Your Food Explained - What's The Deal With Protein Bars?

There has been an increased demand for protein bars over the past few years, with their popularity only set to rise.

With that many nutrition companies have picked up on this growing trend.

A recent report by Fortune Business Insights has found that the protein bar market is forecasted to reach 7 billion dollars or approximately 6.5 billion euro by 2029. 

Here nutritionist Laurann O’Reilly and owner of Nutrition By Laurann guides us through everything you need to know about protein bars, the pros and cons, whether we need them in our diets and possible healthier natural alternatives. 

- What Exactly Are Protein Bars?

Protein bars are nutrition bars that contain a high proportion of protein to carbohydrates/fats. They are targeted to people who primarily want a convenient source of protein that doesn't require preparation (unless homemade). 

- What Are The Different Types of Protein Bar? There are different kinds of food bars to fill different purposes. 

Energy Bars: provide the majority of their food energy (calories) in carbohydrate form. These tend to be extremely high in sugar so beware!

Meal Replacement Bars: are intended to replace the variety of nutrients in a meal. I do not recommend these as the often contain artificial and processed ingredients and may not contain many of the nutrients we require. Food should always be our first source of protein and bars should not replace a meal.

Nutritional Support Proteins: These are additional sources of protein for individuals who may have additional nutritional requirements, for example in illness, where they cannot meet their requirements through food alone. These are often recommended by a dietician, pharmacist or prescribed by a GP. 

Protein Bars: Are usually lower in carbohydrates (but not always) than energy bars, lower in vitamins and dietary minerals than meal replacement bars, and significantly higher in protein than either. Protein bars are mainly used by athletes or exercise enthusiasts for muscle building.

Why Are They So Popular?

As consuming high-quality sources of protein is important for many functions of the body such as bone and muscle health as well as fluid balance, maintaining our immune system and the regulation of hormones to name a few, people associate protein and high protein as a healthy option.

There are many reasons for the popularity of protein bars, for some it’s to help them to meet their nutritional requirements where their diet may be lacking, for others it may be in terms of post training recovery. However, for many they’re used as convenient snack or worryingly as a meal replacement. I always encourage people to choose real food options if it’s the later as there are so many healthy high protein food options available to us. 

Do They provide a good source of nutrition?

Protein is made up of little building blocks called ‘amino acids’ and different combinations of these building blocks serve different functions in our body. It’s for this reason that we need a variety of different protein sources which are both plant and animal based (with a larger variety of plant-based protein if one is vegetarian or vegan). 

The quality of ‘protein bars’ on the market is variable in terms of the levels of other nutrients such as sugar and fat as well as additional ingredients such as preservative and additives. At least we’re protected in terms of health claims, as the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) define as ‘high protein’ to be at least 20% of the energy value of the food should be provided by protein.

Whilst many of the bars do have high levels of protein with a nice combination of the amino acid building blocks (amino acid profile) and many also have good quality ingredients, what they may lack particularly if one is using them as a snack or meal replacer, are the very important vitamins and minerals that our body need to function, which can really be best found in whole foods. 

As a nutritionist I would only recommend the use of protein bars for post training recovery or if protein needs aren’t being met through a healthy and balanced diet. 

What Do We Need To Be Careful of When Purchasing Protein Bars?

Please don’t be deceived in thinking that all protein bars are healthy as many are high in calories, sugar and fat along with being high in protein. They can also contain huge amounts of artificial ingredients such as additives, preservatives and artificial sweeteners.

These Bars Are Expensive – Are They Worth It?

For many foods, the price of the product can often reflect the quality of the ingredients within it. Whilst there are some really great brands out there, but it may not always be the case. As there is a demand for these products and some are willing to pay the price for convenience, companies can afford to keep the prices high quality or not. For those who are genuinely looking for a convenient snack there are so many other healthier and cheaper alternatives. 

What Are Healthy Alternatives To Protein Bars?

The key to eating healthy is to eat as many fresh and clean ingredients (avoiding added sugar and artificial ingredients as possible). For those who are looking to up their protein intake or are looking for a variety of protein in their diet, there are plenty of plant and animal-based protein sources available. 

One should aim to have a variety of the following to get the best spectrum protein in their diets. This not only helps to meet us to meet our basic protein requirement to maintain health, but is also important for those in heavy training regimes or recovering from illness. 

Plant-based sources of protein 

We can really think about creative ways to include these in our meals such in cereals, smoothies and yogurts or combined as a snack (about a ¼ cup portion). They can also be blended with figs and rolled up to make your own nutritious snack balls. Nut butters on fruit or wholegrain crackers also work great as a snack on the go. 

- Nuts and seeds: chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pistachio, hazelnut and cashew nuts. 

- Vegetables: Such as lentils, sweetcorn, peas and beans, potato and avocado. Again, we can think of ways to integrate these into our main meals to up our protein intake also.

-  Grains: Such as rice, oats, quinoa, spelt, couscous, buckwheat and millet

Animal-based sources of protein

Having a varied diet of the following can help you to meet your protein requirement too. A simple hard-boiled egg, yogurt with fruit or cheese on wholegrain crackers can work really well as a quick and easy high protein snack. 

- Meats/Fish/Poultry: Such as lean beef, pork chops, salmon, tuna, chicken breasts and turkey

- Dairy: Milk, eggs, yoghurts and cheese