Taste Test: Snack Bars
We suggested some of our top snack bar picks before; now we’re testing out a few of your favorites. See which common snack bars came out on top.
For this taste test, we stuck to our usual 5-point scale (with 5 being the most yummy and nutritious). To keep things on an even playing field, we chose only nut and honey-flavored bars and paid closest attention to taste, calories, fat and added sugars. As for the cost, prices range from about $0.50 to $1.50 per bar. Some bars were sold in boxes of 6 or 8, and others were sold individually.
Kashi Honey Almond Flax Chewy Granola Bar
Rating: 4.5
Nutrition Info: 140 calories; 5 grams fat; 5 grams sugar
Our Take: A thumbs-up snack bar all around, this one is made with a variety of whole grains like brown rice, rye, wheat and barley and sweetened with brown rice syrup and evaporated cane juice. It’s a bit lacking in the “chewy” department, but that’s because it’s chock full of almonds.
Nature Valley – Oats n’ Honey Bar
Rating: 4
Nutrition Info: 180 calories; 6 grams fat; 11 grams sugar
Our Take: This is the classic go-to bar that you can find in almost any vending machine, grocery store, airport or gas station. It’s made with whole grain rolled oats (which provide 2 grams of fiber) and heart-healthy nuts and canola oil. While it’s a smart choice in the snack machine, this one did rank second highest in sugar as it’s sweetened with sugar, honey and brown sugar.
Bear Naked Fruit + Nut Grain-ola Bar
Rating: 3.5
Nutrition Info: 240 calories; 9 grams fat; 15 grams sugar
Our Take: Tasty but overly moist and sticky, this bar provides 15% of your daily fiber thanks to the oats, fruit and ground flax seeds; it’s sweetened with a combo of dates, maple syrup, honey and tapioca syrup. The Bear Fruit Bar is a bit high in calories and fat but like granola, a lot of this comes from good-for-you-ingredients such as nuts, coconut and other dried fruits. (If you can’t find this in your average grocery store, check out your health food store instead.)
LARABAR – Cashew Cookie
Rating: 4
Nutrition Info: 230 calories; 13 grams fat; 18 grams sugar
Our Take: Any time we talk about snack bars people go gaga for LARA. You’ve got to love a bar with only two ingredients — cashews and dates (all their flavors have impressively simple ingredient lists). Eighteen grams of sugar may seem high but every bit of it is coming from natural fruit sugar. NOTE: The calories may be too much for a snack for some folks; you could always eat half and save the rest for later.
Special K – Honey Nut Cereal Bar
Rating: 3
Nutrition Info: 90 calories; 2 grams fat; 7 grams sugar
Our Take: You can’t miss Special K at the supermarket or in those TV ads, but this bar has a laundry list of processed ingredients. With virtually no fiber to speak of and sweetened with corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, sugar and a tiny smidge of honey, it may be tasty but it will most certainly leave you hungry.
BONUS BARS
Here are some more you might consider trying:
Thumbs up: Cascadian Farms Almond Butter Crunchy Granola Bar
Thumbs down: Quaker Chewy 90 Calories – Low Fat Oatmeal Raisin
TELL US: What bar do you snack on?
Clif and Luna have a new line of protein bars that are worth checking out. Watch out, though, because they aren't vegan, which is something that a lot of Clif's other products are. I've also been trying out Primal Strips instead of bars lately. They're low sugar, high protein, pocket soy or seitan jerky.
I am currently eating the Cascadian Farms Almond Butter bar and I love it! It has the perfect hint of almond flavor which I love. It also is packed with fiber and organic, pricey though.
I have recently been looking for bars that are snack appropriate and not full of sugar. The kashi bars are always a good but I have also found the KIND bars and the Clif Mojo bars to be good picks!
My favorite is the lara bar – but I don't really love snack bars as much as apples! Check out http://www.snack-girl.com/ for other great heatlhy snacks.
My favorites are the Kashi Dark Chocolate Almond and Kashi Peanut Butter with Chocolate. I think they have like 170 or 180 calories are called Kashi CRUNCH or something. I can't remember, its been awhile since I've purchased them due to a tighter budget!
One of my favorite snack bars is the Chocolate Peppermint Stick Luna bar – it totally sastifies that afternoon sweet craving!
My favorite is the South Beach Caramel Peanut Crispy Meal Bar. They are SO good. 180 calories, 5g fat, 4g fiber, 5g sugar, 12g protein and no high fructose corn syrup.
Kashi's Trail Mix bar has all my love.
I love Shaklee's Cinch bars. they are deelish! 10 g protein, 3 g fiber, only 9 g carbs and no artificial sweeteners or anything! lemon cranberry, peanut butter, and chocolate flavors.
I love love love the Kashi bars! Whole grains, good sugars, great taste. They're the whole package. I haven't tried the chewy ones, but the regular granola bars are fantastic.
