Part of our practice as fitness professionals is setting an example for our clients, as well as helping to consult them on proper nutrition. Many in our industry are quick to seize the economic opportunity of selling customers news they want to hear. “You can have your cake and eat it, too” is a message that all too many are willing to share. In my opinion, energy bars are part of that paradigm.

As a coach, it’s not always easy giving clients hard truths. It can be a tough sell to tell customers that hard work equals results. However, we know this to be an absolute truth whether in the weight room or on the field of play. When it comes to the food we use to reach our goals, “Eat your vegetables” is an even harder sell. It’s here where the waters can get a little murky.

Bars “Work,” But Are They Healthy?

Many of us in fitness rely on energy bars as a source of fuel, both personally and professionally. We eat bars to energize our workouts or as meal replacements and we sell our clients the same bill of goods. Indeed, energy bars can be effective. They provide quick and convenient fuel when we need it. Lord knows I have eaten hundreds, if not thousands, over the past twenty years. They most certainly help me get through the day, my workouts, and long bike rides. They usually taste good, too.

But the question is not, “Do energy bars work?” The question is, “Are they good for us?” There is a subtle but important distinction here. Our job in fitness is to provide results, but it is my contention that our job in fitness is not merely to sell what “works,” but more so what is truthful and ultimately healthy.

What Do the Experts Say?

The father of Western medicine, Hippocrates, suggested we should let food be our medicine. In essence, he was of the opinion that the foundation for health and wellness starts with what we eat. Many modern food experts, from Michael Pollan to Andrew Weil, are saying the same thing – food is our medicine and we as a collective society are failing miserably. The problem, in short, is packaged and processed food.

The Problem With Energy Bars

In his excellent book, Fat Chance, Dr. Robert Lustig conclusively showed that the real culprit in the obesity epidemic is sugar. Nothing has brought sugar into the mainstream American diet faster than processed and packaged foods. Energy bars, with certain notable exceptions, are part of this construct, usually containing an abundance of added sugar.

With this added sugar your body raises blood sugar and insulin levels rapidly. In doing so, your body becomes more insulin resistant, which leads to weight gain. Studies show that when we eat sugar-laden processed foods the insulin response is higher. One study showed than when eating processed food compared to whole foods with the same macronutrient profile the insulin response was up to 70% higher.

It doesn’t stop there. Sugar doesn’t just lead to weight gain, it also adversely affects our health. In Fat Chance, Lustig pointed out that while obesity is correlated to sickness, it isn’t the cause. You can still be or look fit, and also be sick.

Real Foods Are Better

Real food takes longer for our bodies to metabolize and we burn more calories in the process – that’s a good thing. According to a recent food study, it was concluded that it takes us 50% longer to digest real whole food than processed food. By requiring more digestive time our body burns more calories. Not only do our bodies burn significantly more calories in this longer thermic effect, our body also metabolizes more enzymes and micronutrients in the process as well.

Studies also suggest that eating real food affects our mood in positive ways. Two studies in the British Journal of Psychiatry showed that eating a whole foods diet with vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, and whole grains is linked to less depression than a typical Western diet of processed foods. Is it really surprising or shocking that eating real foods can make us healthier and even happier?

Food, Philosophically Speaking

When it comes right down to it, energy bars are part of the problem, not the solution. They certainly aren’t bad for us in a performance capacity. In fact, some can even help us with our short-term performance goals. Furthermore, eating energy bars isn’t going to cause us to keel over. Rather, energy bars are bad for us because they send the wrong message. That message is that processed and packaged foods can be healthy and part of the solution for what ails us.

Bars are simply a healthier alternative of packaged food. In that way, they are a bit like electronic cigarettes – a distraction from the act that smoking is bad for us. Similarly, it’s time we as a society deem that processed foods, foods that come in a box, and foods with added sugar are bad for us. We should be taking steps to limit and eliminate such foods.

I know it’s a tall order. Look, I like the convenience of packaged foods like bars, too. A bar sure hits the spot between classes or clients. On a long bike ride, a bar is sure a welcome companion. I can’t imagine hauling a ham sandwich in my jersey to eat thirty miles down the road. But as convenient and satisfying as bars are, I know they ultimately aren’t part of what I should eat. Increasingly I make sure clients see me eating raw nuts or an apple, and not a bar.

