Energy bars are high energy foods in bar forms designed for people who need energy the fast way but who do not have the time for their meal. Originally developed for the convenience of athletes desiring to carry a concentrated source of food energy or calories on their long workouts, the bars are now used not only by athletes but also other people with active lifestyles or physical activities. The bars have assumed varying names in different places such as cereal bar, oat bar, snack bar, breakfast bar, muesli bar, and granola bar. They also come in various food products such as chocolate chip, banana nut bread, black cherry almond, cranberry apple berry, oatmeal raisin walnut, carrot cake, spiced pumpkin pie, blueberry crisp, and maple nut.
Energy bars can perform a variety of functions like maintaining the calorific needs of people in strenuous physical activity, providing them with high concentrations of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, combining natural ingredients with modern and scientific approach to meet the nutritional needs of athletes, supplying a more sustained energy, allowing users to control their nutrient intake by providing them with options for high protein, high fiber, high complex carbohydrates or high simple carbohydrates, and combining real fruits and fruit juices with some cereals.
You may want to know that supplemental energy bars even in their raw form are pesticide-free, and do not contain refined sugar, oils, or soy. Most of the raw energy bars contain hemp protein, organic whole sprout flax seeds, organic sprout mung beans as source of natural vitamins and minerals, organic dulse or seaweed for improved hydration, and organic wheat grass, which is a blood booster, energizer and cleanser. The popular flavors with which some energy bars are made are apple cinnamon, cookies and cream, iced oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter, wild berry and strawberry.
Energy bars usually contain 68 grams or 230 calories, 43 to 45 grams of carbohydrates converted by the body into sugar to burn, 6 to 10 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fat. These contents are intended to make some individuals “feel good” having the near possibility of recovering their natural vitality lost through lack of exercise or busy lifestyles.
Users of energy bars, however, are reminded that the bars are not meal replacements but are only a good source of supplemental energy. When used as a food supplement source, especially at times when the regular diet is compromised, the bar is better with more minerals and vitamins. When you perspire during an exercise, you are losing such minerals as potassium and sodium. Some fat-soluble vitamins can become toxic in high concentrations such as vitamins A, D, E and K so you must be keen by not taking them too much. It is also important that when taking an energy bar, you drink plenty of water and combine it with drink supplements. You must avoid drinking a 100% mixture of a drink supplement if you are eating an energy bar with a high fructose corn syrup because the sweetener may cause you stomach distress or loss of eating appetite.
