What Bar Should I Choose?

Fueling your body takes effort. It’s much easier to run out the door without breakfast, stop at a fast food restaurant for lunch, and throw some money in a vending machine for a snack loaded with refined carbohydrates and trans fat rather than taking the time to plan ahead so you are putting high nutrient foods in your “tank,” so to speak. Think about the last time you were on a long trip; did you take some healthy options or did you rely on the myriad of “health foods” that rest areas or planes offer? Maybe at work you’ve been burning the candle at both ends and not doing what it takes to perform at your peak; either physically or mentally. We’ve all probably found ourselves in these types of situations. Fortunately there are options.

When talking with folks about weight loss, weight gain, or just health, I always recommend they are prepared for anything. You never know when you’re going to be driving home from work for a seemingly normal day to go home and eat dinner, when you get a flat. Or maybe there is unexpected traffic from an accident. Next thing you know, you get home one hour later than expected, and you’re now so hungry you’ll eat anything that gets in the way—even if it’s the door to get into the house.

Like meal replacement powders, nutrition bars should be part of your “safety” arsenal and are great as snacks to keep you going in the middle of the day. Plugging in a blender in your car or on an airplane doesn’t always work so well, but pulling a bar out of your glove compartment does. Of course real food is the best option for all meals of the day; I’m not recommending replacing all your real foods with snack bars, but on occasion they can surely make life easier (and healthier) if you compare them to other available options. The only problem with many “nutrition” bars is that they are nothing more than a well-packaged candy bar, that tastes like you’re choking down chocolate covered chalk. So how do you pick a bar that suits your needs?

First or all, just like with foods, take a look at the nutrition label. Remember that the order of ingredients dictates how much of each is in the product. The first ingredient on the label is the one that is most abundant in the product and the further down the list, the less that is actually in there. If trying to gain some lean body mass, pick a bar that provides a good amount of total calories and is a good source of high quality protein. Bars are notoriously high in low quality protein; if hydrolyzed gelatin is one of the first ingredients, put the bar back. Let’s dissect some of the most popular ingredients in many bars.

Here’s a very brief synopsis of a few proteins you may see gracing the sides of bars.

Whey Protein
Before getting into some different components of whey, it’s important to first describe whey protein itself. Whey protein is taken directly from cheese production (think Little Miss Muffet, eating her curds and whey). The product is clarified, to remove the most or all of the fat and lactose, and dried into a white powder. The extent of isolation and purification then determines what type of whey is produced.

Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC)
WPC is one of the cheapest methods of whey production, leaving some other non-protein components in the powder in addition to protein itself. When compared to more expensive forms of whey protein, it contains a little less protein per gram, which is why it is less expensive, but this does not make it a useless form of protein. Whey protein concentrate has some specific components in it that are otherwise filtered out with the isolate.

Whey Protein Isolate (WPI)
WPI is more expensive because gram for gram, it contains more protein than other forms of whey. It also has higher levels of some immunoglobins and certain amino acids than other forms of whey.

Casein Protein
Casein protein is commonly found in dairy products (think lumps in cottage cheese). Casein is actually the curds part of the separated cheese (Little Miss Muffet apparently wasn’t happy referring to her curds as casein, she preferred to eat her curds and whey because it sounded catchier in the famous children’s poem). Because casein is highest in dairy products, it’s not surprising that it also contains more lactose than whey protein.

Protein Hydrolysates (all inclusive for all hydrolyzed proteins)
Hydrolyzed proteins are ones that have been enzymatically broken down. This process makes the protein more easily digestible because there is less work for your GI tract. Proponents of this form of protein promote its ability to be absorbed more rapidly (because it is essentially pre-digested).

Soy Protein
Soy protein is commonly used in many different bars. Soy offers another unique mix of amino acids. Soy is one of the higher quality plant proteins and its inclusion should not be shunned.

Now, depending on the type of nutrition plan you may be following (e.g., low or high carb), only certain bars may fit into your plan. Some bars include more carbohydrates; here are some of the more popular carbs included.

Whole Carbohydrates
Some of the better bars available use whole oats as a source of carbohydrates; oats are loaded with fiber and nutrients, so they’re great to have in a bar (and should be part of your meal plan, too).

Maltodextrin
Maltodextrin is a common glucose polymer (chain of glucose molecules) that is one of the more prevalent carbohydrates added to many bars. It is relatively inexpensive, causes a rapid rise in blood sugar (recommended post-workout) and adds sweetness (i.e. flavor).

Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s)
Essential fatty acids are one of the more recent additions to quality bars. They are often added as peanuts, sunflower oil and/or flax seed, although flax seed. EFA’s are typically included to slow the rapid rise in blood sugar following a meal and for their known health benefits.