I used to eat snack bars all the time, or at least kept them handy. I would stick with something like the Lara Bars, they are pretty much as "natural" as a snack bar can be…. with the least amount of ingredients. I don't follow the calorie, sugar, fat intake on labels, I mostly concentrate on what the food contains then decide if I want to put that into my body.
18 rabbits is also a great one…they aren't 100% organic…but they use all local ingredients and are made here in the bay area and they have super yummy flavors, my favorite are haute diggity date and funky figs and cherries!! check them out at http://www.18rabbits.com/index.html
love the chocolate peanut butter kashi bar with high protein and fibre content!!!
Luna and Clif bars! I like Luna Sunrise, regular old Luna, Clif, and Z bars. None of them leave the nasty aftertaste you get with some bars, and are made with 70% organic ingredients. I also like Odwalla bars, but if you want something a bit sweet, Luna or Z bars are the way to go.
Uncle Rick's omg! bars, hands down the best!
I can't believe I'm pointing this out but, with only "two ingredients – dates and cashews" held together? there has to be something holding the larabar together; otherwise it wouldn't be a bar but simply a handful of nuts and fruit… So there has to be some kind of sugar or SOMETHING holding the bar together; so I fail to trust that there are truly "only two ingredients."
*how is it held together; sorry for the typo.
I eat a Kashi Honey Almond Flax every morning, to me they taste more like pure ingredients than any of the others. Also, I'm partial to Almonds and they are chock full of whole and pieces of almonds. A couple of others I like are the South Beach Berries and the Fiber One Oats and Chocolate when I'm looking for something sweeter.
They are all ground together, so the dates are sticky enough to hold it together. They are one of my favorites, they are great!
Clif and Luna are my go-to bars but I also enjoy all things Kashi as well as Larabars and Probars! Can you tell I eat a lot of energy bars!? Haha
I just tried the new Dark Mocha Almond bars from Kashi and they are fantastic!
130 calories, 3.5g fat, 4 g fiber and 6g protein. Coffee, chocolate and almonds…what more could you ask for!
Kashi GoLean bars are high calorie, but have a good mix of fiber, protein and fat – more of a meal replacement than a hold-me-until-the-next-meal bar… but really good. Also LOVE Gnu bars with their all-nat ingredients 130-140 cals and 12g fiber per bar.
I wish you had included price in your comparisons since cost is a big factor for most of us when choosing products. I posted a recipe for a make-it-yourself snack bar on my blog that uses all natural ingredients, costs very little per bar, and is easy to make.
http://lovetheseproducts.blogspot.com/2010/01/diy...
The best bars I have eaten are the Clif Nectar bars. They are organic, and for example, the cherry pomegranate bar, has only 150 calories, but equals 2 servings of fruit. The dark chocolate walnut is unreal!
I LOVE the Nature Valey Oats and Honey! I eat it alone or crush it and mix it into my yogurt every day as a snack!
I eat all of the bars listed except Kellogs. I am also eating pure protien bar currently and soy joy with fresh fruit for lunch at work. High protien, low in sugar and enough calories to get by on.
I just read your comment on the Nature Valley Oat & Honey bar. What you failed to mention was that the nutritional facts you quoted were for 2 bars not 1. Are the other brands' nutritional breakdown for 1 or for 2 bars?
Hi Eljay –
The nutrition information is per serving – some of the brands have two bars in a serving (Nature Valley and Cascadian Farms), others have just one.
I love Fiber One Bars! They have a higher sugar content then some, but are absolutely delicious, full of fiber, and very filling– ALL flavors are great!
Lara, Clif, and Kashi are my go-to bars, they’re all great.. all their spin offs are good as well, like the Lara Jocalat bars, Clif Mojo, and Clif Nectar.. Clif also just came out with Clif C bars, which are pretty much like Larabars, just a little smaller and with bigger pieces of fruit and nuts.. Luna bars are also a good bet
I love the Kashi Bars the most. But I buy the Nature's Valley, because they are so much cheaper. The Kashi bars with coconut & dark chocolate are soooo good as a snack. But they are a smaller bar.
I love the Chex Mix Bars (turtle flavor). 130 calories, 3.5 g of fat, and 11 g sugar. Delicious
Larabars are great. I worked as a backapcking guide and it seemed like all of us guides had really bad gas after eating Larabars. I guess you should only eat them alone.
As a college student, I like to get up and work out early in the morning. I don't eat breakfast before I go, and breakfast bars are a major part of my morning diet as a result. My choices are the Nature Valley bars (Oats and Honey is my favorite) and the Fiber One Cereal Bars. Great, healthy, and fiber-filled ways to charge me up for a workout!
Im a kid, only 12. And my favorite food in the world… is the Clif bar in chocolate brownie! There the best:) Also.. guess what? Im going to disney world tommorow! Im so exicted!!
GO CLIF BARS!