Protein bars, snack bars, grab ‘n go bars are BIG business! I’ve seen them expand to take up entire aisles in the grocery store!

And it makes sense right? We are busy people, we’re on the go, and we want snacks that can go with us. We want instant energy, we want to have something that’s satisfying, and I’m imagining if you are reading this – you’re wanting something healthy as well.

But the problem with about 90% of these bars is that they are filled with ingredients that do not actually support our body to feel it’s best. That’s why I want to give you 3 tips that will help you choose a bar that really nourishes your body.

I also want to recommend one bar that gets my thumbs up!

Here are the 3 tips to choosing a healthy bar:

1. READ

You must, must, must read the ingredients – not the nutritional facts, not the front of the package – but the back, small print ingredients.

The front of the package will tell you what the makers think will sell their product. The nutritional facts will give you the grams of protein, etc. But the ingredients give you the real story.

• Is this made of real food, whole food, food that was grown from the earth, or manufactured food-like substances?
• Are most, or all of the ingredients organic?

Read the ingredients list for every bar, even if you’ve bought the brand before. Each product has it’s own recipe, one flavor might have all whole ingredients and no sugar and then their chocolate chip bar (same brand) will often have sugar added to the chocolate. Be a savvy consumer and read!

2. SUGAR

Every bar is sweetened somehow, otherwise it’s not that tasty. But we need to be super savvy about our sugar consumption. Refined and processed sugars make a mess of our blood sugar levels and get stored as fat. Both of these issues lead to a myriad of health problems. So paying attention to how your bar is sweetened is essential. Protein and snack bars get VERY creative with their sweetening methods.

You’ll see ingredients as simple as:

• sugar
• cane sugar
• brown sugar

But then their are the more “code” sugars…

• Maltodextrin
• Sucrose
• Agave (touted as a ‘natural’ sweetener, but raises triglycerides)
• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Fructose (what they’re calling High Fructose Corn Syrup these days)

You definitely want to avoid all of these types of refined sweeteners.

The bar you want to pick up off the shelf is the one that’s sweetened with fruit. Yes, fruit has a lot of sugar (you’ll see that in the nutrition facts under the sugar grams), but it’s a whole food. This means the fruit sugar is connected to fiber, which slows down the absorption of the sugar in your blood stream. It also contains a boat-load of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. All of these things nourish your body versus refined sugars, which deplete your body.

Look for bars that are sweetened with apples, dates, raisins, figs, as well as other fruit. Just be cautious of cranberries, they are often sweetened with sugar, because they are naturally so tart.

3. PROTEIN

A good amount of protein is important in a bar because it’s what’s going to keep you feeling full, energized and even-keeled (with stable blood-sugar levels) for a while.

Look for a bar whose protein content comes from a real food versus a protein powder (or soy isolate). I’m not a fan of most protein powders because they are often highly processed, have more ingredients than your body can comfortable handle at once and they are often sweetened with sugar.

As far as real protein in bars goes, nuts and seeds are my favorite. These 6 are at the top of my list.

• Almonds
• Walnuts
• Hemp Seeds
• Chia Seeds
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Sunflower Seeds

Now you are equipped to face the shelves and shelves of bars and choose one that you love.

Just be sure to READ the ingredients, check what kind of SUGAR and PROTEIN it contains.

If you want a short cut to choosing a healthy snack bar,  here’s a bar I really like – Kit’s Organic Fruit & Seed Bar

By now you can probably guess what I like about it:

• It’s all real food ingredients.
• It’s all organic!
• They sweeten with dates and they add protein with seeds.
• Also, it’s super tasty!

I’ve also checked their chocolate flavored bars and they don’t add any refined sugar to their chocolate (which is often the case when chocolate is added to a bar).

I hope these bar-choosing tips are helpful! I know there are other great bars out there. Tell me your favorite healthy bar!

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ninamanolson

Nina Manolson, MA, is the founder of Body-Peace®.She helps women end the war with food and body and finally feel truly at home in their body—as it is.

She is known for her deeply feminist, anti-diet, body-peace® approach. She brings her 30 years of experience as a therapist, Body-Trust® Guide and Psychology of Eating Teacher to helping women create a respectful and trusting relationship with their food and body.

Nina’s Body-Peace® work is all in service of helping people get off the diet roller-coaster, and into a compassionate and powerful way of eating & living which creates a positive long-lasting change in and with their bodies. Her courses, coaching, poems and Body-Peace APP positively change the conversation that women are having with their body.

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