Protein bar, how do you stomach them?!

debbie1012

try breaking it up, cut up bananas, strawberries and blueberries...add 1% milk artificial sweetener if you need too...eat it like cereal.
I'm not big on protein bars, but the fruit and milk might help it go down better.

smtillman2

You can buy protein shake mixes in all kinds of flavors that come in packets. I've never used them but I see them in my local health food store and I'm fairly certain I have seen them at GNC as well.

wolfchild59

If you're looking for high protein and low carb stay away from all of the following:

Think Thin
Luna Bars
Clif Bars
Lara Bars
SoyJoy
Luna Protein
Nature Valley Protein

The amount of carbs and sugar in all of those basically make the minimal amount of protein that you are getting pointless. They are better classified at nutrition bars since they do at least tend to have natural ingredients and are of higher nutritional value (fiber, some protein, vitamins, etc) than just eating a candy bar.

Pure Protein and PowerCrunch bars are going to get you higher protein amounts, but are filled with sugar alcohols to keep the carbs low, so it's a definite trade off of nutrition and protein amount there.

Rise protein bars and Clif Builders bars are both going to be more natural but are also still a bit higher in carbs, though they're highly offset by the protein amounts. And they are also definitely more like meal replacements, mostly coming in at 250+ calories.

Quest bars are mostly natural, have high amounts of protein, lots of fiber, and a really good carb amount. (if you believe in the whole "net carbs" thing, where you deduct the amount of fiber, they are really low, but I don't do that, so I just look at the actual carb amount). They do still have artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols in them, depending on which style you get, so if that's an issue for you, they won't be a good option.

There are also Balance Bars. But some of those are better than others. They market themselves as being 40/30/30 for carbs/protein/fat, but most of their line are more carb heavy than that in the actual breakdown. Plus almost all of their bars have fake sweeteners and/or sugar alcohols. But they do have two flavors that are in their "BARE" line, which are all natural and almost an exact 40/30/30 breakdown.

I've eaten all of the above other than the Quest bars (too expensive for me to justify ordering online when they have artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols in them) and the Nature Valley ones (just never saw a purpose for them) and tend to cycle through Clif Builders, Luna, Luna Protein, Rise, and Balance BARE, depending on my needs (often I am actually looking for the carbs and natural sugars since I was training for a couple of half marathons this year).

But I also make my own bars at home. I just play with mixes of nuts, plain protein powders, textured vegetable protein, flax seed, psyllium husk, rolled oats, chia seeds, and a touch of dried fruit for flavor and make either 40/30/30 bars or higher protein bars, depending on what I'm looking for at the time I make them.

carlsoda

Balance bars are awesome!!! I love Chocolate Craze, Chocolate Mint, Cookie Dough!

Matt_Wild

TBH protein bars aren't much cop. They are generally poor protein choices (recovered from bone/bone marrow and the like) and the carbs are generally sugar alcohols and far too calorific for what you get. Stick to proper food IMO.

Love the taste tho!

CoronerKris

If you have a whole foods near you they have a bunch of sample protein powders, thats how I found the one I like. Some GNC's also carry single serving protein powder.

olgitarosales

Great point! I get my protein from bacon. I'm also on a pretty strict Paleo diet so I'm not allowed protein bars to begin with. The trick for me has been getting of the sugar high! And most bars have a ton of sugar...

I would avoid them all and get some jerky!

dpwellman

A lot of them are just glorified candy bars anyway. . .