How to Choose the Right Energy Bar

There are a lot of energy bar options, we know … Credit: robertstinnett, Flickr

1. Ignore the claims on the front of the package. First things first: your smokin’ hot bod was designed to run on certain things, and pretty much all of those things came from the ground. The more frequently you fuel up on real, from the ground food, the more efficiently your body will run.

If a bar boasts a big, shiny “Low-Fat!” badge on the front, it’s been either a) pumped full of extra sugar and salt to make up for flavor lost from the removal of fat, or b) pumped full of artificial sweeteners and preservatives to do the same job. You weren’t made to survive on either of these options, and your system will respond accordingly, either in the form of some seriously wacky energy levels (think sugar high and subsequent crash) or hard-to-kill cravings a few hours later.

But what about those protein-packed bodybuilder bars? Those look like they’d give a good boost, right?

Well, sorta. As Runners’ World writer and postdoctoral physicist Alex Hutchinson points out:

“Research by McMaster University’s Dr. Stuart Phillips and others has found that if you eat more than 20 to 30 grams of protein at a time, you don’t get any further anabolic boost. Any extra protein is simply burned for energy; unlike carbohydrate or fat, you can’t save it for later.”

So those Super Mega Ultra Power bars with 50 grams of protein inside? Not worth your time.