Energy Bars

Whether you're a fan of all day century (100 mile) bike rides, a competitive triathlete or simply looking for a quick, high-energy snack, energy bars can be a compact alternative to a fanny pack stuffed with bananas.

"They're very useful for athletes or someone on the go who usually skips meals -- breakfast for example -- or they can be used between meals to get those extra calories that an endurance athlete really needs," said Lisa Matthews, RD at Libertyville's Condell Medical Center. "Certainly we'd rather see people eat fruits and vegetables...but let's be realistic...we'd rather see you go with one of these bars than go without anything."

Not to be confused with Snickers bars, granola bars or starvation-diet food bars, energy bars are easily digestible wedges of carbohydrates, electrolytes and minerals (similar to sport drink formulas) with a little protein thrown in for good measure. Popular brands often found pressed onto bicycle cross bars (really!) for convenient snacking include PowerBar, Tiger Sport, X-TRNR and Exceed.

Unfortunately, like sport drinks, there are a whole lot of different bars to choose from, and not all of them are good. Some are no more nutritional than candy, while others offer the taste and texture of a test kitchen mishap.

Richard Wolff, director of the center for nutrition at Elgin Nautilus said the key to finding the right bar for you is a combination of careful label reading and personal preference.

"Taste is an important issue," Wolff said, "you shouldn't have to consume things that don't taste good for the sake of nutrition."

To begin narrowing down the field, Wolff suggests a bar that offers a high carbohydrate/low fat (no more than two or three grams) formula, with a preference for complex carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates. Look for ingredients such as oat flakes, brown rice, fruits, maltodextrin or wheat germ high up in the ingredients label if an actual complex-to-simple carbohydrate breakdown isn't given. A moderate amount of protein (anywhere from five to 15 grams) is fine, Wolff said, but it's not critical.

Sports best suited for energy bar use are lower intensity longer duration types such as biking, hiking, and my personal favorite, shopping.

Joggers or those into short (an hour or less), high intensity workouts are better off with water or a sport drink to keep energy levels up, Wolff said.

Like any pre-event meal, eat your energy bar at least an hour before exercising and drink plenty of water.

And to avoid losing your entry fee, if you plan to eat during a long ride, "Experiment during practice rather than at the event," Matthews cautioned. That goes for sport drinks, vitamins or anything else you do or consume that's out of the ordinary.

Because the ideal time to replace glycogen stores is within the first hour after exercise, a post exercise energy bar is a good way to replace glycogen stores in a pinch, but real food -- bananas, bagels, pretzels and other low fat carbs -- should be your first choice, Matthews said.

© Copyright 1994 Paula Lauer