Do you have a stash of granola/energy/protein bars in your pantry? A few in your car or your purse? They do make a handy snack in a pinch! But if heart health is a priority for you, are packaged bars a good idea? If so, which ones?
Imagine you’ve signed up for a grocery store tour through a cardiac rehab program. We’re about to stroll down the aisles examining various products. It’s part label-reading class, part snack bar expose.
You’ll learn to confidently identify healthier bars, and leave with a few examples (no affiliation) that give you more heart-friendly nutrition and a lasting energy boost.
TL;DR (Too long, didn’t read)
Somehow I wrote 3000 words to explain and illustrate this, but the quick answer is first, it’s fine to have bars on hand for those times when you need a quick bite. It’s certainly better than missing a meal or hitting a drive thru.
Which ones best support heart health? Start by looking at the ingredients. At the top of the list you want to see the same foods we want overall for heart health: Fruit and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, etc.
If you see one or two, next think SPF — like sunscreen — to remember to check:
- Sugar
- Canada: ≤ 8% (unless the first source of sugar is dried fruit)
- USA: Added Sugar ≤ 8%
- Protein ≥ 4 grams
- Fibre ≥ 5%
Those cutoffs are somewhat arbitrary. Read on for the rationale. But first…
Is this post for you?
An 18 year old hockey player needs a different bar than his 62 year-old aunt (unless the aunt is a mountain climber 🧗♂️❤️🔥).
I work with people who’ve had heart attacks or similar problems, or are at elevated risk, so this blog is for them. They’re not usually training for marathons, although once in a while! 🏃🏻♀️🏃🏻♀️🏃🏻♀️❤️
If you’re super active, you’ll need different bars, at least for when you’re training. I’m going to talk about bars for us regular folks, in midlife and beyond.
Now let’s look at those bars!
1. The ingredient list
Focus on the first three, as they’re listed in order by weight. There are more of those ingredients than anything else in the product.
Do you see whole grains, like oats, quinoa, or whole wheat? Nuts or seeds? Dried fruit, like dates or cranberries? Try to find a bar where at least one of the first three ingredients are those foods that support heart health.
Let’s examine these “fruit-filled” Great Value Mixed Berry Cereal Bars sold at Walmart:
Berries! That’s a healthy start to the day! It’s made with real fruit, and it’s got an “Ingredient Wise” checkmark (a made-up thing).
Let’s just check the ingredient list to be sure.
It’s hard to even isolate the top 3 ingredients, so I highlighted them in green: Mixed berry flavoured filling, enriched wheat flour (that’s white flour), and sugars.
What’s in the mixed berry flavoured filling? All of the items in brackets behind it! I highlighted the top 3 of those ingredients in purple. There’s more sugar, glycerin, and glucose in there than mixed berries!
The top three ingredients don’t include any nutritious foods that support heart-health. These bars might be “made with” real fruit, but not much of it!
If this is a bar you like, you can decide to keep having it, just for pleasure! That’s your choice. I just don’t want anyone fooled by pretty pictures of blueberries and misleading phrases like “made with real fruit”.
We want something more like this RXBAR Blueberry Protein Bar:
You get fruit and nuts in the top three, along with egg whites, which, in addition to protein, provide riboflavin (a B vitamin) and selenium, which helps reduce inflammation. Much better!
(Dates, like all dried fruits, are a concentrated source of sugar, which we’ll look at below. But they’re also rich in minerals — again selenium, plus copper, potassium, magnesium, and B vitamins.)
That’s the two extremes. As we progress through the nutrition facts, we’ll inspect a few more bars with ingredient lists in-between.
2. The nutrition facts
I’ll use another example for this, the Kashi Dark Mocha Almond Bars.
Our ingredient list check is promising: Two of the first three are heart-friendly – whole grain oats and almonds.
“But sugars are second on the list!” I hear you protesting. Look at all of those sugars!
Health Canada recently required that all sugars be grouped together, so they often pop to the top on snack bars, which is good, because it should prompt people to see how much sugar that all amounts to.
7 g (grams) or 7%. Is that too much?
If you’re not sure, start with the percentages, called the Percent Daily Value or % DV. Use the rule of thumb at the bottom: 5% or less is a little, 15% or more is a lot.
For snacks, focus on the SPF – sugar, protein, and fibre.
(Unfortunately protein has no %DV – we’ll deal with that below.)
