Finding the Right Breakfast Bars by Dana Angelo White in Healthy Recipes, Healthy Tips, June 17, 2009
We’ve already filled you in on the best choices for snack bars and energy bars. Now we’ve scoped out the most popular breakfast bar brands to find out which are the healthiest breakfast choice.
What Is a Breakfast Bar?
These types of food bars are often referred to as “cereal bars.” Instead of being packed with nuts, granola, or oodles of protein like snack or energy bars, they typically have a softer texture and may try to replicate some common American breakfast foods like pastries and cereal. Some varieties have fruit fillings or icing on top, which might be a sign of high amounts of sugar.
Any kind of food bar provides grab-and-go convenience and portion control; this definitely makes them handy for a fast breakfast or a between-meal snack. Just walk through your grocery store, and you’ll see that there’s an astounding range of choices — some healthy and some not so much!
What to Look For
Most breakfast bars range from 90 to 150 calories. This isn’t really enough calories for breakfast, so if you do choose a bar like this, eat it with some fresh fruit, non-fat or low-fat yogurt or a glass of milk to complete the meal.
When it comes to the ingredients, look for products that include items you can pronounce. I found a lot of these packaged bars are loaded with sweeteners and preservatives.
- What you DO want:
- Whole grains for nutrients and fiber
- Real fruit
- What you DON’T want:
- Sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup or corn syrup
- Saturated fat from palm oil
I did some research to find the highest quality bars out there; here are a few that I like:
- Kashi TLC Baked Apple Spice Cereal Bar – 100 calories, 3 grams fiber
- Health Valley Organic Blueberry Cobbler Bar – 140 calories, 1 gram fiber
- Trader Joe’s “This Fig Walks into a Bar” Cereal Bar – 120 calories, 0.5 gram fiber
- Barbara’s Fruit & Yogurt Bar: Cherry Apple – 150 calories, 1 gram fiber
- Nature’s Choice Cereal Bar: Triple Berry – 150 calories, 3 grams fiber
Make Your Own
When you do make them yourself, you get to control the quality of the ingredients (no high fructose corn syrup in these recipes!) and pick and choose your favorite flavors. You probably don’t have time to whip up a batch of these in the morning before you head out to work, so cook them ahead of time. Wrap them individually and store in the pantry, fridge or freezer. Or pop a few in a plastic baggie and keep them in your desk at work.
- Recipes to try:
- Breakfast Muffin Bars
- Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
- Gluten-Free Honey Almond Breakfast Bars
- Walnut and Dried Cherry Bars
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More posts from Dana Angelo White.
Tags: breakfast, breakfast bars, cereal bars
hey carol ya the fiber one bars choc. ones are awesome! i love those
Hi pebbles06
You could certainly have a Nature Valley for breakfast – we classified granola bars like that as "snack bars." Here’s the link to our Finding The Right Snack Barspost.
Hi pebbles06
You could certainly have a Nature Valley for breakfast – we classified granola bars like that as "snack bars." Here’s the link to our Finding The Right Snack Bars post.
i ve been eating Odwalla super protein (14 grams) bars..good or not?
I love Shaklee's Meal-in-a-Bar, and my husband has one every morning.
What bars are best for diabetics? I need low Carbs, and or sugar….most have a lot of sugar in them.
My 2 year old and I would not be able to love without the Kashi TLC bars! They are our absolute favorite snack.
Dana,
What kept the Fiber Plus bar from making your list?
Gnu bars http://www.gnufoods.com have 12g of fiber, 140 calories, and are all-natural. Lots of flavors (espresso chip, brownie, peanut butter, etc.). I eat one every morning. You can find them at Vitamin Shoppe, some GNCs, and other health food stores.
Protein is what’s needed especially for breakfast. Zone bars or cliff ba
Protein is what’s needed and most cereal type bars have only 2 grams. Zone Bars and Cliff/Luna Bars are some of the best and not too hard to eat. Add a yogart and your set.