i spent my day staring at protein bars. my mom is worried.

Walk into any grocery store, and you’ll find a wall of protein bars promising to fix your life. Granola bars saying they give your day a healthy start, or protein bars saying they’re great workout fuel. And we can’t forget the wrappers covered in all the buzzwords: natural, wholesome, clean, high protein, etc. The more you read the labels, the more you realize that they’re either desserts disguised as breakfast, or straight up concoctions of chemicals. Are these bars actually healthy?

Let’s start with granola bars. They’re treated as healthy because they have oats, which do have nutritional value. The problem is the rest of the ingredients. Chances are, the ingredient listed right after oats is either sugar or some kind of syrup, which is basically still sugar. As you read more of the ingredients, you’ll see the different types of sugars and syrups they add, as well as honey. Honey does contain nutrients, but is also full of sugar, so it’s best eaten in moderation.

Let’s look at a Nature Valley bar for example. As you can see, a bar that seems healthy at first glance actually has 28 grams of carbs and 4 grams of protein per serving. Within those 28 grams of carbs, 11 come from straight up added sugar. If you do the math, 112 calories are just from carbs, which is well over half the calories. As you can see, this bar is not as healthy as you imagine.

Okay, so if sugar is the problem, then you should just get one of those protein bars with 21g of protein and 1g of sugar, right? Since that would be healthier?

Protein bars aren’t that great either. Let’s look at the quest cookies and cream bar.

Companies making protein bars typically add low quality protein powder to a bunch of chemicals and artificial sweeteners, brag about the macros, and jack up the prices. Quest is no exception. Chances are, you don’t know what erythritol and sodium caseinate are. Stevia is an artificial sweetener that is about 200-400 times sweeter than real sugar. Although you are technically eating 21g of protein and 1g of sugar, you are still eating processed, overpriced junk. The cheap protein with the sugar alcohol leaving bloating and an aftertaste isn’t really worth $3 a bar, is it?

So where should you be getting your protein from? The answer is quite simple: Real food.

A 4 oz portion of chicken breast has about 30 grams of protein, more than a protein bar does. You can cook it and season it however you want, and chances are that it’ll taste better than a protein bar. Or if you’re vegetarian, tofu is a great source of complete protein that can make a delicious dish with the right flavoring. 

Bars aren’t the worst thing in the world, and can be great if you’re traveling and need something convenient. But if you’re eating them every day expecting to solve all your health problems, you’re wasting your money and chances are what you’re looking for is already in the fridge.