Energy Bars?Worth the Cash and the Calories?
By By Colleen Pierre, RD
In my 20 years as a nutrition counselor, I’ve never had a client who knew the truth about energy bars. I didn’t worry much about that until recently when manufacturers started to expand their market beyond endurance athletes like marathoners to busy moms, baby boomers, and even kids. With virtually everyone becoming a potential customer, the industry is expected to rake in a billion dollars a year by 2008.
Before energy bars drain your wallet-many brands cost close to two bucks a pop-see how much you really know about them. Answer true or false to each of the following five statements. Then check if you knew the correct response; what you find out may surprise you.
1. The combination of ingredients in energy bars gives you more pep.
False. “Energy bars get their energy from calories, not magic ingredients,” says Nancy Clark, RD, a Brookline, Massachusetts, sports nutritionist and author of Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook. In the science world, “energy” means the number of calories in food or exercise, not how you feel. So a high-energy food is a high-calorie food. Since there is no legal definition for “energy” on food labels, any product that provides calories can be called an energy food.
2. Energy bars are more nutritious than a banana.
False. Many energy bars are filled with lots of refined sugar, and some contain unhealthy saturated or trans fats. Choose energy bars made with wholesome ingredients like dried fruits and nuts, says Clark. The real plus to energy bars is their convenience, says Roberta Anding, RD, a Houston-based spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. “You can pack them in advance and they won’t spoil or squish easily.”
3. A snack before your workout may help you lose weight.
True. The key to losing weight is having a calorie deficit by the end of the day. Pre-exercise eating helps you work out better, so you burn more calories and build more muscle. It can also prevent you from becoming so hungry that you overeat. But choosing the correct-size snack is essential. While marathoners need 200 to 300 calories-the amount found in a typical energy bar-those following the Curves workout require about a 100-calorie snack. “You’d just want to eat half a bar,” says Anding.
4. High-carb energy bars are better before exercise than high-protein ones.True. Carbohydrate is your body’s preferred pre-exercise fuel, says Clark. So as you wade through the bars, choose carbohydrate-based ones, especially the more natural bars that include whole grains and dried fruit instead of sugar alone. Exception: If you’re using the bar to replace a meal or as a snack when you’re not working out, higher-protein bars are fine and may even be more satiating. But not the protein-only bars.
5. Some energy bars contain little or no sugar.
False. Even if an energy bar doesn’t have refined sugar, it may contain sugar alcohols like maltitol, sorbitol, and lactitol. These ingredients cause gas, bloating, and cramping in some people.
Colleen Pierre, RD, is a nutrition consultant and fi tness enthusiast in Baltimore. She has also written for Prevention and Child magazines.
Courtesy, diane, the Curves magazine, Fall 2006
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