But first…
S – Assessing the sugar
Using the “5% or less is a little” principle, right away you can see that it’s not much sugar.
However, I usually suggest looking for 8% or less sugar, because finding a bar with 5% or less is pretty tough!
Also, 8%, or 8 grams, is equivalent to about 2 teaspoons of table sugar. Guidelines suggest sticking to 25-50 grams (6-12 teaspoons) per day, more or less. If you typically have no more than 2 teaspoons at each meal and snack you’ll be in good shape.
It’s just rule of thumb though. If you find a bar you like that’s a bit more, don’t sweat it.
We’re talking added sugar
While it’s not listed on the Canadian labels, guidelines actually recommend limiting added (or free) sugar. (They’re similar, and we won’t worry about the difference here.)
Pretty much all of the sugar in snack bars will be “added sugar” unless it comes from dates or other dried fruit.
Glucose, corn syrup, honey, fructose, molasses… all added sugars. While there do appear to be some small differences (with honey and maple syrup for example), their impact on cardiovascular health is pretty much equivalent.
On the other hand, sugars that occur naturally in foods like fruit get a pass because they come packaged with nutrients we need and/or that help stretch the time it takes for them to hit your bloodstream.
The sugar in dried fruit isn’t considered added sugar, but I think of it as a grey zone in between them: It’s concentrated and easy to overconsume, like added sugars, but it does come packaged with some nutrients.
Dates, especially, deliver fibre, magnesium, iron, several vitamins, and antioxidants. They’re also considered a low glycemic index food, so the energy boost will last longer. Some evidence even indicates that dates can lower cholesterol!
How do you know how much added sugar there is?
In the US it’s easy. Just check the Added Sugars line, like in this Cashew Larabar.
I’m so jealous! In Canada we have to do a little sleuthing to figure out how much of this bar’s 15% sugar is “added sugar”.
We have to check the ingredient list to see.
No added sugars there. That one’s easy.
Here’s a trickier example, Nature’s Bakery Blueberry Fig Bar.
Looks like healthy stuff! Real fruit & whole grains, non-GMO, plant-based. But stay focused! What about the sugars?
19% — kind of a lot. But, you tell yourself, it’s from the figs, which are considered a fruit. Let’s check the ingredients. (I highlighted the first three.)
The sugars come before the fig paste, which means that more of the sugar comes from “added sugars” than figs. In Canada there’s no way to know exactly how much, unless you geek out and dig up the US label.
I was right! 14 of the 19 grams of sugar are “added sugars”.
What about alternative sweeteners?
The plot thickens. If you see a bar with little sugar, skim past the first three ingredients to see if it uses alternative sweeteners like stevia, sucralose, and erythritol.
These sweeteners don’t raise blood sugar the way sugars do, and they’re widely approved for use in foods, but questions remain about their impact on gut microbiome health and sugar cravings.
In 2023 the World Health Organization (WHO) advised against the use of “non-sugar sweeteners … to control body weight or reduce the risk of noncommunicable diseases”, which includes heart disease and diabetes.
So there’s that.
Sugar alcohols and cardiovascular health
That WHO recommendation doesn’t include sugar alcohols, which are a separate category. You’ll know them by the “ol” at the end of their name: sorbitol, maltitol, xylitol, etc.
There’s emerging evidence that erythritol and xylitol may carry some cardiovascular risks — especially related to blood clotting — though the research is still early, and more study is needed. Does this apply to all sugar alcohols? We don’t know.
Sugar alcohols must be listed on the nutrition facts table in Canada because excessive amounts (i.e. 35 grams or more) cause some people nausea, bloating, gas, upset stomach and/or diarrhea.
Anyhow, it’s a personal decision. Excessive sugar is clearly worse, but I’d vote for sugar in moderation over these sweeteners, even with diabetes.
(Plus study participants agree, they don’t taste very good.)
P – How much protein does it need?
Protein is critical not only for muscle building, but because it can keep your energy and blood sugars stable for longer. Protein for Power I like to say, or protein to keep the Party going.
How much? Try to choose one that’s at least 4 grams, and more if you’re using the bar to replace a meal.
There’s no DV for protein, so here’s my rationale. Although recommendations vary widely, I suggest at least one gram of protein for every kilogram you weigh, because research suggests you need at least that much to maintain muscle health as you age. (For easier math, that’s about half a gram of protein for every pound.)
