Bellying Up to the Bar

Photo Source:  Consumer Reports

Lauren is a busy salesperson who often crams in back-to-back appointments to get the most productivity out of her day.    To fuel her busy schedule in between meals, she�ll reach into her briefcase and pull out her �go-to� energy: a shiny, brightly colored packaged, 6-inch snack bar.  

�Often times I do not have time to sit down and eat a nutritious meal or have an healthy option near me so a snack bar is an easy way for me to get some energy and protein until my next meal,� claims Lauren.

When they emerged in the 1980s, these snack bars were marketed as a portable snack or a quick meal in a cellophane wrapper to help athletes stay fueled for long distance or endurance outings.  They are now being consumed by everyday folks just like Lauren to fuel their busy day.  There are bars being marketed for women, bars for men, bars for the elderly, and junior bars for children.  Because of all this marketing, the sale of snack and nutrition bars is a booming industry that is pegged to rake in $6 billion annually in the United States by 2018.

When bellying up to the snack bar, keep these three tips in mind:

1.      Read the ingredients label carefully.  Choose a bar with whole foods such as whole grains, nuts, and real fruit, not fruit juice.  This will naturally increase the amount of fiber in the bar.

2.      Scout out all the sources of added sugars in the bar.  Look at the ingredients label for sugary buzz words such as sucrose, honey, corn syrup, sucrose, brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses, and fructose, which are all sources of added sugars in foods. Since the ingredients on the label are listed in descending order by weight, finding sugar as the first ingredient or having multiple sources of added sugars in the list of ingredients is a tip-off that the bar may be a sugar bust.

3.      Keep the heart-unhealthy saturated fat as low as possible.  A person consuming a 2,000 calorie diet daily should keep his/her saturated fat intake to less than 22 grams daily.

Which bars are the healthiest and tastiest?  Consumer Reports recently nibbled their way through over 1,600 snack bars (This is the job I want) and came up with the top bars to snack on:

Source:  Consumer Reports

 For a listing of all the bars that Consumer Reports tested and rated, click here.

If you are on a budget and looking for a portable snack that you can pack for about the same amount of calories but for less than $.60 a serving, try this:  A good old-fashion peanut butter sandwich.  

Be well, Joan

Twitter:  @JoanSalgeBlake