Good-For-You Protein or Energy Bars

How do you pick a good meal replacement protein bar or energy bar?

That is a really good question that I recently received through my email. The protein bar industry really concerns me. Most people assume that since the bars are called protein bars or meal replacement bars that they are good for you. The degree of goodness varies greatly. Many of the good-for-you bars are nothing more than well packaged candy. First of all, what is good for me might not be a good choice for you.

What is the reason that you are eating a bar?

A few reasons may be as follows:

• Skipping a meal on the run
• Post work out carbs intake
• Protein source when working out
• A healthy dessert
• Kids’ snack instead of candy
• Grown-Up Snack instead of candy or junk

All of those are terrific reasons to eat a snack bar, or energy bar. The choice of the bars available is huge so how do you pick one that is good for you? What do you look for?

Look At The Ingredients List

The very first step in choosing your bars is to look at the ingredients list. Do not buy your bars based on what it says on the label. The label is written by marketing agents who are paid to sell the product. Understanding that the label is the marketing and the ingredients list is the facts will go a long way toward picking better food.

I recommend that you get bars that have very few chemicals or manmade food products in them. Generally, those ingredients are distinguishable by the fact that you do not know what they are when you are looking at the ingredients list. Examples may be dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, artificial flavors, and hundreds more. Chemicals are addictive and have no nutritional value! Stay away from chemically-laden foods.

If you are using your bar for energy or a kids’ snack, sugar is OK, just look for good sugars. Regular sugar, raw sugar, cane sugar, honey and maple syrup would be good choices. We all need sugar to create energy. Glucose or simple sugars are essential for athletes after workouts and kids can use a good energy snack too.

Look for whole grain products. Brown rice, oats, whole wheat, bulgar, millet, quinoa, barley and other types of whole grains. The words rice, white rice, wheat, organic wheat, enriched wheat listed in your ingredient list are all the equivalent to more sugar. The above-listed grains will give you the good-for-you natural whole grain goodness of fiber and the right fats!

As a meal, protein is important. A body builder will also want a good supply of protein. How are they putting the protein in? Is it whey protein, legumes, seeds and nuts, and other recognizable ingredients or is the list full of things you never heard of? I actually use a meal replacement that is more like a soft granola than a bar. It is yummy, and chock full of natural goodness. Some of the foods include: oats, raisins, chick peas, kidney beans, bananas red beats blueberries, millet, whole rye, barley, oats, corn, Quinoa, cinnamon, glove, aloe, nutmeg, guava and more……. The point here is that there are actually whole food meal replacements that are fun, fast, healthy, tasty and as good for you as eating dinner! To learn more about my whole food choices click here.

After you find your choice of bars that have all good-for-you ingredients, then go to the nutritional analysis and check out how it meets your preferred dietary profile. Avoid the habit of most people who check out the nutritional analysis as their only deciding factor. Pick your meal replacement bar based on what is in it, in the ingredient list, not based on what is not in it based on the label and nutritional analysis. If it is not made out of real food, it is not a good choice and may be causing you to crave more foods.

Are You Feeding Your Body Chemicals?

Is your body screaming ‘feed me’ and you are giving it chemicals (drugs)? Take some time to find good-for-you meal replacement bars. Your protein bar should be chemical-free so that you are consuming good nutrition in your bars. To check out the snacks that I include in my diet go to DebsFavoriteWholeFoods.com

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