Energy bars are the SUVs of food – designed for heavy-duty use under the most rigorous conditions but employed mainly in less-demanding everyday pursuits.
Thus nutritionists, like Hummer haters, often question how much society really needs them.
“If you’re an endurance athlete or you’re on the go for several hours and you can’t stop to eat a meal, then energy bars serve a purpose,” says Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer watchdog group.
“But most of us are not in that situation. We tend to get too many calories in a short time, not too few. We’d be better off with fruits and vegetables.”
Despite a plethora of such advice from health professionals, however, Americans hardly appear to be losing their appetite for these portable pick-me-ups.
Sales more than doubled in the five years from 1999-2004, and while demand has leveled off with the end of the low-carb craze, U.S. consumers are still gobbling at least $800 million worth of energy and nutrition bars every year, according to the market research group Mintel International.
Supermarkets, convenience stores and sports retailers are stocked with dozens of kinds, from high-protein and low-carb to “zone” versions and bars fortified with vitamins and minerals.
Energy bars, in short, are virtually a staple in many households – kept handy in daypacks, glove boxes and desk drawers, to be hauled out as needed to stave off hunger, replenish depleted muscles or even replace an entire meal.
What, then, do health-conscious individuals need to know to sort out the good from the bad? How can they meet their needs in nutritionally smart ways?
In general, experts say, energy bars provide roughly the same amount of energy – i.e. calories – as candy bars but are better for you because they contain more protein and less fat.
A standard PowerBar, for example, weighs in with 230 calories, 10 grams of protein and 2 grams of fat, compared with an Oh Henry! bar with the same 230 calories, but just 3 grams of protein and 11 grams of fat – including 5 grams of artery-clogging saturated fat.
“You need to really look at the label,” advises Linda McDonald, a registered dietitian in Houston and publisher of Supermarket Savvy, a newsletter that tracks food-industry trends.
“If you’re choosing a bar with the calories you need for energy but you’re also getting saturated fat, you can have problems with cholesterol.”
McDonald recommends a saturated fat content of no more than 2.5 grams per bar, while Liebman suggests “as little as possible – 1 gram or 2 at most.”
Suzanne Farrell of Denver, national spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, advises her clients to “look for 3 grams or less, and no more than 5 or 6 grams of total fat. If you’re getting into the 12-gram range, look at another bar.”
As for protein, Farrell says 5 grams is good and 10 grams is plenty. “With bars, it’s not ‘the higher, the better,”‘ she says. “I think 20 and above is more than the average person would need, unless it’s for a meal replacement, then maybe it’s OK.” (A standard 3-ounce serving of turkey, she notes, provides 21 grams of protein.)
Contrary to what may be promised on the wrapper, however, a bar with 200 or even 300 calories won’t deliver enough energy to adequately replace an entire meal, warns Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of Con
sumerLab.com, a product-testing service that analyzed the contents of 34 types of nutrition bars for a special report in 2005.
“An adult needs 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day, depending on how much you’re burning and how big you are, and most people break that into three meals,” says Cooperman, who is based in White Plains, N.Y. “A typical bar will carry you for a while, but you’re going to be hungry later on.”
Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy in all such products, but the amounts listed on labels are sometimes downsized to make bars more marketable to consumers on a low-carb diet, Cooperman notes.
“If you see the words ‘net carbs’ or ‘impact carbs,’ you have to take it with a grain of salt,” he says.
Typically, Cooperman explains, the manufacturers of such bars deduct glycerin and sugar alcohols from the total, on the theory that these compounds do not boost blood-sugar levels as quickly as other carbs.
“But I don’t think the FDA has bought that argument,” he says, “and they absolutely add calories.”
In addition, some sugar alcohols such as lactitol can cause gas, bloating or diarrhea, so Cooperman advises performance athletes to make sure energy bars or gels set well with them before consuming them in competition.
Vitamins, added to many bars to beef up their nutritional content, also are on Cooperman’s radar.
“One of the biggest concerns I have is that people don’t realize they may be getting too much, especially if they take supplements,” he says.
Children are particularly vulnerable to excess amounts of the fat-soluble vitamin A, which may weaken bones, Cooperman says, and for this reason should not be given highly fortified bars. The tolerable level of vitamin A for a 3-year-old, he notes, is only 2,000 international units per day, while a bar with 50 percent of the adult daily value already contains 1,500 IU.
Fiber, the indigestible component in carbohydrates, is good to see in a bar, nutritionists say, because it usually indicates the presence of fruit, oats or other wholesome ingredients.
But there’s nothing special about what goes into an energy bar, Liebman says: “It’s just sugar, some oil and casein, and a handful of vitamins.” And despite the impression left by marketing campaigns, she adds, eating one won’t make you feel any more “energetic” than anything else with the same nutritional punch, such as a bagel, fruit bars or a bowl of cereal.
“People think that since athletes eat energy bars, they’ll get fit if they eat them too,” Liebman observes. “But athletes don’t get fit by eating energy bars. They get fit by working out.”
Elizabeth Applegate, an expert on food and exercise at the University of California at Davis and author of the “Nutrition Basics for Better Health and Performance,” cautions people not to use energy bars as a substitute for real food.
“You may look at the label and think it’s got everything you need. Well, no food has all the nutrients you need,” Applegate says.
“In fruits and vegetables, there are substances called phytochemicals – like beta-carotene, lycopene and flavinols – that reduce the risk of Alzhei-
mer’s disease, cancer and heart disease. But the manufacturers don’t put those in bars because the ingredients they use are so refined. They’re using food components but not the whole food,” she says.
“Sure, have them sometimes. They’re convenient, and they sure beat stopping and getting cookies at a mall. But don’t live on them. If you notice that the floor of your car is littered with bar wrappers and not banana peels, back off.”
Staff writer Jack Cox can be reached at 303-954-1785 or jcox@denverpost.
