Protein Bars: The Healthy Side of Snacking

Healthy is not something you would normally use to describe snacking. After all, aren’t snacks the main culprit of your extra kilos? That could be the case if you’re not mindful about your diet and you’re only snacking out of habit, boredom, or because you’re watching something. Spending three or more hours in bed, binging on Netflix is unhealthy regardless if it involves snacks or not. So, let’s break this bad reputation snacks have by remembering what their primary purpose is and go into detail about the one snack that’s definitely healthy– the protein bar.

One should turn to snacking only when there’s a need to fill a void (And no, that doesn’t mean stuffing yourself with ice cream after a breakup!). Sometimes you cannot meet your daily nutrient needs through your usual meals alone, and that’s when supplements can help. In the moment, the hot trend in supplements are protein bars. Organic, low fat yet nutritious, protein bars are a convenient way to give your body a quick supplement boost.

Protein bars are primerily being marketed to athletes and body builders, and for very good reasons too. These groups of people need plenty of protein to support their rigorous workouts. Proteins provide the building blocks for lean and strong muscles, and helps push fat out of the body faster Moreover, using protein bars as part of your diet can prevent muscle breakdown, reduce soreness, and speed up muscle recovery. But even if you’re not an athlete, you can easily order protein bars online or find them hiding between the shelves in your local grocery store with other snack bars.

But unlike most snack bars, protein bars can actually help you lose weight. By replacing fat and carbs with protein, you can stop the hunger hormone in its tracks by boosting the satiety hormones. As a result, you feel full longer. This also means that you can meet your daily protein needs without taking in fat, which is commonly part in protein-rich food. One protein bar can roughly translate to 20 grams of protein, which is the amount you can get by eating turkey meat.

If you order protein bars online from a well-stocked supplement store, you’ll notice how wide the choice can be, starting from whey, the often discarded by-product of milk processing which has found a purpose as the most common source for protein supplements. If you’re lactose intolerant or vegan, there are plenty of protein bars for you as well. For instance, you can try protein bars consisting of soy concentrates or other soybean derivatives, and pea flour is gaining popularity too. The only thing you need to do is pick your preferred source of protein. Healthy and delicious, I’m certain you’d love to bite down on this amazing snack.