The Truth About Protein Bars?

Nutrition
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Hi little buddies,

I was a little hungry this afternoon, so I waddled over to the supplement store and got myself a protein bar. Apparently on the back it says it has only 5g of sugar and 26g of protein. So i thought thats fine, that fits into my diet, so I bought one and ate it.

The bar was a chocolate and peanut flavoured bar. Was tasty, although very sweet. I suppose that is due to the artificial sweeteners. Afterwards I felt a little queasy, but not too bad.

Anyway, Im wondering what is the deal with these protein bars? Are all of these artificial sweetners ok for you? Do they spike insulin even though its artificial sweetners? Do you guys eat them or not?

Go.

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Whats bad about spiking insulin? IMO, I think they are crap, but it’s all relative compared to the grand scheme of things. I’d rather eat half a roasted chicken with a side salad and some fruit or something… but thats just me.

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If you can’t fit a meal or shake in, the good bars are ok. It’s been proven pretty much anything ‘sweet tasting’ fools your body and can spike insulin. Keeping these PWO let’s you leverage that, but outside of that I probably would skip them unless in an absolute bind or if you crave a snack and are faced with protein bars or candy bars.

I don’t care for them…even the tasty ones seem to leave a weird aftertaste and don’t sit well at times.

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I use to eat them all the time in HS, when I really had no way of packing ‘good’ food to eat. They probably aren’t then healthiest thing in the world, but honestly, you’re a semi-pro athlete. Most here (I hope) lift regularly, have a good deal of muscle mass, are in good shape, eat healthy 80% of the time. All that jazz. eating some preservative or artificial sweeteners in order to make you protein requirement isn’t going to hurt anything.

Plus, if for some reason ya eat them, notice negative effects, it’s easy to just not eat them. lol. I feel like you have a bit of a sweet tooth, theBird, so if you found something that fits your macros, I think this is a pretty good solution.

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You can eat boxes of them and nothing bad will ever happen to you.

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Protein bars IMO should be a last resort type of meal, that may go against the grain here.

1.Real food
2.Protein Powder
3.Bars

most bars have either sugar or sugar alcohols and really just glorified candy bars with protein.

I was surprised to see one of my faves for trips has it’s #1 ingredient soy protein, WTF… And Biotest bars while I love the taste, I can’t buy them. They taste so good that I end up saying F-eating a meal, I’ll chow down on 2 of these.

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Just because the label says 5g of “sugar” or “carbs” doesnt mean anything. They dont count Sugar Alchohols, they DONT count Maltodextrin as a “sugar” for some reason.

Most protein bars are loaded with shit. I was in a pinch one day and found this out the hard way. Soy Proteins, Sugar Alcohols, Sugar, Collagen protein sources (ground up horse hooves)

Honestly, I’m not shilling here, Biotest makes one of the only good protein bars on the market… BUT, they should be treated as convenience, or a special treat, and NOT part of your daily routine. Its still basically a chocolate bar.

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[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Just because the label says 5g of “sugar” or “carbs” doesnt mean anything. They dont count Sugar Alchohols, they DONT count Maltodextrin as a “sugar” for some reason.

Most protein bars are loaded with shit. I was in a pinch one day and found this out the hard way. Soy Proteins, Sugar Alcohols, Sugar, Collagen protein sources (ground up horse hooves)

Honestly, I’m not shilling here, Biotest makes one of the only good protein bars on the market… BUT, they should be treated as convenience, or a special treat, and NOT part of your daily routine. Its still basically a chocolate bar.[/quote]

I use plenty of Biotest products, but havent used protein bars since I was a kid (nor do I plan on to)

Whats so special about their protein bars ? Im looking at the ingredients now and its pretty much generic stuf that I would find in any protein bar. Theres nothing im seeing that leads me to believe its one of the “only good bars” on the market.

Hell it has hydrogenated oils in it which definitely isnt a sign that theyre concerned with using the best ingredients.

I love most of their products, but thats one I definitely wouldnt use. Id rather eat a cliff bar or something

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[quote]dcm1602 wrote:

[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Just because the label says 5g of “sugar” or “carbs” doesnt mean anything. They dont count Sugar Alchohols, they DONT count Maltodextrin as a “sugar” for some reason.