It’s time to take a stand and acknowledge that the way for our country to get healthy again is to get back in touch with eating real foods, whole foods, and raw foods the way the human body is meant to.

References:

1. Robert Lustig, Fat Chance (USA, Hudson Street Press, 2012).

2. G Oettle, M. Pauline, et al. “Glucose and Insulin Responses to Manufactured and Whole-Food Snacks.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1987): 45, 86-91.

3. Barr and Wright “Post-Prandial energy expenditure in whole-food and processed-food meals; implications for daily energy expenditure,” Food & Nutrition Research (2010): 54.

4. Akbaraly, T., Brunner, E., et al. “Dietary Pattern and Depressive Symptoms in Middle Age,” British Journal of Psychiatry (2009): 195, 408-413.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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My Love Affair With Bars

I felt like the peanut butter Clif Bar seemed to be too good to be true – more like a peanut butter cookie than some health food. That’s why I ate roughly two a day, every day, month after month. It was the pleasure without the guilt! After all, the package (and my friend Matt) told me they were good for me. Words like organic and no trans fat eased my suspicions that somehow energy bars were secretly bad for me.

Like many love affairs, my affinity with bars comes and goes. For the better part of the past two decades, I have gone from one bar to the next. I have a lifestyle and profession that requires constant energy and lots of food to sustain it. I often have to eat on the run, and bars have long been a main staple in my diet as a quick and convenient food choice.

I surf from bar to bar constantly looking for one with a good macronutrient profile (high protein and low saturated fat), as well as one that doesn’t have too many ingredients. Obviously, price is also a consideration and, of course, when it comes to food, taste reigns supreme.

While all of these are important factors in choosing a bar, I can’t help but wonder if there’s a more important question than which bar? That question is, should I really be eating any bars?

Where Did They Come From and Where Are They Going?

In the year 2014, bars are now a legitimate food category (at least from a business perspective). They are considered an acceptable snack or even meal replacement by many. Walk into any convenience store, gas station, or supermarket in America and you will see dozens of choices of bars from high protein to “healthy” candy-like energy bars. This all seems natural and normal to us. Of course, it wasn’t that long ago that people didn’t eat things that came out of a box or a wrapper.

Energy bars were the brainchild of the Pillsbury Corporation, who in the 1960s, capitalized on the popularity of the national space program by introducing the Space Food Stick. Since then, energy bars have become their own food category. While the Space Food Stick was more or less a novelty, things got serious in the mid 1980s with the introduction of the first energy bar for athletes, Power Bar.

Since that time the market has skyrocketed and the statistics are staggering. The current energy bar market in the United States is around six billion dollars and has more than doubled in the past decade. The energy bar sector continues to be red hot and shows no sign of slowing down. For the past ten years, the energy bar market has grown at nearly three times the rate of the packaged foods sector. The USDA estimates that we now get a third of our daily calories from snacks.

Nowadays you can find a bar for everyone, from elite athletes to diet bars for people looking to lose weight. There are high protein bars, vegan bars, all natural low ingredient bars, and meal replacement bars. Indeed, there’s a bar for everyone. And many of them taste delicious as well. After all, these bars are food – theoretically.

Bars and the Fitness Business

At my last company, a private training studio, we hocked bars like they were going out of style. For the athlete clients there were the performance and high protein bars. For our weight loss clients there were plenty of choices as well such as low calorie and fat free bars. Obese clients were told they needed to control their calories going in and that bars, shakes, and supplements were the best way to do so. Furthermore, clients were made to feel at ease because these bars tasted great and they wouldn’t have to give up enjoying food.

I recall being utterly bewildered at a presentation from a bar manufacturer’s representative where we were given complimentary samples of bars ”made with real Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.” They tasted great and our company started selling them like hotcakes the next week. Like my brief obsession with the peanut butter Clif Bar, all seemed too good to be true with bars like these. A healthy Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup? Talk about having my cake and eating it, too! While the bars were a hot seller for a while and I enjoyed the taste, the whole thing didn’t sit well with me. Somehow, eating and selling bars like these didn’t feel right.

