Complaints with Powerbars...

[RunRichard11311]

Plenty more to come...

Ingredients (http://walking.about.com/od/snacks/a/wgenergybar.htm)
Source of energy (http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=217201)

[thugginrunnin06]

"ingredients" one is targeted at the Harvest bars, not original Powerbars. As far as I can tell, most of the Powerbar/Clifbar spinoffs are just attempts to diversify the brand and appeal to people besides hardcore athletes. "Marketing gimmicks," if you will.


"source of energy" one is targeted at energy drinks. I don't think Powerbar even makes an energy drink. either way everyone knows that energy drinks are liquid death, not a very informative article.

[RunRichard11311]

"ingredients" one is targeted at the Harvest bars, not original Powerbars. As far as I can tell, most of the Powerbar/Clifbar spinoffs are just attempts to diversify the brand and appeal to people besides hardcore athletes. "Marketing gimmicks," if you will.


"source of energy" one is targeted at energy drinks. I don't think Powerbar even makes an energy drink. either way everyone knows that energy drinks are liquid death, not a very informative article.

The author was generalizing sports bars.

The energy drinks take their source of energy the same places as Powerbar does.

[sjm1368]

I'm not sure what your point is...

I skimmed over both articles and the point seems to be that there is too much sugar in the powerbar or similar products... Uhhh, what's wrong with sugar?

The point of powerbars, depending on the product, are either as a pre-race or mid-race energy boost, or post race recovery. In all three instances you want quickly delivered/easily digestible sugars.

So, once again, sugar gets a bad rap, but for the purpose of the product, that is exactly what you want...

[yank09]

It seems her beef with sugar is that it leads to a high then a crash. If I am not mistaken that is what the oats are for. You have your simple sugars for immediately digestible carbs and then oats are your complex carbs to take longer to get digested.

[pasta4breakfast]

Those two articles are not designed for serious athletes. Of course these energy bars and drinks are not healthy for the general population. The whole point of them is provide easily digestible Calories (simple sugars), and thus they are not good for a population that struggles with obesity. However, when I look at the ingredients from a runners perspective that "harvest whole grain energy" powerbar looks pretty good. You can get the same effect (and probably with more health benefits) with a combination of "whole" foods, but this bar is a convenient portable pre-race snack. The simple sugars provide energy, which is good for mid-long distance runners and the whole oats helps prevent the sugars from shooting up your insulin levels. This allows long distance runners to use fatty acids as a fuel source (by long distance I mean greater than 20k). All in all it is a good second choice to a piece of fruit or some oatmeal made with water (not milk), which is better if you can tolerate the fiber before a race (hopefully you are experimenting during training and not during a race).

[pmeyers279]

there is a "sugar" and "carb" aversion in the united states that is just plain unjustified. If you're only eating one powerbar or any sport bar you'll be just fine, and in fact they aid quite a bit in recovery, my mother is a pediatric dietitian at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (i say this so you don't question the credibility), and she was able to attend a talk there by a woman who specifically said that these things were probably the best thing to eat after a workout for recovery, after these and drinks like accelerade and endurox, chocolate milk was probably the best thing to have after a workout (so i suppose this pertains to that thread as well). So believe who you will Richard, personally i'll go with the pediatric dietitian who also has an MPH from michigan, and her colleagues before i start swearing by what "about.com" says. There is so much talk about "eating healthy" which leads to stupid ideas about trying to cut things out of your diet like sugar and carb when all that really needs to change is the portions that people are eating. People eat too big of portions when they eat at home, and they eat too big of portions when they eat out. Eating within the means of your body (eating for the use of your body not for pleasure) is just like living within the means of your income. if you don't do it you get results that aren't good, and yet somehow half of the united states seems to be doing both. the about.com article pisses me off because of the fact that it is using fear of "eating too much sugar" to get people to stop eating them. i didn't even read the other one.

/rant

edit: just read the second article
this has nothing to do with powerbars, caffeine is the driving force of energy drinks. powerbars have protein, fat, and carb (complex and simple because BOTH ARE NEEDED...believe it or not). look at the number of calories in an energy drink, they are low, that should be enough to tell you that the "energy" comes mainly from the caffeine and not other ingredients, while it is obvious that the calories in a powerbar the energy that they give you. i'm not saying powerbars (or any kind of sport bar) are the greatest things you can eat for you body, i'm saying they are NOWHERE near as detrimental to you body as energy drinks.
your "experience" in the "vitamin" field doesn't seem to have helped you here buddy.

[phrisbee]

My complaints: Impossible to chew, taste bad.

[LHShurdl3r]

My complaints: Impossible to chew, taste bad.

It seems each bite takes a whopping 5minutes to finish. But that goes with nearly all protein bars.