The Lowdown on Energy Bars

Let’s get clear about something right off the bat: Energy bars, no matter their quality, are NOT whole foods. They are processed by definition and therefore, not ideal everyday fare. Like with other processed foods, advertising geniuses sell us the illusion that eating these over-priced, convenient, neatly packaged calories is the thing to do.

Many times, I’ve been asked to recommend a “healthy” energy bar. I understand there might be occasions when snacking on an energy bar is the best option considering the circumstances, but to believe that you can call it lunch every day and that you’re getting the “nutrients” the label announces, well, that’s a long stretch.

OK, now that we got that out of the way, let me answer the question to the best of my ability. Which energy bar(s) would I recommend?

Somehow, I convinced Scott, my husband, that it would be really fun to spend a couple of hours in Whole Foods taking pictures and reading labels so I could write this blog entry. He didn’t precisely have a blast, but we were there long enough to gather the information I needed (and get a suspicious approach by an employee!).

Why Whole Foods as opposed to a regular grocery store, a drugstore or a health food store? Two reasons. First: It would be very hard for me to find a bar I can recommend at a grocery store or a drugstore. The thing about processed food is that it’s made with cheap, low-quality ingredients and if you want to get decent processed food, you need to pay a little more. About 90% of the energy bars in the market list high fructose corn syrup or some kind of soy something — followed by high fructose corn syrup — as the first ingredient. You already know how I feel about soy somethings, but what about high fructose corn syrup? Maybe I’ll get more into it some other time, but c’mon… do I need to?

Anyway, that leaves us with the health food store option and it is a better option. The selection will be somewhere along the lines of Whole Foods, but probably smaller. I mean Whole Foods must have the largest selection of energy bars on earth! Shelves and shelves neatly packaged, conveniently located near the cash registers. I bet they make a lot of money on these. Also, for good or bad, you can find Whole Foods stores nationwide, so the likelihood that you’ll find all these bars there is higher.

Let’s start with my least favorites. The ones with soy protein.

Soy-Based Bars
Balance bars are made by The Balance Bar Food Company. They have five different versions — some contain high fructose corn syrup, others don’t — and an overwhelming variety of flavors. They appeal to the dieter who still thinks they can lose weight and/or get healthy just by counting calories. First ingredient is a blend of soy and milk protein stuff, then, a long list of fancy names for sugar. BTW, you won’t find the ingredients listed on their website, but only the nutritional facts. Do they know you’re better off not knowing exactly what’s in them? I pass.

The Zone Perfect bars — made by Abbott — are quite similar to the Balance, in ingredients, nutritional profile and price ($.99 to $1.99 each). Both offer 8 to 10 grams of protein and 11 and 15 grams of sugar per bar.

Luna and Clif bars are made by the same company: Clif Bar and Co. Luna bars are extremely popular amongst women and Clif bars cater to the outdoor, fitness-concious type. I wish I could recommend these bars, because I like the image of this company, but I can’t. The first ingredient on both of these is a proprietary blend of soy somethings, rice something and barley malt. They do use organic ingredients. I guess I’d pick a Luna bar amongst the ones with soy, just ’cause they’re cute.

Grain-Based Bars
These ones tend to have more carbohydrates and less protein in them. The ones I’m reviewing here don’t contain corn syrup.

Made by Gnu Foods, LLC, Gnu bars claim to offer “nearly 50% of your Daily Value of fiber in a delicious and healthy bar.” Personally, I can’t stomach a bar with so much fiber and carbohydrates, which doesn’t matter at all in this case. They contain wheat, so they are off limits for me anyway.

Odwalla bars are made by Odwalla — which is owned by Coca-Cola. These are also like a baked granola breakfast and really appeal to children, both in packaging and carbohydrate content per portion. The one time I had one of these, I felt like I was having a not very yummy dessert. I couldn’t finish it.

PROBARs are made by a small company, which I always prefer. They’re made with mostly organic ingredients and taste really good. The first ingredient is oats. They’re definitely high energy bars packing 350 calories and 30 grams of sugar per serving, so unless you’re training for a triathlon, split it with a friend. These would be my choice amongst the grain-based ones, thought they retail for $3.29 at Whole Foods. Ouch!

Nut-Based Bars
With more and more people looking for gluten, dairy, soy and corn-free options, nut-based energy bars are the fastest growing segment of the market. They are also my favorite ones BUT (yes, there’s a but here too) I just keep thinking that if I’m going to have a bar made out of nuts and dried fruit, I might as well just carry some trail mix with me. Just something to think about…

LARABARs are kind of the pioneer of the nut-dried fruit-combo-bar. They are minimalist, containing between 3 and 6 ingredients each, and they taste good.

The Raw Revolution Energy Bars are similar to LARABARs, but they have a few other things added, including agave nectar, which I’m not crazy about.

PranaBars resemble LARABARs in image an awful lot. These also contain agave nectar.

A Little Bit of Everything Bars

Greens+ Energy Bars are made by Greens+ which is a green powder supplement. The bars are a combination of nuts, sprouted quinoa, date paste and Greens+. I think they are of very high quality and taste really good. The chocolate covered ones are decadent.

Living Foods™ Organic Whole Food Bars are made by Garden of Life which is a very respected supplement company. In addition to the dried fruit, nuts and sprouted grains, they also contain probiotics!? (I don’t know if these probiotics are effective though…) They are sweetened with honey, which is a better sweetener to use than agave nectar. They were retailing for $2.19, which seems to be a good value compared to other bars.

Healthy snacking is definitely a tricky matter and more than anything, requires planning. If you’re going to snack on energy bars, you might as well choose a better quality one and plan for it. As I mentioned before, there are a million more bars out there, but I hope this helps!

And if you want to know what else to buy at a health food store, you should come to the health food store tour on January 25. It’s going to be jammed-packed with tips you can use right away!

Do you have a favorite energy bar?

Tagged as: energy bars, energy bars review