So for example, a 185 pound person would need at least 84 grams of protein a day. (I used 185 pounds because that’s the weight of an average American, assuming the population is 50/50 male/female. We don’t have recent data for Canadians.)
5% (“a little”) of 84 grams is about 4 grams. So we want at least that, ideally more. (If you weigh much more or less than this, adjust accordingly.)
Is the highest protein bar best?
Not necessarily. While a significant portion of people over age 51 don’t get enough protein, and most people need more during the day (and not quite so much at supper), there are a couple of issues with very high protein bars.
First, they use isolated proteins, like protein powder, which is fine except you don’t get any other nutrition from them like you would from whole grains, nuts, etc. No fibre, no vitamins, minerals, etc.
For example, this Pure Protein Chewy Chocolate Chip Bar has plenty of protein, but take a look at the first three ingredients, highlighted in green:
No whole foods. And if you have your reading glasses, you might notice the maltitol, maltitol syrup, and sucralose, highlighted in purple. Also the palm kernel oil in orange, which I’ll discuss below. Hmm.
In contrast, these RXBAR Chocolate Sea Salt Protein Bars have just 12 grams of protein, but significantly more fibre and other nutrition in the bargain. Much of it isn’t required on the label, like magnesium, but with ingredients like egg whites and nuts, you know it’s there.
But you also might notice quite a bit more sugar, so let’s check the ingredient list:
Phew! No added sugars. Considering the whole package, I’d go for the bar with less protein.
F – Fibre, it’s for heart health too!
We’re at the F of SPF! Fibre, for Fullness, Fuel, and Fun! Haha.
People think of fibre for regularity and gut health, but it’s also so important for heart health. Some fibres can help lower cholesterol and steady blood sugars. People who eat more fibre in general consistently have lower rates of heart disease.
So we’ll look for more than 5% (a little) fibre, and ideally 15% (a lot). Something like this KIND Nuts Sea Salt & Dark Chocolate Bar:
3. Anything else to check?
After the ingredient list and the SPF, there are just three more minor nutrients I might peek at…
Calories, but not for the reason you think
Calories are a measure of the energy provided by the food. We need calories! They’re not the enemy.
It helps to look at calories on a bar to get a sense of how big it is, and so you can better evaluate the other ingredients. A higher calorie bar, more of a meal replacement, will be closer to 250 calories. A snack, on the other hand, will be around 150.
So a 140 calorie bar above giving you 14% of your daily fibre (4 grams)? Awesome!
But is it enough to replace lunch? NO IT IS NOT. Even 250 calories isn’t lunch! If you’re relying on a bar occasionally, try to pair it with something like an apple, yogurt, etc.
(And if you’re relying on a bar frequently, check out my sandwich and lunch posts. You’re worth it!)
Yes it’s worth checking saturated fat
Fat makes bars taste better, and it’s usually heart-healthy unsaturated fat, so don’t worry about it!
Except… if the % DV for saturated + trans (they’re lumped together) is 15% or more, take a look at the source. Sometimes it’s coming from foods that are mostly healthy fats, like peanuts. Not worried about those! Chocolate? Not that either.
But I’d skip bars where coconut or palm oil are high on the list. Some consider coconut oil a healthy fat, but it can raise LDL-cholesterol, which is “a primary cause of atherosclerotic disease and target of lipid management“, so I’d avoid it to be conservative. Palm oil too.
For example, these Clif Builders Protein bars:
30% is A LOT of saturated fat! Where is it coming from?
The first possible source listed is the palm kernel oil. If heart health is a concern for you, I’d take a pass. (Plus with all that sugar, they’re meant for someone who just crushed a huge workout.)
Sodium, but it’s usually not bad in bars
If blood pressure is a concern for you, a quick glance at the sodium wouldn’t hurt, but it’s usually not too high in most snack bars. Even these Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Peanut Granola Bars have just 6% of the max daily recommended sodium.
There are probably bigger sources of sodium in your diet — a slice of bread (7%), ham (12%), or vegetarian pizza (21%), for example.
So just to keep things simple, don’t worry about sodium in bars, unless you see one that’s 15% (“a lot”) or more. Pretty rare.
Putting it all together
My final example is the wholesome-looking Quaker Yogourt Bars, which came up on the first page when I typed “granola bar,” into the Costco website.
