Hello and welcome to the nutrition devo podcast. I'm your host

Monica Reinagel and this week we're talking about protein bars. What are they good for and what should you look for when choosing one?

Karen asks, are protein bars healthy or are they just glorified candy bars?

Well, this category has absolutely exploded.

My local grocery store, and I'm talking about the regular grocery,

not the fancy healthy food store.

They now have devoted an entire aisle to these bars.

There are scores of choices and it seems like new brands appear weekly.

So, instead of a reviewing or ranking specific brands,

let me instead offer you a guide

as to what sort of things you might want to look for

or avoid when choosing a protein bar.

But first, I want to draw a distinction between a protein bar and an energy bar.

These terms are often used interchangeably to refer to any bar-shaped item that's not an actual candy bar.

And to be honest, these terms don't have any strict definitions, but I think of energy bars as being

relatively high in carbohydrates. Energy bars were originally designed to

provide a portable source of calories or energy to fuel physical exertion or exercise.

Carbohydrates are more quickly absorbed than fats and proteins which take longer to digest. In fact the simpler the

carbohydrate the faster it will be available to your muscles and another word for

simple carbohydrate is sugar.

So in order to provide quick energy during extended exercise,

an energy bar is going to be high in sugar.

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