There are also a few ingredients you need to keep an eye out for and avoid like the plague. First and foremost is hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil. Companies often add hydrogenated oils to their products because it is a cheap way to make their product taste good; unfortunately they don’t include a coupon for an angioplasty too because too much hydrogenated oil (which give a nice dose of artery-clogging trans-fatty acids) is not heart healthy. The American diet is already filled with too many trans fatty acids; when someone is finally trying to make a healthy adjustment, like replacing a fast food meal or vending machine snack with a healthy bar, they would be shooting themselves in the foot. Unfortunately these are found in many bars, but should be avoided like the plague! There is no dietary requirement for trans fats, they are more harmful than saturated fats, they negatively effect blood lipids, and have been correlated to cardiovascular disease risk!

Similarly, high fructose corn syrup is a cheap sweetener used in many products that permeates most of the foods on store shelves. Unfortunately, it has also made its way too many bars. High quality products have never and will never contain such ingredients.

Again, snack bars should not be the mainstay of anyone's diet, no matter who you are; however, they can definitely make a nice addition for convenience alone - and many of them actually taste great. If you have you hold your nose, jump up and down, and almost pass-out just to choke down your chalky bar, it’s not going to have much benefit due to lack of compliance. On the contrary, if you have a product that is enjoyable and contains most of the positive aforementioned ingredients discussed, you’re in luck. Remember to read the labels and pick the product that best suits your needs in the categories of taste, convenience, and value.

Dr. Chris Mohr RD, PhD is a health nutrition consultant to a number of media outlets and corporations including Discovery Health Channel, Clif Bar, Waterfront Media, and Fit Fuel. He has authored and co-authored several textbooks and textbook chapters, including consulting with LL Cool J on "LL Cool J's Platinum Workout" (Rodale Press, 2006). He is also co-creator of Meal Plans 101 nutrition software.

Insulin And HFCS

Unruly insulin levels can royally screw up your physique. Specific foods affect insulin levels. However, what may be more important is knowing what specific ingredients in foods mess with insulin. You can lift all day until you are blue in the head, but eating specific foods and food ingredients could be holding you back from resembling the chiseled Statue of David.

First A Little Background

Insulin is THE most anabolic hormone in the body. Insulin’s anabolic properties make it rather important when thinking about packing on muscle. However, too much insulin could cause you to resemble Professor Klump from The Nutty Professor. Here’s how it works.

Insulin secretion occurs via the β-cells in the pancreas with the consumption and digestion of food; particularly in response to carbohydrate-rich foods. Over stimulation of the β-cells, characterized by diets consistently high in simple sugars (e.g., a “soda and Twinkie” type diet) may lead to insulin resistance overtime (probably because that kind of diet is usually accompanied by weight gain). Basically, when you consume high sugar foods, blood glucose is chronically elevated and insulin is continually released to control blood glucose levels (not allowing them to go too high).

Chronically elevated insulin levels decreases the bodies ability to burn fat, increases triglycerides, decreases HDL levels (the good cholesterol) and causes excessive peroxidation (the stuff we pay lots of money to avoid by buying eating lots of fruits and vegetables and antioxidant supplements)!

Therefore, dietary control and exercise are imperative since both help regulate glucose. In addition to the umbrella classification of high sugar foods, there are two specific ingredients that need to be considered: fructose and more specifically high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Both are found in a wide variety of foods, many of which may surprise you.

Fructose And Insulin

Here’s the scoop. Fructose is a monosaccharide (one sugar) that is often referred to as “fruit sugar” because it is the primary carbohydrate in most fruits. Fructose is also the primary sugar in honey and makes up half the carbohydrate in sucrose (table sugar). The interesting thing about fructose is that it does not stimulate insulin secretion and does not require insulin to be transported into cells, like other carbohydrates.

After all the talk about the importance of controlling insulin levels, it appears as though a lack of insulin secretion from fructose consumption may be a good thing. However, insulin also controls the fate of another hormone, leptin, so as you’ll see, its release is necessary.

Leptin tells your body to stop eating when it’s full. Essentially, leptin signals the brain to stop sending hunger signals because the “tank is full”. Since fructose doesn’t stimulate insulin, there will be no subsequent increase in leptin levels, and no feeling of satiety (i.e., you’ll keep eating and eating).

Is Fructose Making YOU Fat?

Fructose requires a different pathway for metabolism than other carbohydrates because it basically skips glycolysis (normal carbohydrate metabolism). Because of this, fructose serves as an unregulated source of something called acetyl-CoA, the starting material for fatty-acid synthesis. This, coupled with unstimulated leptin levels is setting you up for a big, fat disaster! It’s like opening the flood gates of fat deposition.

