If You're Trying To Lose Weight, Then Be Careful When Selecting Protein Bars

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Be careful which protein bars you select when you are trying to lose weight. Protein bars and health bars are available everywhere, however they are not all created equal. With so many different brands out their you never know if you are getting something healthy or merely junk food in disguise.

If you are making grocery store food choices, you really need to know how to read labels if you're going to find truly healthy food bars. The truth is most contain an endless list of chemicals, sugars, processed trans fats, and other harmful overly processed ingredients.

Sadly, you will find that most of the health bars are junk, thinly disguised candy bars with a smidgen of protein thrown in for good measure.

For example, a couple of weeks ago I was bike riding with a personal friend and in order to keep my energy up for our ride I needed a quick bar.

Well, I needed a little something to eat so my friend gave me an extra slim fast bar he had.

If you will check, the label on a slim fast bar you will find they are labeled as a weight loss health food.

The truth is there is nothing healthy at all about a slim fast bar, not even remotely. If you ask me, they are worse for your health than a regular candy bar.

The first ingredient in the bar given me was corn syrup! The second ingredient was sugar, followed by hydrogenated oils (which is a source of deadly trans fats). The list went on with a lot of other additives such as artificial flavors, colors, evil artificial sweeteners, more hydrogenated refined oils, and rounded out with some unhealthy processed soy protein isolate (which despite popular belief, processed soy is NOT healthy for you) just to load up your body with some more junk.

These may be touted as a way to lose weight but nutritionally these bars are a train wreck. To make matters worse they taste bad! A slim fast bar tastes like chemicals. If you want a prime example of over-engineered food, this is it!

So how do you determine a healthy energy bar?

Keep it simple when you are looking for a good bar to lose weight. The fewer the ingredients the better, but they should be healthy items such as seeds, nuts and fruits. When you can choose a bar with organic ingredients, most of the time they taste better.

Here are a couple of my personal favorites:

1. Organic Food Bars- Brand Name Health Bar

You will be pleasantly surprised at the number of flavors they offer. Depending on the flavor, you choose the bar will contain a combination of almond butter base (sometimes cashew butter) with a variety of organic seeds, organic rice protein, fruit and organic bio sprouts such as quinoa. Choose correctly and you will even find a bit of organic dark chocolate in the mix. They even have a line of exclusively raw material bars.

These bars are very nutritious and I think they are delicious as well plus they have a good many flavors to choose from: chocolate chip, blueberry, cranberry, high protein, and more. You will most likely find these bars at health food stores. Grocery stores don't carry them.

2. Larabars - These are simple ingredient organic food bars. Larabars contain just 2 or 3 raw ingredients such as a blend of crushed nuts along with a type of fruit, but they have a lot of different flavors.

The best thing about these bars is their ingredient list, not a chemical one shows up. As a rule, you will only find tasty fruit and nuts on the label. Larabars are a high quality health bar. You will not find these in your grocery store but once again, you can certainly find them at specific health food stores.

These healthy bars make great quick snacks while you are traveling or at work.

When you need a quick snack, it is good to have these bars at hand. You will no longer be tempted by junk food vendors or fast food chains. Of course, you must read the labels to ensure you are actually getting a health food bar and not a candy bar pretending to be healthy. You will find weight loss is much easier when you can control the cravings between meals.

Mike Grason is a author of many articles for Atlanta Weight Management Program located at 235 Peachtree St NE Suite 400 Atlanta, GA 30303 Office: 404-585-5484. He gives many valuable tips and secrets to effective sustainable weight loss that are available at this site. Atlanta Lose Stomach Fat!