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Protein is so important for building and repairing muscles, fueling your workouts and regulating hormones. All of which is crucial for supporting an active lifestyle. But leaning too heavily on protein bars in your diet is warned against by health experts.
“Protein is an essential macronutrient that is also very filling, so grabbing a baked protein bar for a quick fix sounds like a good option for health-conscious people, but it’s often quite the opposite,” nutritionist Dr. Ruby Lathon of Body Complete Rx explains. “What should be a healthy option is often more a sugar laden candy bar masquerading as a healthy snack.”
Is there one specific bar that you should especially avoid? Of course! Nutritionists we spoke to revealed that Clif’s White Macadamia Nut bar is particularly offensive. Why? It happens to have a dangerous trifecta of high sugar, high in carbs and low in actual protein. Yikes!
Clif Bar White Macadamia Nut
“One bar that I recommend most people avoid is Clif Bar’s White Macadamia Nut flavor,” Morgyn Clair, MS, of Sprint Kitchen tells us.
“This bar has a ton of sugar: 21 grams of sugar, which is about 5 teaspoons. Plus, it is relatively high in calories and contains soy lecithin, that can upset some people’s stomach.”
“The Clif Bar brand boasts of being non-GMO and organic, which are great characteristics to have in a bar, but sugar, carbs, and added ingredients are important as well. But this particular Clif Bar contains 41 grams of carbs for just one bar and 21 of those are from sugar!” Lisa Richards, CNC, of the Candida Diet agrees.
“A decent protein bar should have as much or more protein as it does carbs, this bar only contains 9 grams of protein,” she says of the rule of thumb to determine whether a protein bar is good for you or not.
“This bar also contains a lot of soy based ingredients, which are bad necessarily, but some individuals will want to be aware of this when making their selection,” she continues.
Nutritionist Niyla Carson of Fast Food Menu Prices agrees: in addition to high sugar and carbs content and low protein content, it contains soy ingredients, including soybean oil, soy flour, and lecithin. “Consuming too much soy can pose side effects such as constipation, nausea, and bloating,” she advises. “Some people even have allergic reactions to it, which involves developing a rash, itching, and even anaphylaxis.”