Don’t over interpret this; fructose should not be eliminated from the diet. This is more of a “heads up” since most readers of this site share similar health and fitness goals. Remember that fructose is the primary sugar found in fruits. Fruits provide a whole slew of nutrients that can’t otherwise be obtained from the diet so don’t toss them in the trash too fast. A little fructose, like that found in fruit, is OK. It’s when high levels of fructose are consumed, which is common these days because of the inclusion of sucrose and, even more so, HFCS into virtually all commercial foods.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

HFCS was brought to the market in the 1970’s by food companies looking to save money during production and, therefore, make more money from the consumer. HFCS hides itself in a variety of common foods such as ketchup, seasonings, barbeque sauce, soda, juices, cereals, pasta sauce, fruit-flavored yogurt and even some meal replacements powders, to name but a few. HFCS is popular among food companies because it is much sweeter than any natural sugar available, much cheaper, and easy to transport because it is a liquid.

While it may seem that this is just my over zealous mind taking things to extreme, read on; there are several animal studies to support my theories that body weight and adiposity both increase while consuming a high fructose diet (9,10,11). The data on humans is a bit more difficult to come across, but there are a few studies. For example, one study demonstrated that individuals consuming 28% of total energy from sucrose (remember, ½ the carbohydrate in sucrose is fructose) vs. artificial sweetener had a higher energy intake, body weight, and fat mass after a short 10-weeks (12).

This doesn’t sound like rocket science; greater energy intake equals greater weight gain. There were some interesting findings though. There was an increase of a little more than 400 kcals in the sucrose group, which should result in an approximate weight gain of 3.1 kg if all other factors are held constant. However, there was only about half that weight gain in this group. Therefore, the authors estimate that 48% of the excess energy intake from sucrose was used for other energy demanding body processes, such as lipogenesis (the creation of fat).

In addition, even though all subjects were told they were being given artificially sweetened products, most of those in the sucrose group guessed the true content of their beverages. Even though subjects knew they were consuming more calories from drinks, they didn’t compensate by eating less calories from other foods. Again, the authors suggest this could be a mechanism due to lack of control over eating behavior (remember the lack of insulin secretion and subsequent leptin production from fructose consumption talked about earlier).

Similarly another study demonstrated those consuming HFCS sweetened soda vs. artificially sweetened soda did not reduce participants total energy intake to compensate for the extra energy consumed as HFCS. These data, like above, suggest that the consumption of HFCS (from soda in this case) does not provide the body with a sense of fullness causing an increase in excess energy, hence, weight gain. I will say it again; fructose does not stimulate insulin or leptin, causing an increase in total energy intake because the “shut off switch (leptin)” is not registering that there is food in the body.

To make matters even worse, fructose consumption is even tied specifically to insulin resistance in rodents (suggesting it may have the same affect on humans too)(13,14) and increased triglyceride secretion (15).

So What Does This All Mean?

Let me sum up this whole article in one sentence: avoid HFCS like the plague! Go through your entire refrigerator, freezer and cabinets and read the ingredient labels with the same attention to detail you would use when going on a first date. If HFCS is high up on the list of ingredients (meaning there is a relatively large amount in the particular food) toss it in the garbage. Soda is one of the biggest culprits. It’s a great deal for the soda companies (e.g., use less of an even cheaper sugar for a sweeter product), but a heck of a deal for your body (e.g., get fat). Now of course HFCS alone cannot make you fat; for example soda made with “natural sugar” is still soda. However, coupled with an increased caloric intake (eating too much) and decrease energy output (not being active enough), you’re setting yourself up for a recipe for unhealthy disaster.

The easiest trick to avoid this (and many other “useless” ingredients) is to primarily shop around the perimeter of the store. Think about it: produce is on one side, seafood, red meat, poultry on another, and dairy products, eggs, bread on the third. HFCS infests commercially available products; the more these can be avoided, the better off you’ll be, both health and physique-wise. Try to buy foods in the most “natural” state possible; the less processing the manufacturers do, the better off you’ll be.

References:

1. JAMA, 286(10), 1195-1200, 2001
2. MSSE, 35(3), 449-455, 2003
3. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care, May;6(3):301-6, 2003
4. J Strength Cond Res, Feb;17(1):12-9, 2003
5. J Appl Physiol. Oct;93(4):1337-44, 2002
6. Can J Appl Physiol. 26 Suppl:S236-45, 2001
7. AJCN, 68, 794-801, 1998
8. AJCN, 74, 426-234, 2001
9. J Nutr, 112, 1546-1554, 1982
10. Br J Nutr, 70, 199-209, 1993
11. J Lab Clin Med, 128, 208-213, 1996
12. AJCN, 76, 721-729, 2002
13. J Nutr, 107, 147-155, 1977
14. Metabolism, 29, 970-973, 1980
15. AJCN, 49, 1155-1163, 1989

Dr. Chris Mohr RD, PhD is a health nutrition consultant to a number of media outlets and corporations including Discovery Health Channel, Clif Bar, Waterfront Media, and Fit Fuel. He has authored and co-authored several textbooks and textbook chapters, including consulting with LL Cool J on "LL Cool J's Platinum Workout" (Rodale Press, 2006). He is also co-creator of Meal Plans 101 nutrition software.