12 Energy Bars So Unhealthy You Might Think Twice Before Grabbing One

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Grabbing an energy bar for a snack, or even a meal, might feel like you're making a sensible, health-conscious choice. After all, it's not like you're going with a bag of chips, a pastry, or skipping much-needed fuel altogether. And many of the protein bars are incredibly tasty to boot. So, hey, a little pat on the back to yourself, you're a million-percent doing the wise, heart-healthy, gastro-friendly, body-beneficial thing, right?

Well, don't start building your #healthtok brand just yet. Although nearly all energy bars tout their nutritional benefits, many are filled with unhealthy stuff and detrimental ingredients. Excessive calories and carbohydrates are also factors to consider, but everyone has different needs with these figures based on their bodies, diet, or fitness goals. The worrisome content comes in the form of added sugars, sodium, fats, and an excess of ingredients (which often includes processed elements). Even bars high in multivitamins can cause over-fortification for those who already take supplements. When it comes to choosing a bar, you want simplicity, clarity, and clean satisfaction. With that in mind, this list will show you which seemingly healthy energy bars you might want to second-guess munching on.

Pumpkin seeds have been eaten for thousands of years, and they're having their moment again. And with good reason: pumpkin seeds are a healthy and nutritious food source with many benefits. They're high in protein, rich in antioxidants, and provide important minerals like zinc and iron. So, you would be forgiven to think that a pumpkin seed-based protein bar like the one from 88 Acres would be a smart snack –– even with the dark chocolate brownie combination.

But looking a little deeper at the bar's nutrition facts shows it's not as salubrious as it might seem. Firstly, each bar has 4.5 grams of saturated fat, which is high for a serving size, and nearly a quarter of one's recommended daily intake. Even the 21 grams of total fat is a lot, adding up to 27% of what you should consume each day. Secondly, pumpkin seeds can actually have negative effects on certain eaters. They're calorie-dense, and the amount of fiber in the seeds can be too much for your digestive system to handle, possibly causing gassiness or irregularity. And because of the magnesium content, which modifies blood pressure, individuals with already low blood pressure or taking blood thinners might want to avoid excessive servings of the seeds.

The Pecan Goji Pistachio Snack Bar from Thunderbird seemingly checks all the boxes for a healthy energy bar. It has only seven ingredients, which are mostly nuts and dried fruits. It's low in saturated fat (only 1.5 grams). And there are no trans fats or added sugars. You might consider adding this bar to the nutritional nosh rotation. But a closer look at its specific content reveals there's more to the story.

And that comes in the way of sodium. Because of the addition of Himalayan pink salt, the sodium count for this otherwise simple bar is a significant 220 milligrams. The Mayo Clinic recommends avoiding any serving size with more than 200 milligrams of sodium, putting this Thunderbird bar firmly in the warning zone. It's been shown that sodium-heavy diets can cause bloating and weight gain due to water retention, not to mention contribute to hypertension and other heart diseases. No one likes being the bearer of bad news, especially if this is the type of bar that you would love. The most important consideration, however, is being aware of what you're putting into your body.

Decadence is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when going for healthy. But in all fairness, this dark chocolate and almond protein bar from GoMacro gives it a good shot. Sure, it's low in fat, sodium, and unrecognizable ingredients. It's also gluten-free, vegan, and organic.

The problem comes from the added sugar. According to a Consumer Reports deep dive, a protein bar should ideally have 7 grams of added sugar or less –– GoMacro's delivers 9 grams. This amount also makes up about 25% to 36% of the daily recommended intake of added sugars, depending on whether you're a man or a woman. The bar also doesn't provide a huge protein bang for your buck, despite its claims or moniker, with a modest 10 grams per serving. This doesn't ideally offset the sugar intake or even the excessive 37 grams of carbohydrates (anything above 30 grams per serving is generally considered high for protein bars). In addition, the fiber return is a good-but-not-great 3 grams' worth.

Calorie count alone can sometimes give a misleading picture of a product's healthiness. Not only is it a relative consideration, dependent on factors such as weight, exercise, and diet, but the calorie count also reveals nothing about what constitutes this figure. A protein bar like Super Cookie Crunch from Met-Rx bills itself not just as a snack but as a meal alternative, delivering a robust 32 grams of protein. It's expected, then, that a substantive bar like this would have a forgivably high calorie count. But forgivability, like calories, is also relative.

One Super Cookie Crunch bar has an astounding 410 calories. What's behind that number? Nothing that makes it look any better. Let's start with the 320 milligrams of sodium, 14% of the recommended daily amount (and the FDA says we're already consuming too much salt as a country). What else? How about 13 grams of fat and 6 grams of saturated fat –- 17% and 30% of daily intake, respectively. But maybe most alarming of all (that's up for debate, actually) is the whopping 24 grams of added sugars. That's nearly a day's worth of the recommended amount for women, per the American Heart Association, and almost ¾ for men. Perusing through the ingredient list, these numbers are no surprise. Processed items like palm oil are thrown in the mix with corn syrup, canola oil, xanthan gum, and, yes, sugar. Just sugar. You might want to put a candle in this bar because it's basically birthday cake.

