My name is Dave and I am recovering Protein bar Junkie.
For a while now protein bars have been my vice. But lets be honest eating a protein bar is essentially little more than a license to eat a candy bar and get a little extra protein along the way or in my case a lot of extra protein. I am not knocking protein bars as they have come a long way and eating them is a far better option than a lot of things. But I had myself convinced it was all good!
The Big Question
Can or should you eat protein bars while running a Keto diet?
The answer in my opinion is a resound no!. Now there are exceptions. The problem as I see it is trying to keep within 50 total carbs. Yes I count total carbs and net carbs. If I were to eat one typical protein bar I would be eating on average 20 to 25 total carbs. Yes I know you are going to say but Dave about 15 to 20 of those carbs are fibre and the remaining is only a small amount of sugar.or sugar alcohols.
Here is my response. I just cant put my faith in the fact that this is still a processed food item and I am not getting my very valuable fibre from whole foods like brocolli and asparagus.
If I were to eat just a single Quest protein bar (which would I enjoy thoroughly) I would be at half of my daily allowed carb intake for that day leaving me very little room for "real" fibre in the remaining 25 grams of carbs for the day.
The fiber of choice these days for protein bar companies is something called Isomalto Oligosaccharide Fiber (or IMO fiber for short). When IMO fiber was first being considered for use as a food additive, they subjected it to two enzyme tests to see if those enzymes could break it down – one of these is found in your mouth, and the other in your stomach. The result - Neither enzyme broke IMO down, so voila – it isn’t digestible! It’s a fiber!
More recent studies have found that IMO does in fact get digested in the small intestine. If it were a true fiber, it wouldn’t (it would get fermented in the colon).
What does that mean? IMO is a good old-fashioned carbohydrate. NOT a fiber.
IMO is getting digested and metabolized, and all those carb calories aren’t showing up on the nutrition facts panel.
Swearing off Protein Bars For Good?
Now I still think protein bars have there place but only in a real pinch such as when traveling etc. I will be keeping them to an absolute minimum.
A Special Mention
There is one Keto approved protein bar that I have come across however it is not yet available in Canada and is too pricey to import at this time. See below
Keto Bars
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