The fitness industry is at the forefront of our country’s healthcare crisis and obesity epidemic. We in fitness are charged with the task of helping people get healthy, fit, and well. Food is a part of that process and a big one. So what about bars? With this question we circle back to my own personal dilemma and a query that has been eating at me for the better part of two decades – are bars good for us?

In part two of this article on bars I’ll seek to answer that question, breaking down bars philosophically as well as from a health and wellness perspective in terms of what the science says.

References:

1. “Nutrition runs up front in the US snack bar race: Rabobank,” Bakeryandsnacks.com.

2. “Snack Bar Growth Shows No Sign of Slowing,” QSRmagazine.com.

The post Are Energy Bars Good for Us? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Energy bars, gels, and other items fall under the banner of sports nutrition. The field of sports nutrition works to design products that allow us to continue to work out and perform at higher intensity for longer. Energy bars are primarily composed of carbohydrates, with smaller amounts of protein and fat, while energy gels and chews are usually just carbohydrates. These all are convenient forms of sugar that digest quickly to provide you with energy. They are designed to work with our energy systems and specifically support the aerobic system, which burns on carbohydrates.

The Energy Systems of the Body

If you remember back to high school, you know that ATP is what energizes our cells. We have a very small store of ATP in our bodies ready to go. Think of it as dynamite – it has a lot of punch but is gone in literally seconds. So we have three different systems in our bodies to create more ATP:

First, we have our creatine phosphate (CP) system, also sometimes known as the ATP-PC system. CP is stored in our cells and can be rapidly converted into ATP and burned. Think of it as something closer to lighter fluid, it takes a second to start burning but does not last a long time. On average someone sprinting will burn through their CP stores in fifteen to thirty seconds.

Next, we have our anaerobic system, also sometimes called the glycolytic system. This involves burning carbohydrates without oxygen. It allows us relatively quick fuel, but at the expense of simultaneously creating lactic acid. It is an unsustainable energy system, meaning we can’t operate for a long time, but it’ll get us through in a short pinch.

Finally, the aerobic system is next and primarily what is trained in endurance athletes. Carbohydrates are converted with oxygen to produce ATP. This is a very efficient system and can operate for a long time. But our bodies have limited storage for carbohydrates, which are stored as glycogen. The human body holds roughly 2,000 calories of glycogen. This is stored in three places – our blood stream (blood sugar), muscles, and liver. Roughly 400 grams can be stored in the muscles and 100 grams in the liver, with a minimal amount in the blood stream. As our muscles deplete their glycogen, the liver releases its stores that are then made available for muscles to burn.

When to Consume Energy Products

So how does sports nutrition and my energy bar play into all this you ask? If you have ideal conditions and your storage levels are near 100% you have enough fuel for roughly twenty miles of running or several hours of moderate intensity exercise. Think of the wall runners hit between miles twenty and 24 – it’s because they run out of fuel. Eating some version of an energy product will give you additional sugar to burn so you can continue to operate at the same intensity level and keep running. If you don’t supplement with food, you will have to utilize primarily your ability to burn fat, but this process works at a slower rate and will force you to slow down.

Energy products can also be used for high intensity exercise or shorter duration training sessions. If you are leaving work and didn’t have a great lunch, you might need some fuel before your workout. This is when an energy bar can be appropriate.

When Not to Eat Energy Products

Energy bars should not be a snack during the day. You wouldn’t put jet fuel in your car, so don’t use jet fuel when you plan on sitting on your butt. Energy products are also not a substitute for regular food. They should be used as sports nutrition and for when you are going to be active – and that’s it. If you consume an energy bar as a snack it’s not going to hurt you, but you are getting suboptimal nutrition and wasting money. You would be much better off eating real food and utilizing energy products when you are going to be working out hard.

Learning to manage your body and your food intake is critical for long-term health and performance. Real food should constitute the vast majority of your intake and sports nutrition should be supplemental and only used when necessary. You’ll feel better and perform better by taking the time to organize your diet. Don’t fall into gimmicks – learn the truth behind products before consuming them. Remember energy bars are sugar designed to be easy to eat and to fuel performance – not a snack!

ATP-PC graphic by Samuel Tiukuvaara (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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