Power Crunch Bars vs Candy Bars – Are They the Same?

Last October I wrote ranted about The Truth behind Cereal Bars and Breakfast Bars

I am glad there are other people who share my views.  One is Track Mom’s Dr. Lorraine Williams who simply refuses to go to McDonald’s even when travelling and there isn’t another restaurant for miles.

Another is the 10 page report from the Sports Nutrition Blueprint.

The report tells you the truth about Energy Bars and how to read nutrition labels so you can immediately start making better choices about what your athletes can eat before, during and after competitions.

You can lump the energy bar or cereal bar industry next to the Fast Food Industry.

Why?  Because the 4 biggest evils in the Fast Food Industry are:

1. Portion Control (watch Super Size Me)
2. Salt content (or sodium)
3. Sugar content (and HFCS)
4. Saturated Fats (and trans fat)

That’s why you are constantly seeing labels with “No HFCS” or “No Trans Fat”.  It’s a subliminal message to trick you that it must be good for you.  Or at least better for you than the horrible alternatives.  Who has time to read Nutritional Value labels in the tiniest font size at the Supermarket?  Who forgets their reading glasses?

SIDENOTE: The greatest Track and Field subliminal message advertisement must be the Pirelli Tire 2 page spread with Carl Lewis and red high heels… anyone remember that ad?  I’ll save that for another day but I’ll have to keep this a family friendly site.

It all goes back to PRESERVATIVES because there are 6 ways to keeps food fresh and bacteria free:

1. cold (refrigerate or freeze)
2. dry or desiccate fruit slices and meats… pemmican goes way back to the First Nations.
3. chemicals like BHT
4. salt
5. sugar
6. fat (of all sorts – saturated, unsaturated, polyunsaturated, monosaturated, and terrible trans fat) 

The Fast Food Industry sure takes advantage of the last 3 on that list!

By applying some common sense knowledge, you should apply the same logic to regular eating and that includes choosing cereal bars!

In the Sports Nutrition Blueprint special report, he uses a simple 3S formula:  serving size, sugar and saturated fats, which you can download here.  It’s an interesting read.