Bar Exam - energy bars

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Dec, 2000 by Bonnie Liebman, David Schardt

Energy Bars Flunk

"For $50,000 or $100,000 you can be in the bar business," Brian Maxwell, president and CEO of PowerBar Inc, told Food Processing magazine last year.

That's one reason that supermarket, health food store, and drug store shelves carry a burgeoning selection of bars. (You can often find them at the front counter, with the other "impulse" items.) Sales of energy bars rose more than 50 percent last year, to $114 million, according to the trade publication Supermarket News. And energy is just the beginning.

To create a niche for a new bar in a dog-eat-dog marketplace, each manufacturer needs a new twist. Names like Ironman and Steel sell, but they're no longer enough. Viactiv and Luna bars are targeted at women. Protein Revolution, Pure Protein, and Perfect Solid Protein push the nutrient that muscles are made of. GeniSoy and Soy Sensations stake a claim on soy. Clif and Boulder go the natural route. And Think! promises to boost your brain power with herbs and vitamins.

This is one hot market. Why else would Nestle have bought PowerBar, Kraft have bought Balance Bar, and Rexall Sundown have bought Met-Rx? So when it comes to advertising, chances are we ain't seen nothin' yet.

Do you need any of this stuff?. This month we take a look at some of the biggest and boldest bars around. But first, a short course on the "energy" scam.

Energy for Sale

Luckily for food companies out to make a buck, "energy" has a double meaning. To most people, a food that supplies "energy" makes you feel energetic. But to scientists and the literal-minded regulators at the Food and Drug Administration, "energy" means calories.

That's right. To the folks who are in charge of keeping food labels honest, any food with calories is an "energy" food.

Never mind that no more than one in a million consumers would ever guess that, especially when ads for energy bars show people running, leaping, and otherwise looking energetic. Never mind that a simple disclosure on labels could explain to consumers that an "energy food" means simply that it "contains calories." Years after the Center for Science in the Public Interest (publisher of Nutrition Action) petitioned the FDA to require that kind of disclosure, the agency still hasn't lifted a finger to let consumers in on the energy secret.

Taking advantage of this irresistible loophole, companies have hit on a clever marketing scheme. While few people compete in long-distance athletic events, millions slog through a demanding day with no time for lunch. Marketing "energy" to the average office worker, stay-at-home mom, or just about anyone was a stroke of genius that's paying off big-time ... but not necessarily for you.

"I caution people not to replace wholesome food with energy bars," says Elizabeth Applegate, a nutritionist and exercise expert at the University of California at Davis. "Manufacturers don't put everything you need from food into them. We don't even know everything in food that should be put in them."

Applegate, who consults for the food industry, does advise some people to eat energy bars, but not because they make the eater more energetic. "If you're going to grab a candy bar or a box of cookies or two bags of M&Ms from a vending machine for lunch, it's better to have an energy bar," she says.

Why? "Most bars are low in saturated and hydrogenated [trans] fat. And they can have as much as five grams of fiber and a handful of vitamins and minerals, just like a bowl of breakfast cereal.

"But if the wrappers are starting to accumulate on the floor of your car, back off," she adds. "You're better off with real food, like a sandwich on whole-grain bread, fresh fruit, and some baby carrots."

High-Carb Bars

"Don't bonk," say ads for PowerBars.

The original PowerBar, launched in 1987, was designed to keep athletes from bonking--that is, running out of gas in the middle of a marathon or other long-distance event. The high-carbohydrate, low-fat bars consist largely of high-fructose corn syrup and grape and pear juice concentrate, with added vitamins and minerals. They have a taffy-like texture that seems more functional than flavorful.

It didn't take long for competitors (and PowerBar itself) to come up with energy bars that taste more like food than fuel. Clif, Boulder, PowerBar Harvest, and others started adding real food--like oats, nuts, and fruit--to their recipes. The final products taste like something between cookies and granola bars. But judging by the little research that's been done, there's nothing special--other than convenience--about getting your carbs in a compact wrapper.

David Pearson and colleagues at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, conducted one of the few studies on high-carb bars, though so far only a summary has been published.[1] First, nine trained cyclists rode for an hour to lower the levels of stored carbohydrate (glycogen) in their muscles. The next day, they rode for another half-hour and then sprinted.

After a one-hour rest, the cyclists were randomly assigned to eat 1,000 calories' worth of PowerBars, Tiger's Milk bars, or cinnamon-raisin bagels over a four-hour period. An hour later, they rode for another hour while the researchers measured their energy output and blood sugar levels.