MJ PEAK PERFORMANCE: Raising the Bar - The five best protein and energy bars

Readers' Poll
What is your favorite workout food?
Protein Bar 35.2%
Peanut Butter 27.5%
Granola 16.5%
Protein Powder 7%
Energy Gel 6.1%

Raising the Bar
Protein and energy bars taste, and perform, better than ever. Meet five slabs of cellophane that are as close to perfection as you'll find.

At the Trader Joe's in Westfield, New Jersey, the energy and protein bar rack now takes up some 130 cubic feet. There are 17 different flavors and types of Balance bars, as well as low-carb, low-cal, soy, and vegan bars. Mind you, this is at a chain that prides itself on organic whole foods and snacks.

It just goes to show, there's no substitute for convenience. In a perfect world you'd never get your sustenance in a bar, but here on this planet, where you're rushing to hit deadlines, skiing through lunch, and trying to squeeze the most out of a limited workout schedule, food that's tasty, seminutritious, and smaller than your cell phone makes pragmatic sense. "It's healthy fast food, and it shouldn't be underestimated," says Douglas Kalman, co-founder of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

The new Snickers Marathon bar is a perfect case in point. In a plain old Snickers, roughly 120 of the 280 calories come from sugars. In the 290-calorie Marathon, just about 92 do, and the Marathon also has five times the protein and eight times the fiber of its less sporty older sibling.

No one is suggesting that you base your diet on these bars. It takes some strange ingredients to keep all that added fiber and protein moist and tasty -- starting with sugar alcohols. Scientists aren't absolutely sure how to classify sugar alcohols. (They're similar to carbs in calorie content, yet don't raise blood sugar. And did we mention they produce gas?) As a general rule, our winners above go light on such "mystery" ingredients.

So grab a box off the shelf from each of our categories. As long as you limit yourself to a bar a day, and understand that even with careful shopping there's usually some small nutritional price to pay for the deal you've made with the devil of modern life, the bars on this page should work just great -- spectacularly, even.

BEST OVERALL
Best Breakfast Bar
Labrada Lean Body Cookie Bar, Oatmeal Apple Cinnamon
WHY IT'S A WINNER Some breakfast is better than none. And a breakfast with the right mix -- carbs for energy, protein and fiber to head off the next hunger pangs, and enough flavor to make it feel like a treat -- is better than the standard fallback bagel or doughnut. The Lean Body Cookie Bar has enough calories -- 370 -- and protein -- 30 grams -- to keep you chugging along until lunch. It's also the only bar we've seen that you can heat up in a microwave, just like a breakfast pastry. And the taste? Let's just say you won't be pining for your Pop-Tarts.

Best Meal-Replacement Bar
Snickers Marathon Protein Performance Bar, Caramel Nut Rush
WHY IT'S A WINNER This is an odd hybrid, starting with the combo of "Snickers" (suggesting a candy bar), "marathon" (implying a low-protein energy bar) and "protein" (bringing to mind a bodybuilding supplement) in the name. And yet it actually succeeds on all fronts. It has enough carbs and flavor to pay off the candy and energy promises. And the 20 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber will hold you over until dinner -- just what a meal-replacement bar should do.

Best Diet Bar
Balance Gold, Caramel Nut Blast
WHY IT'S A WINNER There's actually some science -- a 1999 study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, to be exact -- demonstrating that replacing some meals and snacks with a bar can enhance weight loss. Balance's 210-calorie offering follows the same "Zone" formula -- 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, 30 percent fat -- used by many of the bars associated with brand-name diets. But it goes the extra yard with a high-quality mix of proteins, just 13 grams of sugar, and relatively little sodium and sugar alcohol, all with a palatable not-too-sweet taste.

Best Protein Bar
Biotest Grow! Chocolate Brownie
WHY IT'S A WINNER All five of our top choices have some protein, and one has more than this one. But the 220-calorie Grow! earns marks for having 22 grams of fast- and slow-acting proteins (for better muscle recovery) with the least crap of any of the entries designed for bodybuilders that we tried: no trans fats, just 140 mg of sodium, and only 6 grams of sugars. As the name says, it tastes more like a brownie than a candy bar, and it's not the sweetest or chewiest bar on earth, but it feels more substantial and satisfying than some with 50 percent more calories.

Best Energy Bar
Clif Bar, Chocolate Brownie
WHY IT'S A WINNER A great energy bar delivers fast-acting carbs for a hike, climb, or paddle. Sugars are good (carbs don't get any faster) and, especially where Porta-Potty access is poor, you want to avoid too much fiber and protein. The 240-calorie Clif was famously created as a more natural alternative to the PowerBar, and it is that. Most of its 20 sugar grams come from organic brown rice syrup, vs. the high-fructose corn syrup (and juice concentrate) in the original Power. With its dry texture, just make sure to have enough water on hand to wash it down.

Worst Bar
MET-Rx Protein Plus, Chocolate Roasted Peanut with Caramel
WHY IT'S A STINKER This one is like the limbo champ when it comes to lowering the bar for nutritional value and performance. The first two ingredients on the label (meaning they're the most prevalent) are "chocolate flavored coating" and "caramel layer." ("Protein blend" doesn't show up until No. 3.) And even with 18 grams of flatulence-inducing sugar alcohols and 6 grams of saturated fat, it tastes worse than the bars without all that gunk.

By: Lou Schuler
Photographs by: Michael Pirrocco
(December 2005)