The strawberries and cup of yogurt suggest healthy stuff inside, and they’re made with 100% Canadian whole grain oats. No artificial flavours or colours! And 10% of the DV for calcium.
All of those might be important to you for one reason or another. But if heart health is high on your list, go back to basics.
Step 1: Ingredients
I’ll just focus on the strawberry flavour here. This one is a bit tricky, so I highlighted the first three ingredients in green and their first three ingredients in purple:
(I didn’t purple highlight the top three sugar ingredients because it’s self-evident.)
So the first two ingredients of the granola are whole grains — rolled oats and whole wheat — which is great! But the yogurt coating is concerning, with the top three being sugar, modified palm kernel oil, and modified milk ingredients. A long ways from actual yogurt.
Step 2: Check the SPF – sugar, protein, fibre
What do you think?
Sugar is on the high side at 11%, with fibre and protein a measly 4% and 2 grams. They might be tasty, but they won’t hold you over for long.
And with all that palm oil, the saturated fat is nearly at the “a lot” level (15%). At least the sodium is low!
(In case you find this confusing: Sugar alcohols are declared, but it’s 0 grams. I see sorbitol on the ingredient list, but right at the end. It must have rounded down to zero grams.)
Anyhow again, if they’re your favourites, you can always decide to keep eating them just because you enjoy them. You might just want to pair them with other sources of fibre and protein so your snack holds you over until dinner.
- Yogourt bar alone: 😕
- Yogourt bar + Greek yogurt + apple: ✅.
But maybe we can find heart-healthier bars you like. (That’s the sweet spot!)
Heart-healthier options
I like to share examples to make this easier for you. But as always, I have no affiliation with these companies! These probably aren’t the only bars that meet my criteria, and they’re not “the best” bars. Just examples.
So again, my criteria is SPF: Sugar ≤ 8% (unless the first source of sugar is dried fruit), Protein ≥ 4 grams, Fibre ≥ 5%.(And I didn’t include anything with sodium or saturated fat over 15%.)
I looked at Walmart, Superstore (part of Loblaws), and Costco, so hopefully you can find them easily:
- RXBAR Protein Bars – the highest in protein without alternative sweeteners, from what I could find
- Kashi bars (except the “Soft Baked Cereal Bars”) – except they’re all 3 grams of protein, but I like the variety of whole grains
- KIND Nut Bars – most of them, but check the label, a couple are high in saturated fat with palm oil being the leading source
- Kirkland Signature Chewy Protein Bars (not the “non-chewy” “Kirkland Signature Protein Bars”, which have erythritol and stevia)
- Simply Protein Crispy Bars – the sugar is so low (2%) that I hunted for alternative sweeteners, but didn’t see any. I haven’t tried them – do they taste good? If you’ve tried them, chime in on the Facebook post!
You’ll likely also find great bars from smaller companies at local retailers such as natural foods stores.
Also consider packing nuts
Package them up yourself or stock up on bags like these:
The top three ingredients are only three ingredients:
(I just highlighted the ingredients for the peanuts.)
Truly, we have the best evidence for cardiovascular health and whole or minimally processed foods. Nuts > bars.
How’s the SPF (in green)?
Pretty good! Two of them are “a lot” of saturated fat, but remember, we’re not worried about that if it comes from nuts, including peanuts. And they’re salted, but the sodium isn’t any higher than the bars.
Pair them with an apple and your whole food heart-healthy, portable snack is ready to go!
Bottom line
That said, healthy-ish foods like granola/energy/protein bars can definitely have a place in your life! Sometimes the priority is quick, convenient, and tasty.
Just look for a heart-healthy ingredient in the top three, then check the SPF: Sugar ≤ 8% (unless the first source of sugar is dried fruit), Protein ≥ 4 grams, Fibre ≥ 5%.
That will get you a balance of fibre-rich carbohydrates and protein, along with (mostly healthy) fat, to release energy in a gradual sustained manner and keep you going longer.
And if you like a bar that doesn’t quite meet these criteria, don’t worry about it! It’s just one part of your day, and if it works for you, then it’s all good. Your overall eating pattern is what really matters.
Do you have questions? Comments? A favourite bar you’d like to share? We’d love to meet you in the free Sweet Spot Heart-Healthy Cooking Club Facebook group. Questions welcome too.
And again, I have *no affiliation* with any of these companies. This is a 100% independent blog! 😋❤️
