i'm on the road so much that fast food, pizza, and chinese are sometimes the only quick option so i want to start buying boxes of things like powerbars etc... and take them with me for snacking during the day

im looking for things that are fairly good for you but don't taste like cardboard, the more natural the better and absolutely no high fructose corn syrup!

so far ive tried and like:

POWERBAR whole wheat toffee chocolate chip
EAS triple chocolate bar
BALANCE chocolate trail mix

any other suggestions?

1/28/2008 8:39:03 PM

the energy bars made by hershey's are pretty good, but they may not be quite as healthful as something like eas

1/28/2008 8:42:41 PM

Your asking for trouble with snack bars they are all not so good for snacking between meals but if you want to REPLACE a meal with them thats another story.

Detour bars are excellent in all flavors.

The Powerbar Triple Threats are also very good and better balanced than the traditional ones.

Watch out for the Slimfast, South Beach, Atkins ones because they are loaded with your corn syrup and many times saturated fats =(

1/28/2008 8:45:23 PM

haha, it would be rather counter-productive for atkins bars to be loaded with corn syrup

1/28/2008 8:47:48 PM

SoyJoy bars make great snacks, 130-140 calories and ~4 or 5 grams protein. I think the mango coconut tastes really fake, but the others are good. $9.99 for 12 at BJ's, and they sell them at Target if you want to taste them before committing to a dozen.

1/28/2008 8:49:28 PM

ill usually eat 2 if i want to replace a meal

one would never replace a meal for my insatiable hunger, lol

there's a chocolate mint kind i like by another brand but its escaping me at the moment, pria maybe?

1/28/2008 8:50:24 PM

^^ dear god, personal opinion here, but i got 3 soyjoy bars (different flavors) for free not too long ago and i WAY overpaid for them. dry, flavor was bad, texture was bad. just terrible.

after consideration, i concluded that they were so bad that they actually did their company harm by sending me free ones. had i never tasted them and then seen them on sale for 50c apiece or something, i would have bought some just to try them out.

---

it's really tough to find a reasonably priced bar without HFCS, since it's so cheap.

i have always wanted to try the bars that alton brown made on an episode of good eats. it would take some prep time obviously but you'd know exactly what was in them.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_31335,00.html

[Edited on January 28, 2008 at 9:03 PM. Reason : there]

1/28/2008 8:59:06 PM

youbar looks good but expensive, $3 a bar for custom

1/28/2008 9:09:51 PM

i think cliff bars are delicious and don't taste fake....

1/28/2008 9:28:26 PM

kashi go lean

1/28/2008 9:34:10 PM

i forget the kind but metrx got one that has like 36g of protein per bar...i think it was cookies and creme...pretty good stuff

1/28/2008 9:47:27 PM

all kashi

1/28/2008 9:48:02 PM

cliff bars are ok, luna bars are much better.

no corn syrup.

1/28/2008 10:38:16 PM

Kashi tastes like cardboard. Grab yourself some Luna bars.

[Edited on January 28, 2008 at 10:40 PM. Reason : -]

1/28/2008 10:40:14 PM

my stepdad use to make his own health bars

1/28/2008 10:41:31 PM

i like the clif bars.

^^^i know it probably makes no difference, but i dont want to eat a bar "made for women"

1/28/2008 10:57:04 PM

Meh, they taste good though.

1/28/2008 10:57:40 PM

Greens+ bars, they look sketchy but are extremely healthy and taste great

1/29/2008 12:47:44 AM

Chocolate brownie or chocolate chip cliff bars

1/29/2008 12:49:31 AM

If snacking is really what you want (not meal replacement) then go for the South Beach Diet bars (peanut butter and chocolate):

And ZonePerfect bars (Chocolate Mint, Fudge Graham, Coconut Crunch, PB, and Chocolate Almond Raisin are all great):

Also, Kashii makes some absolutely killer granola bars that are almost all grain/soy, nuts, and fruit (low sugar).

You don't want a meal supplement bar for a snack.

1/29/2008 2:09:58 AM

1/29/2008 4:42:48 AM

I haven't seen those since I went to Philmont.....they were awful, but we would eat them when we didn't want to cook

1/29/2008 3:32:17 PM

Why not buy fruit, nuts, or canned tuna? Buy/make some beef jerky?

1/29/2008 3:37:16 PM

I eat the SlimFast Optima meal bars.
220 calories, 5g of fat, crap ton of vitamins, nutrients, and what not.

The Chocolate Cookie Dough and Rich Chocolate Brownie are decent.

I eat one or two depending on how hungry I am when I skip a real meal. I usually eat them for breakfast.

1/29/2008 3:55:31 PM

Quote :

"Why not buy fruit, nuts, or canned tuna?"

Convenience.

I've tried to do stuff like that before...but it just never works out in the long run. Its extremely convenient to just stick a bar in your briefcase/bookbag/coat pocket and pull it out when you get hungry.

However, every time I find a good, healthy "snack" bar that tastes good enough....I usually get tired of it before the box is done. Oh well...

1/29/2008 3:56:39 PM

^not to mention most are not really that healthy or support the breakdown I need for when they are applicable.

Quote :

"I eat one or two depending on how hungry I am when I skip a real meal. I usually eat them for breakfast. "

Christ, I go nuts if I skip a meal, and I eat probably 4 real meals a day (the other 2 are shakes or snacks).

1/29/2008 4:00:36 PM

Quote :

"not to mention most are not really that healthy or support the breakdown I need for when they are applicable."

Word.

Do you have any that would recommend? You're pretty strict with your nutritional requirements, so I'd like to see what bars would pass your "healthy" test.

