What to look for in a protein bar...

[Scallywag]

Howdy all!

It seems the general consensus here is that protein bars are the spawn of Satan...

*but*

if you had to pick one, what would you look for in it?

I don't really wanna faff around with egg whites, baking trays and all that trying to knock up my own half-arsed attempt at one (I'm no cook!). I'm opting for convience instead. I'm looking for a bar which is just a regular protein bar (i.e. 150-250 cals) rather than those that tout themselves as meal replacement bars and are well over 300+ calories. With that in mind, what should I be keeping an eye out for? Sugars below a certain level? What about sugar alcohol? Does it matter what kind of protein is in it?

I'm still learning about all this so any tips on deciphering the figures at the back and what to pay attention to would be much appreciated! =)

As an aside, Kroger had packs of 5 South Beach Diet protein bars for only $1.79 today - I was very tempted to stock up as that's amazingly cheap, but they only had 10g of protein in 'em, which doesn't seem all that high.

[JLT]

Search is your friend... Here is a thread to read through
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=489285

Also I think the biggest factor is finding one low in sugar. I like the MHP up your mass personally, I wouldn't use a protien bar at all if it wasn't for the fact that i have a 6 hour time period where im in class with only 2 10 minute breaks.

[Scallywag]

I did browse through that earlier but a lot of the comments did seem to boil down to 'this is the best tasting bar' rather than a nutritional analysis. I was also still unsure as to sugars v sugar alcohols, which is worse, etc...

Some guidelines would help - i.e. if I'm getting 15g of protein in a bar, do I want to keep sugars down to less than 10g, etc? No idea what's acceptable and what's excessive... :-/