protein bars vs real food

[EgOtRiPpiN]

i'm thinking of bringing protein bars to school with me but i've heard people say that they are over-processed and i'd be better off eating real food. any opinions?

[SycoraX]

Yes, real food is better than protein bars. But sometimes it's really hard to get real food, so a protein bar wouldn't hurt. It's better to have a protein bar after 2 hours, isntead of having nothing for 4 hours. Just make sure it's not loaded with sugar.

[JGreen]

Nothing replaces a good high protein meal. Yesterday I posted on home made protein bar. they are, IMO, way better for you.
Just look for the post by JGREEN called HIGH PROTEIN + CAL post.

[Dr Bill]

What is your recipe for a good protein bar, I am interested

-Bill

[massive member]

great when **** happens and you're stuggling for a meal

poor choice when you can plan properly

homemade ones rule

[alan aragon]

homemade protein bars? do you guys have jobs? i draw the line of cooking at nuking suff my wife already made in the microwave.



nah but seriously, drop me a link to the best homemeade prot bars & i'll see if they take 2minutes or less to prepare.

[zackmurphy]

I've tried a couple home made versions, and they're not half bad.

But.

There are a select few (very few) commercial protein bars that are worth the time and money. Yes, real food is better, but depending on your day, you don't always have an alternative if you want to eat your 6 daily meals/snacks.

Met-RX makes some "Protein Plus" models - all are tasty, but some are particularly low in sugar: 10-12g, which is pretty good for those. And their protein blend and nutritional labeling (unlike Detour bars) is accurate. The last one I have in my desk is roasted peanut, but they also do a good choc fudge and choc choc chip. About 32g prot, 32g carbs (about 10g of sugar), and 8-10g of fat.

Not bad, and better (nutritionally, at least) than most home made models.

[EgOtRiPpiN]

for some reason i felt like crap after eating a metrx protein plus bar. maybe its just my imagination

[zackmurphy]

Originally posted by EgOtRiPpiN
for some reason i felt like crap after eating a metrx protein plus bar. maybe its just my imagination

Upset stomach, or what? If so, make sure you chug water with it, the more the merrier, and see if that helps.

And it depends a little which flavor - the graham cracker and the cookie dough flavors have much more sugar than the rest, and that could do it, too.

The Roasted peanut, choc choc chip, and the fudge are lower in sugar.

[reiffer]

THE BEST HOMEMADE PROTEIN BAR
not original taken from someone else

14 tbspoons natty pb
1 cup Oats
5 Scoops ON 100% Whey
Sugar-free syrup
some milk

Put p.b and 1/4 cup syrup in bowl and try to just stir up a lil, then put in microwave for 1 min. Take it out and mix up the p.b. and syrup. Mix in oats and protein powder. This will get hard and get very dry. Start adding a lil more syrup or just a LIL bit of milk to bring up to a wetter state. Do this until mixed good. Put in a pan and let sit for an hour. Cut them up and store in a refrigerator. DUDE TRY THESE. so easy to make and they taste awesome. They are pretty dry but with a glass of milk or water they are GREAT. Hope this helps..

[zackmurphy]

Originally posted by reiffer
THE BEST HOMEMADE PROTEIN BAR
not original taken from someone else

14 tbspoons natty pb
1 cup Oats
5 Scoops ON 100% Whey
Sugar-free syrup
some milk

No offense intended, but 14 tablespoons of PB? One tbsp is about 8g of fat... you have 14 tbsp, or 112g of fat, from the PB alone.

In fact, I added it all up (ignoring the syrup, since I don't know the exact numbers), the total product is 2500 calories, and about 200g protein, 125g carbs, and 125g fat.

That's a bad ratio no matter how you slice them up. 45% of the calories are from fat. Almost any protein bar off the shelf is waaaaay better, health-wise. Yours may taste better, with all the PB, but.......

Sorry, man. Not trying to be a jerk about it - just dno't want someone to cook up a batch thinking it's Mr. Healthy.

You could probably fix it by cutting the PB way, way down, and adding some cottage cheese instead. At least that would be protein and far less fat, or non-fat.

Anyway, IMHO.

[EgOtRiPpiN]

i sort of get an upset stomach after i eat a metrx protein plus bar.. . it reminds me of the feeling i get after eating a cheat meal i shouldn't have... anyway how are nitro-tech bars?

