Catherine Ebeling RN, BSN

 www.simplesmartnutrition.com

If you are interested in your health in the least bit, you know that candy bars are not the best form of food for you. Loaded with sugar, and short on protein, they give the body a quick lift without providing any real nourishment. The lift soon gives way to a letdown and you feel hungrier than before. Many also contain hydrogenated oils and a slew of artificial ingredients.

But candy bars are quick and convenient. They have a long shelf life and can be sold in vending machines. They taste good – actually they can be addictive – and can stave off hunger and cravings. But they elevate your blood sugar and make you gain weight. Even athletes use them for a convenient quick dose of energy. So what does a health conscious consumer do in this candy bar culture?

Energy bars to the rescue. They look and taste like candy bars, have the shelf life of candy bars, contain protein and fiber, are loaded with vitamins and minerals. They are convenient and they taste good. And somehow we have been duped into thinking this is ‘healthy snack food’, or worse yet, a ‘meal replacement’.

The original energy bars, such as the Power Bar and the Source Bar, were based on so-called ‘natural’ sweeteners – high fructose corn syrup and juice concentrates – along with dried fruits and nuts, a combination that resulted in higher percentages of carbohydrates than the typical chocolate candy bar (which is rich in cocoa butter, a healthy natural fat).

The energy bar industry exploded with the advent of cheap soy and whey proteins that could be added to make a ‘high-protein’ bar. Balance Bars (“The Complete Nutritional Food Bar”) and ZonePerfect Bars (“All Natural Nutrition Bars”), and Atkins Bars were among the first to hit the shelves as energy/protein bars.

But there is nothing natural about the protein used in today’s energy bars.

Soy protein comes with an initial burden of phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors and isoflavones. Much of the soy in energy bars is genetically modified, as well. More toxins are formed during high-temperature chemical processing, including nitrates, lysinalanine and MSG. Soy protein must be processed at very high temperatures to reduce levels of phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, a process that denatures many of the proteins in soy, especially lysine, making them unavailable to be used as protein in the body.

Whey protein is inherently fragile and must be processed at low temperatures or its qualities as a protein are destroyed. That is why casein rather than whey protein is used in animal feed. When cheese, butter, and cream were made on the farm, the whey and skim milk were given to the pigs and chickens. But today these products are made in factories far from the farms where they originated, so the industry has a “whey problem,” solved by drying the skim milk and whey at high temperatures and putting the powders into energy drinks, body building powders and high-protein bars.

Other major ingredients include high fructose corn syrup (or concentrated fruit juices, which are high in fructose), an ingredient that has been shown to be worse for test animals than sugar, and in humans, it causes our insulin levels to spike as that sugar overloads our systems. Other ingredients include “natural” fiber from oats, apples, soy, and citrus. Sometimes maltodextrin is given as the fiber source. “Natural flavors” and piles of synthetic vitamins are thrown in so the bars can be called “complete.”

On the plus side, the fat source in most energy bars is often palm, palm kernel, or coconut oil.

Major Ingredients in Current Energy Bars in the Supermarket
Boulder Bar (“Provides sustained energy from naturally delicious real food”): Apple juice, figs, whole brown rice syrup, maltodextrin (complex carb), soy protein isolate, oat bran, oat flour, rice flour.

Source Bar (“Total Sports Nutrition”): Dried plums and dates, grape juice concentrate, wheat flour, whey protein concentrate, defatted peanut flour, honey, fruit juice concentrate, oats, raisins, pecans, soy flour, canola oil.

Power Bar (“Fuel for Optimum Performance”): High fructose corn syrup, grape and pear juice concentrate, oat bran, maltodextrin, milk protein, brown rice, sesame butter, barley malt, peanut butter.

Clif Bar (“Nutrition for Sustained Energy”): Brown rice syrup, rolled oats, soy nuggets (soy protein isolate, rice flour, malt extract), evaporated cane juice, roasted soy butter, chocolate chips, fig paste, cocoa, almonds, ClifCrunchTM (apple fiber, oat fiber, milled flaxseed, soy fiber, chicory extract, lemon fiber, psyllium).

BioZone Bars (“Programmed Nutrition”): Fructose syrup, soy protein isolate, honey, calcium caseinate, toasted soybeans, corn syrup, sugar, palm and palm kernel oils, peanut butter, cocoa powder, lactose, whey protein concentrate.

Balance Bars (“The Complete Nutritional Food Bar”): Protein blend (soy protein isolate, calcium caseinate, toasted soy beans, whey protein concentrate, whey), high fructose corn syrup, honey, fructose, almonds, high maltose corn syrup, canola oil, palm and palm kernel oils, sunflower oil.

Think! Interactive Bar (“Concentration, Calmness, Stamina”): Advanced protein blend (peanut protein, sodium caseinate, isolated soy protein, nonfat dry milk, lactoalbumin), peanut butter, fructose syrup, brown sugar, high concentrate soy flour, MCTs, molasses, yeast, milk chocolate.

