These No-Bake Chocolate Snack Bars Are Brimming With Brain-Health Benefits

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August 5, 2022 — 11:32 AM

Dark chocolate and peanut butter is the best dessert combination by far (peanut butter haters, don't come for me!). It satisfies your sweet tooth, yet that nutty flavor adds a slightly salty flair—seriously, what's not to love? And when you add a base layer of crunchy, shortbread-like batter, the flavors are simply divine. 

Consider mbg founder and co-CEO Jason Wachob, another fan of the chocolate/peanut-butter combo: On the mindbodygreen podcast, he shares his homemade snack bar recipe with integrative medicine doctor Austin Perlmutter, M.D., and it turns out, his go-to dessert is packed with brain-health benefits. Ahead, find all of the delicious details.

What makes these bars so brain-healthy, you ask? Well, to start, Perlmutter loves Himalayan tartary buckwheat (HTB): "This plant is exceptionally high in certain polyphenols, like rutin and quercetin, that have been linked to overall health," he explains. Rutin, specifically, has been shown to protect the brain and fight free radicals, and there's 50 times more rutin in HTB than regular buckwheat.

Flaxseeds also contain polyphenols, specifically a type called lignans, as well as omega-3 ALA and fiber. Brain-health benefits aside, these decadent snack bars are delicious and easy to make—you'll be whipping them up weekly, trust me.    

If you want to punch up the health benefits even further, you could even add 1 to 2 scoops of mindbodygreen's beauty & gut collagen+ (depending on how many bars you're serving).* In addition to those brain-healthy polyphenols from HTB, you'll also get premium bioactives like vitamins C and E, biotin, hyaluronic acid, and L-glutamine, plus turmeric and broccoli extracts to support glowing skin, strong hair and nails, and a healthy gut.*

Feel free to use the unflavored or chocolate variety—both will offer the same high-quality ingredients and beauty perks, but if you're a chocolate lover, go ahead and opt for the latter. You might want to play around with the monk fruit ratio since the chocolate option already comes sweetened with organic monk fruit. But for those craving an extra-sweet treat, this collagen powder provides that perfect rich (never saccharine) flavor.