Energy Bars Aren’t Supposed To Be Real Food

Being an endurance athlete, you probably consume energy bars, right? I know I do. They are full of carbs, electrolytes, and calories, and they are easy to eat while riding. What’s not to love?

Well, in some cases, the taste!

For the most part, energy bars are a vital component in the endurance athlete’s arsenal. However, they aren’t the best idea for meal replacements. There is no substitute for healthy, unprocessed foods, (and I think we would all agree on that, even if we don’t always take our own advice.)

And that’s why I hate people saying that energy bars are terrible, like Dr. Weil does in his article, “Are Food Bars Food?”

At the beginning of his article, he even admits that the bars were created for endurance athletes. But then he goes on to say that the bars are unhealthy choices for regular people… I agree with that, but he makes it sound like the energy bars are the devil, which I wholeheartedly disagree with.

You can’t blame the energy bars for making people unhealthy. You have to blame the people that eat the energy bars and then sit around on the couch. These bars aren’t meal replacements, they are to be consumed in addition to a healthy diet by people that need the excess calories.

Hell, when I’m looking at an energy bar, I think “the more carbs the better!” (Obviously this sentiment applies to endurance athletes and not dieters, so if you are just looking for someone to bash sugar and energy bars, you’ve come to the wrong place.)

Now, maybe Dr. Weil has a grudge against high fructose corn syrup. That’s fine, because I do, too. But where are you going to find high fructose corn syrup these days?

It’s certainly not found in the new Powerbars, Cheetah Bars, Detour Bars, Chunks of Energy, or LARA BARS.

So it seems Dr. Weil is just attacking our beloved energy bars in order to promote his own line of food bars geared towards regular people who need a quick and convenient meal. (Go ahead and promote your stuff, but don’t knock our energy bars because some people use them incorrectly.)

I don’t think I need to go any further for you to realize what’s going on here. (If I had my name on energy bars, I’d promote them everywhere, too!) But as you can see, I didn’t have to look far to find numerous examples of healthy energy bars.