Dr. Soy (“The smart choice for delicious nutrition as a snack or meal replacement bar”): Soy Blend (soy protein isolate and soy nuggets), malitol syrup, brown rice syrup, sugar, fractionated palm kernel oil, nonfat dry milk, yogurt powder, honey.

Atkins Advantage (“The Original Low-Carb Lifestyle”): Protein blend (soy protein isolate, hydrolyzed collagen, whey protein isolate, calcium/sodium caseinate), glycerine, polydextrose (fiber), cocoa butter, cocoa powder, water, natural coconut oil, soy nuggets (soy protein, rice flour, malt, salt), cellulose, olive oil, sucralose.

With the exception of the fats, most of the ingredients used in energy bars are waste products – soy protein isolate and whey protein are the waste products of the soy oil and cheese industries respectively. Apple and lemon fiber, used to create a crunchy effect, are also waste products, made from the pulp left over from squeezing the fruits for their juice. Soy lecithin, another common ingredient, is also a waste product of the soy oil industry. And most of the sweeteners are made by highly industrialized processes. In short, most of the ingredients in energy bars are anything but natural.

While many of the modern energy bars emphasize athletic performance, others are said to promote optimal mental performance. The Think! Nutrition Bar claims that it will bestow “concentration, calmness, stamina.” “For best results,” says the label, “Eat a Think! Nutrition bar and 16 ounces fresh water 30 minutes before using your brain.”

A new angle on energy bar hype is used for bars formulated for women. The wrapper for the CLIF Luna Chocolate Pecan Pie Whole Nutrition Bar for Women contains the following paean: “We believe that what we put into our bodies matters; food feeds our souls, lifts our spirits, nourishes and sustains us. That’s why we created LUNA, the blissfully good, whole nutrition bar for women. In just 180 calories, LUNA meets many of the specific nutritional requirements women need everyday to maintain active life-styles. Join us in healthy, joyous living!”

The energy bar phenomenon capitalizes on a real human need – that of a convenient, nutrient-dense, concentrated travel food that keeps well, satisfies and tastes good. Such commodities indeed exist. One is called cheese, a fermented, high-calorie storage food that keeps well on journeys, is rich in nutrients and high enough in fat to be truly satisfying. A fresh apple and a handful of almonds provides truly natural carbohydrates, healthy fats, protein and fiber, without the unnatural by-products of the commercially prepared energy bars.

One of the most perfect natural high protein, high-energy snacks that could be taken most anywhere is beef jerky. Beef jerky bought commercially can be full of preservatives and nitrites, but if you shop carefully you can find beef jerky without the chemicals. U.S. Wellness Meats makes delicious beef jerky in a spicy or regular flavor and it is preserved only with salt. Made with all natural, hormone, and drug free, grass fed beef, it is not only high in protein, but contains small amounts of healthy, Omega 3 and CLA rich fat.

Pemmican, used by Native Americans, was the perfect energy bar. Made from dried lean meat and rendered fat packed into rawhide bags, it was highly concentrated and kept without refrigeration for long periods of time. One and one-half pounds could sustain a grown man doing heavy work all day. This was no ZONE bar – eighty percent of calories in pemmican come from fat and almost none from carbohydrates, except on the occasion when dried berries were added. U.S. Wellness Meats makes a delicious energy-rich pemmican bar with high Omega 3 and CLA fats, beef jerky, sea salt, and dried cherries. Many professional endurance and strength-training athletes swear by pemmican. After all, fat produces about three times the ATP (energy used by the muscles) as carbohydrates.

Soaked and dehydrated nuts make a good snack that everyone can enjoy. They can be kept in your car or office. Most do not need refrigeration. A combination of nuts with cheese and hard sausage makes a complete meal.

A satisfying bar made of ground nuts, coconut or palm oil, butter oil and low-temperature dried animal protein would be relatively complete and satisfy the requirements for a nutritious travel food. But real food ingredients are not cheap; on the contrary, they are expensive and go against the kind of profit margins the food industry requires. Like cheese and cured sausage, any nutritious energy bar must be produced locally by artisans, on a small scale – and without the hype. U.S. Wellness Meats offers a complete line of healthy, nutritious snacks that are made of ‘REAL’ food. Try Organic Ginger ‘love bites’, Organic Tropical ‘love bites’, Dried goji berries, incan berries, and mulberries, or delicious and habit-forming Mystic Mountain trail mix to name a few of the healthy snacks available.

Ignore the hype and advertising of the slick, packaged energy bars. These bars are not healthy food, they are candy bars, or worse disguised as something the big food companies will tell you that you can substitute for meals, pump up your energy, or help you improve your athletic performance. Only REAL food will build up your body, fuel your energy and enhance your health. Stick to that which is unprocessed, unpackaged, and has few ingredients. Your body will thank you for it.

References
Sally Fallon of the Weston Price Foundation, and Mary G. Enig. PhD
From the Weston A. Price Foundation website at www.westonaprice.org

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