Protein bars without artificial sweeteners?

siobhanaoife
siobhanaoife Posts: 151 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hey guys,

I love me some Quest Bars. Chocolate Brownie Quest Bars feature so frequently in my food diary that I put my order on monthly subscription.

But I'm trying to reduce the use of artificial sweeteners in my life, and I realized, daily Quest bars are not furthering that goal. They contain sucralose.

Quest bar stats:
Calories 180
Protein 20
Carbs 23
Fiber 17
Sugar 1
Erythritol 2
Fat 6

Is there anything else out there you know of that has good amounts of protein and fiber, low net carbs, and no artificial sweeteners?

I'm not trying to convince anyone that there's anything wrong with artificial sweeteners, by the way. This is just something I'm trying for myself.

Replies

  • happytree923
    happytree923 Posts: 463 Member
    What are you counting as artificial? It's going to be tough to find low net carbs and also no non-nutritive sweeteners and also palatable. If you're ok with stuff like stevia I'd look in a natural foods store and see what they have. If you don't want any sweetners at all, I've seen meat-based snack bars before (have not tried them so no idea how they taste, Epic is one brand that comes to mind).
  • siobhanaoife
    siobhanaoife Posts: 151 Member
    happytree923 wrote: »
    What are you counting as artificial? It's going to be tough to find low net carbs and also no non-nutritive sweeteners and also palatable.

    Yeeeeah, those are the two weak points in my plan :D I hadn't thought about meat bars, thanks for the idea. I'm assuming they're not going to help me with fiber, but maybe I can fit that in somewhere else.

    I'm (arbitrarily, for absolutely no reason supported by science) sort of vaguely considering stevia "not artificial", even though it's usually something from stevia on the label rather than stevia itself. I find substances like xylitol and erythritol completely confusing. This is not me at my most rational, I cheerfully admit!
  • flippy1234
    flippy1234 Posts: 686 Member
    RX bars are all natural I believe
  • 0somuchbetter0
    0somuchbetter0 Posts: 1,335 Member
    I hate the taste of most artificial sweeteners. They stay with me all day -- I can taste them on my lips and tongue. Gross. I personally like Balance Bars (yogurt honey peanut is my favorite). They're not super sweet like some of the others, and they're sweetened with glucose syrup, fructose, and good old fashioned sugar. https://www.balance.com/
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    You say that your definition is arbitrary and you want to avoid ingredients you find confusing. It seems to me that the better course of action would be to read scientific research on ingredients that confuse you, rather than just deciding not to eat any of them. At least that way you can make informed rather than arbitrary choices.
  • Chelle8070
    Chelle8070 Posts: 165 Member
    I despise Quest bars. They taste like packed protein powder. LOL My Mom swore by them until I introduced her to ONE bars - they even have ONE Basic or basix (I forget how they spell it) that does not have artificial sweetener in them :) In the "regular" ONE bars - my absolute favorites are: chocolate chip cookie dough, the new white chocolate truffle and blueberry cobbler. If I can hold out until later in the day, they perfectly satisfy my nightly sweet tooth! (I only allow myself 1 a day... get it ONE bars, one a day :P )
  • fitnAss111
    fitnAss111 Posts: 1 Member
    My favourite ones are pure protein.
  • siobhanaoife
    siobhanaoife Posts: 151 Member
    apullum wrote: »
    You say that your definition is arbitrary and you want to avoid ingredients you find confusing. It seems to me that the better course of action would be to read scientific research on ingredients that confuse you, rather than just deciding not to eat any of them. At least that way you can make informed rather than arbitrary choices.

    I completely agree that this is the ideal way to go about things.

    I'm also being realistic about how likely it is that I will be able to come to a rigorously researched scientific conclusion any time soon. It was scientific research regarding artificial sweeteners and the microbiome that made me start thinking "hmm...", but (a) that research is recent and seems inconclusive, (b) there are many studies that are reported to directly conflict with each other, sometimes because the science gets garbled when repackaged for consumption by the layperson, sometimes for other reasons, and (c) developing a more reasoned understanding of issues surrounding artificial sweeteners is on my to do list, but my to do list is long.

    Since Quest Bars are currently my only dietary source of artificial sweeteners, if there's a yummy alternative that avoids them and fits into my eating plan, that would be a whole lot easier :)

    I caveat all my thinking above because I know that I don't have a rigorous understanding of this topic and I don't want to accidentally concern readers that there's some reason why these ingredients might be bad for them, just because I'm looking for a different brand of protein bar.
  • lgt2015
    lgt2015 Posts: 30 Member
    Epic bars (chicken sriracha is my fave!), and most Lara bars and RX bars contain no sweeteners at all (from what I remember -- I don't eat bars anymore). RX and Lara bars are not low carb though, as they have dates and fruit.
  • bigbandjohn
    bigbandjohn Posts: 769 Member
    Haven't tried these, but what's better than making your own.... https://foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/protein-bars-recipe-1916420
  • siobhanaoife
    siobhanaoife Posts: 151 Member
    For anyone else who finds this topic interesting, a friend just told me to check out "Paleo Thin", "Primal Thin", and "Pegan Thin" bars, which she says only use monkfruit for sweetener. I'll report back with what I find in case anyone ever searches for this topic :)
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    You could check into Beachbody bars,
  • PowerliftingMom
    PowerliftingMom Posts: 430 Member
    NuGo Slim protein bars
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    I did some research on where the fiber comes from in these bars. They are actually a part of the sweetener! Usually derived from chicory root or probiotic corn fiber. What's artificial about it?

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