Tip To Help Lose Weight: Be careful With protein Bars
Protein bars may not be the best snack to eat when you are trying to lose weight. Unfortunately, there are so many so-called healthy protein bars on the market that it is difficult to tell the difference between what is healthy and what is nothing more than junk food in a healthy wrapper.
If you are going to find truly healthy bars, you will need to learn how to read the nutrition labels, in fact anyone who shops at a grocery store should have this talent. When you begin checking labels you will find a long list of chemicals, processed Trans fats, sugars and other harmful ingredients that are overly processed.
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.
I was bike riding with a friend a couple weeks ago, and needed a quick bar to make sure I had enough energy for the bike ride.
My friend realized I could use a boost so he gave me a slim fast bar he had.
When you read the labeling on the slim fast bars you find that they are marketed as health foods for losing weight.
Well they are anything but healthy…there’s nothing even remotely nutritional about them. I believe they are WORSE for you than candy bars!
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.
When it comes to nutrition these weight, loss bars are nothing short of a disaster. If that weren’t bad enough, the taste is even worse. You can practically taste the chemical components of the bar. Can you say over processed and engineered?
Well, how then do you find a healthy protein or 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.
A couple of my favorite healthy bars:
1. Organic Food Bars – This is the brand name.
There are several flavors. Depending which one you choose, they usually contain a base of organic almond butter (or cashew butter) with a certain type of fruit, organic seeds, organic biosprouts (quinoa, etc), and organic rice protein. Some flavors even have an organic dark chocolate. You can buy their line of bars that use exclusively raw ingredients.
There are two things I like about this brand of bars; they are tasty as well as diverse. I have plenty of flavors to choose from including cranberry, high protein, chocolate chip and blueberry. Generally, grocery retailer will not carry these bars; you must go to a health food store.
2.Larabars- These contain two or three simple raw ingredients such as fruit and a crushed nuts, even though there are only a couple of ingredients these bars come in several different flavors. hen you are looking for an organic food bar, this is a great choice.
One thing you will never find on a Lara bar label is chemicals. They are delicious and healthy, nothing more. Fruits and nuts are just about all you will find on the list, as this is a quality health bar. These too will not be on your grocery shelves, but I have found them at certain health food stores.
These healthy bars make great quick snacks while you are traveling or at work.
To stave off the cravings or avoid the temptation of junk food vending machines and fast food restaurants it is good to always have a few bars with you. Remember to check the labels, ensuring that you are getting a true health food bar and not a glorified candy bar. Health bars can help you lose weight by curbing your appetite between meals.
Mike Grason is a author of many articles for Atlanta Weight Loss 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. Thinking about losing Weight? Check out the powerful strategies covered in the incredible ebook “The Truth About Abs”. Atlanta lose weight!
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