1/29/2008 4:02:43 PM

i used to eat the hell out of these

http://www.fitfuel.com/fibar-high-fiber-granola-barsbrhighly-naturalbri6-boxes-bars-p-15087.html

1/29/2008 4:11:29 PM

I'm generally leary of them as a whole, unless I make them.

However, I have ordered zero impact bars and metabolic drive bars,

[Edited on January 29, 2008 at 4:25 PM. Reason : greens + high protein sometimes, too]

1/29/2008 4:20:30 PM

I generally try to avoid them unless I am trying to get something in my stomach when I have several games back to back for a tournament. Powerbars serve that purpose.

I have gone through spells of occasionally eating the Quaker Oat granola bars in lieu of breakfast on the way out the door.

1/29/2008 4:27:09 PM

buy a box of snickers

they cost less and do basically the same thing

plus they dont cause gutbomb if you eat them everyday, unlike clif/power/balance/eas-bars do

also, people will think you're weird if you eat your hippy bars with a knife a fork....do that with a snickers, you reignite a cultural phenomenon

1/29/2008 6:49:46 PM

The C-Stores are carrying Odwalla bars now - which are probably the best I've seen. They are made of Organic, healthy food - and they are proud to not use any foods that have been biologically engineered. The bars have no processed sugar, rather, they use real cane juice.

http://www.odwalla.com

1/29/2008 7:41:24 PM

Quote :

"Why not buy fruit, nuts..."

Thats exactly what I snack on. Fuck bars.

1/29/2008 7:44:29 PM

the problem with odawalla is that they like soy protein

1/29/2008 9:37:26 PM

I'm a fan of zone perfects. I started lifting recently and take it for the decent boost in protein and holding my appetite over on a 10 hour shift at work.

Chocolate Peanut Butter:

210 cals, 60 from fat
7g fat, 4g saturated, 0 trans
<2% cholesterol
280 mg sodium 12%
120mg potassium 3%
25g carbs 8%
dietary fiber 3g 12%
Sugars 17g
Protein 14g


Vitames:
A 35%
C 100%
E 100%
B6 50%
B12 35%

lots of other good for you shit that i don't feel like typing anymore too.

1/29/2008 9:51:20 PM

Snicker's Marathon Bars

1/30/2008 12:40:53 AM

For the love of God, make them yourself, they're so much cheaper

1/30/2008 12:42:12 AM

[Edited on January 30, 2008 at 1:39 AM. Reason : Im a newb.]

1/30/2008 1:38:37 AM

Quote :

"I haven't seen those since I went to Philmont"

haha that's where I had them first! (beaubien ranch iirc)

while true, the fruit and nut (regular flavor) ones aren't exactly candy

they really don't taste that bad

and the other flavors (carob-cocoa, coconut almond, and sesame lemon) are much better


they are almost the perfect food (complete protein, LOTS of whole grain fiber, no filler, all natural)



most of the other bars listed so far in this thread are crap -- just sugar and vitamins with some whey, crap!




you need pemmican!

1/30/2008 2:21:58 AM

1/30/2008 8:24:20 AM

^those are good. I like the dark chocolate and cherry

I usually make them myself though

1/30/2008 12:16:40 PM

Quote :

"South Beach Diet bars (peanut butter and chocolate)"

I've found peanut butter and maple nut are the best flavors. The chocolate ones can seem a little chalky after a while.

1/30/2008 1:19:14 PM

http://www.askmen.com/sports/fitness_top_ten/29_fitness_list.html

1/30/2008 3:28:17 PM

Odwalla- chocolate chip or Superfood (its green and looks like cow poo but its my favorite). Great flavor, good texture and they always taste fresh. Very fulfilling, sometimes I don't even finish the whole bar.

1/30/2008 4:56:16 PM

Quote :

"Watch out for the Slimfast, South Beach, Atkins ones because they are loaded with your corn syrup and many times saturated fats =("

that is quite possible the dumbest thing I've read today. Slimfast may be, but the others definitely can't be loaded with corn syrup. Also, saturated fat does not have a negative impact on the body unless they are comsumed with a carbohydrate that will cause an appreciable insulin response. Since that is not the case with south beach and atkins bars, the saturated fat content is a non-issue.

1/30/2008 5:29:03 PM

unless you are planning on consuming them in place of a shake around workouts

1/30/2008 5:30:32 PM

I'm not sure if it's even an issue then. the reason I've always read for why you're supposed to avoid saturated fats with a PWO meal is because the saturated fat blunts the ability of insulin to force glycogen back into the muscles. If a person is not consuming carbs, then the saturated fat content shouldn't matter. Besides, the saturated fat content of a serving of most whey protein supplements is similar to that in an atkins bar.

For a person that's not on a low-carbohydrate / low glycemic index diet, atkins and south beach bars are a horrible food choice.

1/30/2008 6:02:32 PM

But, doesn't the even the atkins diet call for carbs around workouts?

You are right, though, about it not being an issue if carbs are not being consumes (like you needed my affirmation )

1/30/2008 6:07:17 PM

^^You seem to be talking about the immediate effect of saturated fats on the body. But I think its well established that saturated fats are harmful in the long term. Everyone should keep products with them to a minimum.

1/30/2008 6:17:30 PM

^^^^^ eleusis

Quote :

"that is quite possible the dumbest thing I've read today. Slimfast may be, but the others definitely can't be loaded with corn syrup. Also, saturated fat does not have a negative impact on the body unless they are comsumed with a carbohydrate that will cause an appreciable insulin response. Since that is not the case with south beach and atkins bars, the saturated fat content is a non-issue."

I'm sorry the dumbest thing you've read today is the truth.....

Maybe you should read your labels more or do a quick google search before you accuse someone giving good advice as "dumb".

Please turn your attention to exhibit A below:









As you can see, I wasn't talking out of ignorance. I actually read food labels

1/30/2008 7:22:26 PM