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Meal Bars Come in Many Sizes, Flavors and Combinations

We Americans are eating an increasingly large number of meal bars.

That's partly because we're so busy that sometimes we don't even have time to wait in line at the low fast food restaurat. We're driving from job to 2nd job. From appointment to appointment. Meeting to meeting. Job to school to soccer practice back to school and to a PTA meeting.

A bar evokes our childhood memories of wolfing down candy bars for no other reason than that we enjoyed the taste of sugar and candy. Anything sweet was a treat.

Plus, a bar is just plain convenient. Just tear open the wrapper and take a bite. It can easily be done in traffic. I know, I've many of them while driving to and during work hours. It's not the best way to enjoy my meals and life in general, but my stomach says it's better than nothing. I wish I had the time to enjoy lots of long, leisurely meals, but that's a luxury I don't have.

Plus, thanks in part to this lifestyle which discourages exercise and fast-food eating, we are a lot heavier than we used to be, so many people are eating bars designed to help them lose weight in some way.

Plus, although most Americans don't exercise enough, there is also a growing fitness and body building movement. A growing number of young guys want to have big bulging muscles and a ripped look with six-pack abs.

Other athletes such as long distance runners also think the proper bar will help support their physical fitness goals.

Protein bars for people on Atkins or some other low-carb program. And also for bodybuilders and weight lifters who emphasize protein to use it to build muscle mass. Balance or Zone bars for people eating in the 40/30/30 Zone. Nutrition bars for people who don't care about their carbs but just want to eat something sweet that they believe is good for them -- at least better for them than candy bars.

Some on the market are:

Promax Bars by Promax, Meso-Tech Complete Bars by MuscleTech, Myoplex Deluxe Bars by EAS, Animal Snak by Universal Nutrition, Clif Bars by Clifbar, Luna Bars by Clifbar, and Macrobolic Performance Bars by MHP.

And you know a trend is big when you the major cereal manufacturer jumps on it -- Kellogg's Special K Protein Meal Bar, which come in Double Chocolate, Chocolatey Chip, Honey Almond, Strawberry and Chocolate Peanut Butter. You do get 10 grams, and twice as much carbohydrates. So this bar is not Zone favorable. One bar is 45 grams, on the low side, and contains 190 calories. It has a lot of added artificial vitamins and who knows how many additives. The base is crispy rice.

Kashi GoLean, Nutribiotic, Applied Nutrition 151 Energy, Genisoy Trail Mix, Nature's Best Strata, and Pria are other brand names.

GoLean includes: Crunchy, Chewy, Roll!, TLC Cereal, TLC Chewy Granola, TLC Crunchy Granola, and TLC Fruit and Grain bars.

Of course, it's not wise to just assume that all these bars are particularly healthy for you. They have lots of added vitamins and minerals, and are undoubtedly better than eating a candy bar, but not all meal bars are created equal. Some have almost as much carbs as a candy bar.