Protein Bars Review and
Shopping Guide
Protein Bars - Shoppers
Beware of False Labels
Beware of the protein bar
labels, they're not always what they report!
First, protein bars are
the best alternative to protein powder and meal replacements.
Take them anywhere you go, and you can eat a protein bar
anywhere - no mess, no fuss. You can find all types of
protein bars, pure protein bars, diet bars, energy bars,
just about a type for any need, and all 'designed' for
that need, be it weight gain, or weight loss. Really?
Or is that what the labels tells you? Read on, you'll
find some interesting and shocking facts and findings
on protein bars.
Protein Bar Findings
A study done in 2001 by
Consumerlabs studied the contents of 30 nutrition bars.
These included protein bars, energy bars, diet bars, and
meal replacement bars. "So what?" You ask. Well...
Over 60% of the bars failed
to meet their labeling claims, which means over 18 out
of the 30 bars tested made false claims on its labeling!
Take a quick look:
-
Only 1 out of
the 12 protein bars passed
-
1 out of the
8 meal replacement bars passed
-
4 of the 10
diet bars passed
-
All 5 bars that
didn't specify any use, passed
-
4 of the 5 energy
bars passed
Reasons For Failure
The nutrition bars were
tested to determine their total carbohydrates, calories,
protein, fat, sodium, and cholesterol. Pass or fail depended
on whether the labeling reflected the actual protein bar
contents. Sure enough, 18 failed... Want to know why?
Keep reading.
Protein bar carbohydrates
and sugars:
The biggest killer was
the amount of carbs being reported in the protein bars
- most of it wasn't stated in the labeling. 15 of the
nutrition bars exceeded their claimed amounts of carbs!
One self-claimed low carb bar (2g of carbs) actually contained
22 grams. How can this be? Well, glycerin according to
the FDA is a carbohydrate, but these manufacturers were
not counting glycerin as a carbohydrate. On average, the
nutrition bars exceeded their sugar claims by 8 grams
- a whole 2 teaspoon fulls!
Glycerin is used as a sweetener
and to add moist texture. The problem with protein bars
is that you need to add a lot of sugars and other stuff
to make it taste good. So the better a protein bar tastes,
the less healthy it is. Sad reality, I know. >:(
Here are some quick
findings for other ingredients in the protein bars:
-
7 nutrition
bars contain 2 to 3 times the labeled amount of sodium
-
2 protein bars
exceeded labeled amounts of fat
-
4 had higher
than labeled saturated fat
-
All the products
contained acceptable levels of cholesterol - most less
than 5mg
-
Although the
amount of calories were all listed correctly, the sources
of the calories were not labeled correctly - they were
'hiding' the calories coming from carbs
Our Protein Bars Review and Shoppers
Guide
At around $30 bucks(retail) for a box
of 12 protein bars, they can be a little pricey, working
out to a little over $2 bucks for each bar. So despite some
of the false labels, the prices aren't exactly cheap. So
we went out shopping for some protein bars ourselves, and
have prepared a report comparing the cost/benefit of several
of the most popular brands of protein bars.
Similar to our protein
powders comparison report, we cast aside factors such
as quality, ingredients, etc... and focus on getting the
biggest bang for your buck. Then you can decided based on
our price/benefits comparison what works for you. Be it
a lower priced bar at a lower quality, or vice versa. However,
when you shop for protein bars, please always read the labels.
Some will have in fine print that it contains glycerin and
that it's not counted in the carbs content. So always read
labels. We know of an excellent online supplements merchant,
that has great prices. I always shop there myself, and I
recommend you check them out as well.
>>
Click here to order protein bars online and save.