[reiffer]

i know that ratio is bad, but i eat those strictly when bulking and only a few a day, i cut them up real small. They are a much cheaper alternative to bars. And no way i dont take offence thats what these boards are here for. I just dont have any money and when bulking season comes around these help me get my cals. Oh and thats the only homemade one i know of..

[zackmurphy]

Originally posted by reiffer
i know that ratio is bad, but i eat those strictly when bulking and only a few a day, i cut them up real small. They are a much cheaper alternative to bars. And no way i dont take offence thats what these boards are here for. I just dont have any money and when bulking season comes around these help me get my cals. Oh and thats the only homemade one i know of..

Gotcha.

There's another recipe for bars on this page:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hreadid=233094

One could cut the PB a little to make those lower fat, too, perhaps add some cottage cheese to beef up the protein a little.

I haven't tried them - just a recipe I've seen floating around.

[XEastCoastHateX]

Originally posted by EgOtRiPpiN
i'm thinking of bringing protein bars to school with me but i've heard people say that they are over-processed and i'd be better off eating real food. any opinions?

If thats the only way you can get protein in than thats what you have to do..I used to make tuna on wheat sandwhiches..and eat them going between classes...

[EgOtRiPpiN]

i've brought tuna sandwiches to school before... and people around me will gag and give me dirty looks... those ignorant fools!!!!

[massive member]

Originally posted by EgOtRiPpiN
i've brought tuna sandwiches to school before... and people around me will gag and give me dirty looks... those ignorant fools!!!!

go one better

chew with your mouth open

[Edge_90]

Originally posted by zackmurphy

There are a select few (very few) commercial protein bars that are worth the time and money. Yes, real food is better, but depending on your day, you don't always have an alternative if you want to eat your 6 daily meals/snacks.

Met-RX makes some "Protein Plus" models - all are tasty, but some are particularly low in sugar: 10-12g, which is pretty good for those. And their protein blend and nutritional labeling (unlike Detour bars) is accurate.

Hey zackmurphy,

I started out with Met-Rx bars and learned to love'em. Roasted peanut is my favorite by far. Anyway, I then tried the Detour bars and was blown away by the taste. Do you have evidence that Next nutrion's labels do not accurately reflect the nutrition in the bar? Just curious...

PS. 12 g sugar in a Detour bar

[mimo]

Originally posted by SycoraX
Yes, real food is better than protein bars. But sometimes it's really hard to get real food, so a protein bar wouldn't hurt. It's better to have a protein bar after 2 hours, isntead of having nothing for 4 hours. Just make sure it's not loaded with sugar.

bump

[zackmurphy]

Originally posted by Edge_90
Hey zackmurphy,

I started out with Met-Rx bars and learned to love'em. Roasted peanut is my favorite by far. Anyway, I then tried the Detour bars and was blown away by the taste. Do you have evidence that Next nutrion's labels do not accurately reflect the nutrition in the bar? Just curious...

PS. 12 g sugar in a Detour bar

I wish I could tell you where I read that. Don't think it was in a magazine, possibly online, but not here.

The deal was this. Some protein bar makes use a proprietary blend of protein - it's their own special blend of whatever that they then rename. But it is protein in some concentration, usually a combo of various whey isolates, concentrates, etc., but you don't really know. Met-RX does this, as do many of them. So the protein quantities are harder to measure. As are the sugars.

I remember that Detour was the big fibber on sugar quantities, but that Met-RX was considered to be pretty accurate. I'd remember more, but those were really the only two I ate at the time.

The word was that Detour might be right about their protein total, but their sugar # was way off. And they are quite sweet, and there's no splenda in there. But the report was very scientific and certainly didn't seem to care what the results were - just reporting some test results on a number of popular bars.

Actually, M & F did an article about 4 months ago about good bars. Their article didn't allege any fraud (Next/Detour is a big advertiser with them), but it did discuss the general issue with mis-reporting of nutritional stats.

The Met-RX roasted peanut is pretty good, as are the choc choc chip and fuge flavor (of the "Protein Plus" group of theirs. Lower in sugar. I try to avoid them in general, but if I'm traveling or
short on time, I can't exactly nuke a potato or bust out to cottage cheese.