can’t make it and must obtain it from food.

  Choline’s main role is as a building block for cellular membranes, the spherical outer layers made of phospholipids that enclose the contents of every one of your body’s cells.^[16]

  

  The popular Chocolate Fudge Prime Bites label

  Choline is also a precursor to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter with profound effects on learning and memory.^[17] A rise in acetylcholine levels improves a wide range of cognitive functions, including physical skills like balance and coordination.^[18,19]

  Choline deficiency is something you definitely want to avoid, as it can lead to cognitive dysfunction, organ damage, muscle wasting, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a syndrome that’s associated with the onset of diabetes.^[20]

  Eggs are also high in folate,^[21] an essential vitamin that positively affects your body’s amino acid balance by regulating homocysteine blood levels.^[22]

  And of course, eggs are a great source of protein in themselves.

• Sweeteners: Erythritol, Monk Fruit Extract, and Brown Sugar

  All of the bars have a trifecta of sweeteners, and we can use the nutrition facts to learn how much of each we have.

  The primary sweetener is erythritol, a sugar alcohol with 60–80% the sweetness of sucrose, yet is mostly non-metabolized and excreted unmodified without altering blood glucose and insulin levels.^[23] It’s also known to improve mouthfeel.^[23] Compared to other sugar alcohols, it has a far better effect on the GI tract.^[24] Lesser-known, erythritol is also an excellent antioxidant.^[25] Depending on the flavor, you’ll see about 8-11 grams of added sugar alcohols in Prime Bites.

  

  You can also try the Variety Pack, which currently comes with the first four flavors

  Monk fruit extract is another well-dosed sweetener in AP Prime Bites. The sweet taste comes from mogrosides, which is a special kind of sugar because it’s not absorbed systemically after digestion,^[26] meaning that it has no effect on your caloric intake or blood glucose levels.

  Unlike most zero-calorie sweeteners, monk fruit has some potentially beneficial nutritional properties. For example, mogrosides have been shown to significantly reduce inflammation by downregulating a number of pro-inflammatory genes, including cyclooxygenase 2 (COX 2), the same gene that is inhibited by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), like aspirin and ibuprofen.^[27]

  Although researchers have speculated that some artificial sweeteners could adversely affect body composition by causing insulin overproduction,^[28] mogrosides appear to actually inhibit the growth and differentiation of fat cells.^[29]

  Finally, we have brown sugar, which is the primary source of the 5 grams of added sugars in Prime Bites.

• The Flour Blend

  You can’t just have sweeteners – a brownie needs flour to thicken it up. This is what makes Prime Bites so popular – it’s not a protein bar with tons of slimy glycerine or fake fiber syrup. The blend includes both almond flour and coconut flour, two gluten-free flours that bring the carbs without the GI upset.

  

  Now that’s a solid-looking high-protein snack!

  This rounds out our total carbohydrate load to anywhere from 20 to 26 grams of carbs, depending on the flavor you choose. For instance, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup uses more peanut flour (a source of fat), requiring less of this flour blend and thus having fewer carbs. On the other hand, Cookies and Cream Blondie has more carbs, and we can attribute this to its white chocolate chips.

  On the note of chocolate chips, they’re worth exploring in one of the flavors:

• Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips

  In the Chocolate Cookie Monster variation, we of course have sugar-free chocolate chips! Chocolate is high in stearic acid, a type of saturated fat with a number of health benefits. Perhaps the most interesting thing about stearic acid is its ability to induce mitochondrial fusion, a process by which your mitochondria fuse together and basically cooperate to produce energy for your cells in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).^[30]

  Besides improving general mitochondrial function,^[30] mitochondrial fusion has been shown to be necessary for steroid biosynthesis,^[31] the process by which your body produces sex hormones like testosterone, DHEA, and estrogen from cholesterol.

  One study found that 19 grams of daily stearic acid consumption significantly improved markers of cardiovascular health in humans.^[32]

  

  It doesn’t need to be your birthday to be able to celebrate!

  For context, 19 grams of stearic acid is about what you’d get from 800 calories of 70% dark chocolate – a pretty large serving, but by no means unattainable. And every little bit helps.

• Other ingredients

  • To soften the texture, Prime Bites use a vegetable oil blend combined with eggs, the latter of which may actually be one of the secret weapons, since we rarely see them in protein bars or high-protein brownies. This leaves us with a mostly unsaturated fat profile — for instance, the Chocolate Cookie Monster macros sport 7 grams of fat, 2 of which are saturated.

  • To round out the formula, almond milk, salt, baking powder, and additional flavors are used. Every brownie needs a type of milk to soften it up a bit more, and using almond milk improves shelf life where regular milk can’t be used in packaged snacks.

All Flavors Available

The best just got better — AP Prime Bites Protein Brownies now come in two high-moisture glazed flavors!

Over time, we expect more flavors to be released — the list below will keep an up-to-date listing:

Get in on the Prime Bites Brownie revolution!

Once again, sign up for the giveaway below and get ready for the newest flavors of the product that’s aggressively taking over the shelves. This article will be updated with full label details when they’re released: