In-Depth Look at Which Snack or Meal Bar is Best

Snack and meal replacement bars are a boon to travelers with hectic schedules. While bars are no substitute for real food (such as fresh fruits and veggies), they're a certainly a step in the right direction from fast food. Plus, as those of us traveling regularly know, you can't get a burger and fries at 30,000 feet!

But when you grab a handful of bars at the grocery or convenience store, what are you really getting? Have you stopped to read the label to check calorie, fat, trans fat, carbohydrate, and protein content? You might be surprised at the nutritional content (or lack thereof) in your favorite bar.

The Criteria
To help you make a more informed decision, we spent some time surveying and taste testing the snack and meal replacement bar landscape. Based on research and discussion with nutritionists, we developed several rating criteria.

Note that we categorized most sports bars as meal replacement bars (perhaps somewhat erroneously). They pack a substantial amount of calories, making them inappropriate for a quick snack for the non-athlete.

The Bars
Our selection of bars was primarily based on availability. In addition, we steered clear of "low-carb" bars, as we find them to have a high fat content and, as a result, high caloric content.

We selected our bars from the "diet" aisle in the grocery store. You'll find other varieties in the cereal aisle. As always, be sure to check the nutrition label. Many breakfast bars are loaded with added sugar. As an example, the number 1, 2, 4, and 6 ingredients in the filling for Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Apple Cinnamon bars are highly refined sugars-specifically, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, and sugar. And that's not even the end of the story, as high fructose corn syrup and sugar both show up again in the cookie portion of the bars. (We're not trying to pick on Kellogg's. We know they have the ability to make a good tasting and good for you bar; one of our favorites is actually owned by Kellogg's.)

General Thoughts
In general, while these bars are a great way to avoid snacking on junk food, they provide limited nutrition value when compared with fresh foods. In their defense, manufacturers face a big challenge; it's difficult to duplicate Mother Nature and produce a bar that's both good and good for you.

Many of the bars were very caloric. While most met our total fat requirement, only two bars (ClifBar and Kashi GoLean Crunch) met our saturated fat requirement. Note that many experts now recommend that you limit your saturated fat intake to only 7g per day; some of these bars have as much as 4g of saturated fat. That's more than half of your allowance coming from one snack.

Only a single bar (Balance Gold) met our fiber requirements. Word to the wise: eat your vegetables!

Only two bars (Balance Gold and Dexatrim All in One) met our protein requirements, although many of the bars contained more than 20% protein.

Fortunately, manufacturers are getting serious about avoiding trans fats, and only two of the bars (Slim Fast Optima and Dexatrim All in One) contained any partially hydrogenated oils.

Finally, refined sugar remains the number one food additive in America, and our survey firmly confirmed that. 60% of the bars surveyed contained either white sugar or corn syrup.

Our Favorites
While everyone's tastes are subjective, we picked our favorite snack bar and favorite meal replacement bar based on texture, flavor, and overall nutritional content. Bars that avoided trans fats, highly refined sugars and extensive preservatives helped sway our opinion.

Remember that, as with anything you put into your body, ultimately you have to make to your own choices about the foods that are "right" for you. We list our favorites and comments here only in the spirit of sharing, not as a guideline or recommendation.

Click here for our complete nutrition and taste analysis for all 10 snack and meal replacement bars.

Healthy Travel Network Favorite Snack Bar…
Kashi GoLean Crunch Bar
Retails for about $1.39

Overall, we like the Kashi GoLean Crunch Bars. Relatively new, the Kashi bars are unfortunately hard to find. (We found them at Target.) Don't confuse them with the original Kashi GoLean bar, which pack on as much 100 extra calories per bar!

The GoLean Crunch bars are one of the few bars that meet both our total fat and saturated fat requirement. In addition, we love Kashi's approach to all natural ingredients, with little processing and no highly refined sugars, additives, or preservatives.

You can actually save 30 calories and a gram of fat by selecting the Chocolate Carmel Karma variety, but it's not as tasty as the Chocolate Peanut Bliss. And alas, the Sublime Lemon-Lime flavor was nowhere to be found.

Snack Bar Runner Up…
Pria Nutritional Energy Snack Bar
Retails for about $0.89

Although we're not keen on the refined sugars in this bar, the Pria bar is a skinny 110 calories. That's simply the lowest calorie bar that we could find anywhere. That coupled with its lack of trans fats and low price (lowest of the bunch, in fact) makes it a good snack choice, in our opinion.

Healthy Travel Network Favorite Meal Replacement Bar…
ClifBar

Although technically a sports bar used by athletes, we like the ClifBar for its all-around goodness and 70% organic content. Besides the Kashi GoLean Crunch Bar, the ClifBar is the only other bar that met our fat requirements. And while it didn't quite meet our fiber and protein requirements, it still provides 5g of fiber and is 20% protein.

The ClifBar comes in 14 different flavors from Lemon Poppy Seed (our favorite) to Black Cherry Almond to Peanut Toffee Buzz, so you should be able to find one that is suitable to your tastes.

At only 230 calories, the ClifBar is a little slim to be a full meal. Consider pairing it with a high-fiber salad or similar dish.

The selection of meal replacement bars seems to be fairly limited, and we didn't find any worthy of a runner up award.

Everything in Moderation

As with anything, you should use snack and meal replacement bars in moderation. We recommend not eating more than one per day. Focus your remaining meals on fresh, unprocessed vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and lean proteins. This balanced approach will help you stay healthy and fit while traveling.

(Source: www.healthytravelnetwork.com)