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March 2005 NewsletterChoosing the Best Snack Bar
for Your Travels
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Dear Fellow Business Traveler,Thank you to everyone who participated in last month's survey on snack and meal replacement bars. As many of you've discovered, bars are a convenient "grab and go" way to eat while you're on the road. What are you really eating, though? If you don't check the label, you might be surprised to find out how much sugar and fat is in your favorite bar. In this month's article, our testers compare 10 different bars, to uncover the best and worst in both taste and nutrition. As always, there's plenty of new activity in the Travel Fitness Blog, including Travel Fit Tips and news releases from your favorite hotels and airlines. To Your Health, Customer Service, Healthy Travel Network and Chief Fitness Officer
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| Attribute |
Criteria |
| Calories |
Snack
bars got a check mark if they have less than 200 calories each. Meal replacement bars got a check mark if they are at least 250 calories. The rationale behind this is that you need a certain number of calories throughout the day. If you consume too few calories, you’ll be hungry and more likely to binge. |
| Fat |
Less than 30% of
calories coming from fat and less than 1/3 of total fat grams coming
from saturated fats. (Fat has
9
calories per gram.) |
| Trans Fat |
Ingredients do not
include any partially
hydrogenated oils. |
| Fiber |
At least 6g of
fiber. Experts recommend women eat 25g of fiber per day; men
should get
38g. Most American’s get less than
half the recommended amount. |
| Protein |
At least 30% of
their calories coming from protein.
(Protein has 4 calories per gram.) |
| Sugar |
No highly processed
and refined sugars such as white
sugar or corn syrup. |
| Taste |
A totally subjective
assessment of how good the bar tastes. |
| Retail
Price |
Retail price when
sold individually, based on our local Raleigh, NC grocery store. |
The Bars
Our selection of bars was primarily based on availability. In addition, we steered clear of “low-carb” bars, as we find them to have extremely high fat content and, as a result, high caloric content.
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Fitness Blog |
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Fitness Tools |
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| This
Month's Healthy Travel Snack |
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| Snack
Bars |
Flavor |
| Balance
Gold |
Chocolate
Peanut Butter |
| Dexatrim All in One |
Lemon Bar Crisp |
| Kashi GoLean Crunch |
Chocolate Peanut
Bliss |
| Luna Bar |
Chocolate Peppermint |
| Pria Nutritional
Energy Snack Bar |
Chocolate Peanut
Crunch |
| Zone Perfect |
Apple Cinnamon |
| Meal
Replacement Bars |
Flavor |
| Balance Satisfaction
Meal Bar |
Chocolate Crisp |
| ClifBar |
Lemon Poppy Seed |
| PowerBar Harvest |
Iced Oatmeal Raisin |
| Slim Fast Optima
Meal Bar |
Oatmeal Raisin |
General Thoughts
In general, while these bars are a great way to avoid snacking on junk food, they provide limited nutrition value when compared with fresh foods. In their defense, manufacturers face a big challenge; it’s difficult to duplicate Mother Nature and produce a bar that’s both good and good for you.
Many of the bars were very caloric. While most met our total fat requirement, only two bars (ClifBar and Kashi GoLean Crunch) met our saturated fat requirement. Note that many experts now recommend that you limit your saturated fat intake to only 7g per day; some of these bars have as much as 4g of saturated fat. That’s more than half of your saturated fat allowance coming from one snack alone.
Only a single bar (Balance Gold) met our fiber requirements. Word to the wise: eat your vegetables!
Only two bars (Balance Gold and Dexatrim All in One) met our protein requirements, although many of the bars were upwards of 20% protein.
Fortunately, manufacturers are getting serious about avoiding trans fats, and only two of the bars (Slim Fast Optima and Dexatrim All in One) contained any partially hydrogenated oils.
Finally, refined sugar remains the number one food additive in America, and our survey firmly confirmed that. 60% of the bars surveyed contained either white sugar or corn syrup.
Our Favorites
While everyone’s tastes are subjective, we picked our favorite snack bar and favorite meal replacement bar based on texture, flavor, and overall nutritional content. Bars that avoided trans fats, highly refined sugars and extensive preservatives helped sway our opinion.
Remember that, as with anything you put into your body, ultimately you have to make to your own choices about the foods that are “right” for you. We list our favorites and comments here only in the spirit of sharing, not as a guideline or recommendation.
Click here for our complete nutrition and taste analysis for all 10 snack and meal replacement bars.
Healthy Travel Network Favorite Snack Bar… Kashi GoLean Crunch Bar
Retails for about $1.39
Overall, we like the Kashi GoLean Crunch Bars. Relatively new, the Kashi bars are unfortunately hard to find. (We found them at Target.) Don’t confuse them with the original Kashi GoLean bar, which pack on as much 100 extra calories per bar!
The GoLean Crunch bars are one of the few bars that meet both our total fat and total saturated fat requirement. In addition, we love Kashi’s approach to all natural ingredients, with minimal processing and no highly refined sugars, additives, or preservatives. You can actually save 30 calories and a gram of fat by selecting the Chocolate Carmel Karma variety, but it’s not as tasty as the Chocolate Peanut Bliss. And alas, the Sublime Lemon-Lime flavor was nowhere to be found.
Snack Bar Runner Up… Pria Nutritional Energy Snack Bar
Retails for about $0.89
Although we’re not keen on the refined sugars in this bar, the PowerBar Pria is a skinny 110 calories. That’s simply the lowest calorie bar that we could find anywhere. That coupled with its lack of trans fats and low price (lowest of the bunch, in fact) makes it a good snack choice, in our opinion.
Healthy Travel Network Favorite Meal Replacement Bar… ClifBar
Retails for about $1.39
Although technically a sports bar used by athletes, we like the ClifBar for its all-around goodness and 70% organic content. Besides the Kashi GoLean Crunch Bar, the ClifBar is the only other bar that met our fat requirements. And while it didn’t quite meet our fiber and protein requirements, it still provides 5g of fiber and is 20% protein.
The ClifBar comes in 14 different flavors from Lemon Poppy Seed (our favorite) to Black Cherry Almond to Peanut Toffee Buzz, so you should be able to find one that suits your fancy. At only 230 calories, the ClifBar is a little slim to be a full meal. Consider pairing it with a high-fiber salad or similar dish.
The selection of meal replacement bars seems to be fairly limited, and we didn’t find any worthy of a runner up award.
Everything in Moderation
As with anything, you should use snack and meal replacement bars in moderation. We recommend not eating more than one per day. Focus your remaining meals on fresh, unprocessed vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and lean proteins. This balanced approach will help you stay healthy and fit throughout your travels.