Most protein bars are loaded with shit. I was in a pinch one day and found this out the hard way. Soy Proteins, Sugar Alcohols, Sugar, Collagen protein sources (ground up horse hooves)

Honestly, I’m not shilling here, Biotest makes one of the only good protein bars on the market… BUT, they should be treated as convenience, or a special treat, and NOT part of your daily routine. Its still basically a chocolate bar.[/quote]

I use plenty of Biotest products, but havent used protein bars since I was a kid (nor do I plan on to)

Whats so special about their protein bars ? Im looking at the ingredients now and its pretty much generic stuf that I would find in any protein bar. Theres nothing im seeing that leads me to believe its one of the “only good bars” on the market.

Hell it has hydrogenated oils in it which definitely isnt a sign that theyre concerned with using the best ingredients.

I love most of their products, but thats one I definitely wouldnt use. Id rather eat a cliff bar or something
[/quote]

I basically listed every reason already: The protein blend is high quality, there isnt any Soy in them like Cliff bars (and basically every bar on the market) is chock full of, there isnt any hydrolyzed collagen. There are no sugar alcohols

The MAIN ingredient of the Metabolic Drive bars: Protein blend (contains: milk-protein isolate, whey-protein concentrate, whey protein hydrolysate, micellar casein)

Compare that to a CLIF bar where the main ingredients are:

Organic Brown Rice Syrup, ClifPro® (Soy Rice Crisps [Soy Protein Isolate, Rice Flour, Rice Starch, Barley Malt Extract], Organic Roasted Soybeans, Organic Soy Flour)

Bunch of sugar and soy protein. No thank you. The tiny amount of hydrogenated oils are not concerning to me as long as you don’t make these a 4-a-day staple in your diet, which no one should be doing anyway. Again, Bars are a dead last resort for me (havent used one in years, even Metabolic Drive)

The Biotest bars have absolutely no competition in terms of taste/texture either.

The only bar I would eat aside from these are the new Qwest bars, which appear to be high quality if the label is accurate.

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Make your own protein bars if you have an oven.

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I’ve always felt that protein bars serve their purpose in terms of convenience, if nothing else. Obviously for a 300 cal protein bar, you could very easily have a chicken breast, some veggies, and a bowl of oatmeal, and get more protein, more complex carbs with less sugar, and feel a hell of a lot more satiated instead. Of course who wants to lug around a cooler all day with their meal prepared ahead of time?

They certainly won’t kill you, but most bars do indeed contain very low grade ingredients. The Metabolic Drive bars are on my monthly staples because while they are a bit smaller than the glorified candy bars you find at the local gas station or GNC, I figure that having the same protein formula (casein and whey) as the met drive powder makes my reliance on bars a bit less-bad.

S

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[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Just because the label says 5g of “sugar” or “carbs” doesnt mean anything. They dont count Sugar Alchohols, they DONT count Maltodextrin as a “sugar” for some reason.

[/quote]

They can class Maltodextrin as a thickening agent and avoid putting it under sugar.

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Just order a couple boxes of quest bars.

They Don’t have any crap in them besides either having having a very small amount of artificial sweeteners or a very small amount of sugar alcohols. Pretty much all other protein bars are crap.

There the only protein bar I would recommend.

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Thank buddies for your recommendations, especially Mr Stu.

From now on… protein bars are BANNED from the bird cage!!

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[quote]theBird wrote:
Thank buddies for your recommendations, especially Mr Stu.

From now on… protein bars are BANNED from the bird cage!!

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I love you

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I’m not sure what kind of protein bar you bought, but the vast majority of protein bars on the market get literally every bit of their “26 grams of protein” from completely garbage sources. They just use cheap collagen and shit which is practically useless compared to actual protein that you would get from a shake or meat. I mean, fuck worrying about the sugar, you’re not even getting protein!!!

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Metabolic Drive Bars, Quest Bars, Pure Protein Bars, ON Whey Crisp.

I eat protein bars. I don’t treat them as a ‘healthy food’, but a snack. Glorified candy bars they may be, but I’m not ‘cutting’ so I don’t really see an issue.

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I eat them. Either pre work out while walking to the gym, or when stuck at work.
If you are buying protein with junk protein you are buying the wrong ones.

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I eat the Metabolic Drive bars in between breakfast and lunch while i’m at work because I don’t have time to sit down and eat an actual meal.

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[quote]Tatsu wrote:
Make your own protein bars if you have an oven.[/quote]

Use oatmeal and nuts to make granola, then mix with peanut butter, whey powder. Put in the freezer. Eat an hour later.