The business of diet bars is constantly growing. This particular category of food, once available only in pharmacies and herbalists, is now also present in supermarkets and has been sold electronically for some years.
The success of diet bars is due to two important characteristics:
- practicality: since they can be consumed anywhere at any time without having to prepare a meal or snack the previous evening. Easily transported in the bag or in the car, the bars are undoubtedly more practical than frozen foods and even faster than fast food
- the adjective diet which for many is synonymous with weight loss. In the common imagination bars are in fact much healthier foods than traditional snacks, both in terms of quantity and quality.
Both of these aspects blend perfectly with the needs of modern society, where physical appearance is very important. The frenetic rhythms imposed by the current lifestyle also tend to steal time even for the simplest gestures, such as eating. All this explains the growing diffusion of these foods that is associated with a real business in the sector in which sales and earnings come before the consumer's health.
At the same time, the production of dietetic bars has gone from a purely pharmaceutical field to a market where both the increasingly widespread supplement companies and the companies that have always produced high-calorie snacks have found their place.
Today it is possible to choose between numerous types of bars with completely different tastes and characteristics, but for the average consumer it is not so easy to orientate oneself in purchasing the best products.
Meal replacement bars
These bars are very useful for those who want to respect the caloric constraint imposed by the diet. Their practical use combined with a fixed caloric content makes them an ideal substitute for the restaurant or company canteen. In fact, eating away from home runs the risk of running into high-calorie foods prepared using condiments that improve palatability (butter, cream, oils, etc.).
Energy bars
The energy bars were born in the sports field to ensure an effective energy supply in the race or during training. Their use is useful in all those situations that require a particularly prolonged effort.
Obviously, a sprinter who is a centometry does not need to discard an energy bar during the 10 seconds or less of the race, a requirement that could however have a cyclist during a long marathon.
Even people who are sedentary or who practice sports at an amateur level should refrain from buying this particular type of bar. They are in fact foods very rich in carbohydrates and in particular maltodextrins which increase their digestibility but which make the bar very caloric and not very satiating.
Quick-absorption Energy Bars
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Protein and zone bars
The high protein bars are widespread especially in the world of fitness and gyms. Also in this case there are various types, some balanced in the distribution of the other nutrients mainly containing low-fat proteins and very few carbohydrates. They are marketed mostly by supplement companies and unfortunately they are often produced from low quality ingredients. In many cases, carefully reading the food labels you find yourself facing a traditional snack disguised as a bar, which stands out only for a higher protein content and for a highly leavened price. It is no coincidence that most of these companies delegate the production of bars to other companies operating in the confectionery industry.
Obviously, good quality products have also been introduced on the market and for this reason it is very important to know how to choose.
For example, when buying a zone bar, you should not only check the ratio between carbohydrates, proteins and fats (40, 30, 30), but you must check that it also contains the right amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Limitations of diet bars »