Admittedly, it's hard to know when you're picking up the right energy bar. The packaging and marketing copy are usually beaming all sorts of positive terminology into your brain. The Oatmeal Cranberry & Almond bar from Kate's Real Food is no exception. The product flaunts simple and clean packaging, and the brand name is "Real Food," after all. What more could a person ask for to know that a bar is healthy?

Turns out, quite a bit. For starters, one serving is only half a bar. While a full bar delivers just 8 grams of protein, what you are getting is 14 grams of added sugar, which is double the suggested total for an energy bar. There are also 12 grams of total fat and 1 gram of saturated fat. The carbohydrate-to-fiber ratio is decent, with 36 and 4 grams, respectively. So, although you could do worse –– as far as nutritional value is concerned — this item is also not all you may infer from its marketing.

One of the considerations health experts emphasize regarding energy bars is the ingredient list. Specifically, the simplicity of it. It's already hard enough to keep track of exactly which food components are good for you and which aren't. When you're gazing at packaging and trying to not only decipher the ingredients but also how to pronounce them, that might tell you everything you need to know. Good rule of thumb: if you don't know what you're putting in your body, don't put it in your body.

One word to watch out for in an ingredient list – and the Nutz Over Chocolate snack bar from Luna has it – is the word "palm." Anytime you're seeing palm oil, palm kernel oil, palm solids, etc., that is a red flag. These oils drive up the amount of saturated fat in food. And this bar is no exception, with a relatively high 3 grams of saturated fat. It's no surprise that Clif Bar — a company known for its not-as-healthy-as-it-seems offerings –– is behind this Lara bar. It also contains sweeteners like cane sugar, brown rice syrup, and chicory root syrup. Granted, the bar's 9 grams of protein is a decent haul, along with its 24 grams of carbohydrates and 3 grams of fiber.

Clif Bar, the company well-known for its protein and energy bars, has a line of products under the Builders brand. It evokes strength, fortification, and maybe hard hats and two-by-fours. Obviously, these bars are intended to fuel doers, makers, and achievers. After all, they need the energy and the potency. So, can the chocolate-flavored protein bar provide all that? Sure. Can it do so without nutritional downsides? Definitely not.

280 grams of calories, 20 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fiber. Okay, potentially a lot of enrichment and fuel there. But here comes the reality-check litany: 210 milligrams of sodium (whoa), 6 grams of saturated fat (yikes), and 17 grams of added sugar (over two times the ideal allotment for energy bars). Not to mention a crowded ingredient list that includes palm kernel oil, vegetable glycerin, and cane syrup. Whatever you're building, it might be best to find something else to keep you going.

Even the bars that seem straightforward can have pitfalls. Kind, although one of the more recognizable brand names on the market, has been known to mislabel and falsely inform consumers about what exactly they're getting in its bars. Thus, it's fair to approach its products with a bit of skepticism that's healthier than some of the company's offerings.

The Strawberry Sunflower Seed bar from Kind does admittedly have a lot going for it. It's relatively low on the more concerning stuff, like sodium, added sugars, and carbohydrates. The downside? It doesn't really offer much in terms of nutritional enrichment. 6 grams of fiber is good, but 5 grams of protein isn't much. It also contains 13 grams of total fat and the all-too-common and less-than-ideal 3 grams of saturated fat. Both of these figures seem extra for the ostensible simplicity of the bar. Not to mention its size –– at only 40 grams, it's one of the smaller ones. And for such a tiny package, the ingredient list is too busy. It contains palm kernel oil in the mix, along with cane sugar and glucose syrup.

Once again, Clif Bar rears its misleadingly nutritional head. To be fair, Chocolate Brownie bar, by its very name, is probably not super misleading. It's rare to get anything with "brownie" in the name that a nutritionist is going to go gaga over. Nonetheless, this would be in the same section as all the other energy bars in a store and, therefore, might seem like a not-unhealthy choice.

Sorry to burst your bubble (that you didn't ask to be blown in the first place). As usual, with Clif Bar, you're getting the punch of protein and calories that fill you up and hold you over. There's also a decent carbohydrate-to-fiber ratio (43 grams to 5 grams). However, you're also getting a spiked dose of added sugar (16 grams) and 180 milligrams of sodium. And, of course, there are the ingredients: featuring all kinds of syrups, extracts, and oils that should give one pause. The soy protein isolate, for example, is a soy extract that lacks all its nutrients except protein. Extra (non) bonus points for the ingredient simply called "natural flavors"– which can hide all kinds of additives and alterations behind the innocent label. You might be better off just enjoying some homemade fudgy brownies instead and finding your healthy eats elsewhere.

Starting out life at the hands of a Boulder, Colorado mom (the current president of the company) and named after her daughter, Bobo's grew from being sold in a few cafes to having a countrywide reach. Humble beginnings for a seemingly simple product. But as great as the tale is, the bar may not be all it's cracked up to be –- at least not as a nutritional, healthy snack.

The ingredient list is indeed welcomingly sparse (though it still contains cane sugar, vegetable glycerin, and xanthan gum). The issues lie in the nutritional makeup. Considering that a serving size is only half a bar, one full Bobo's Original Oatmeal Bar has 8 grams of saturated fat, an eyebrow-raising 20 grams of added sugar, and 170 milligrams of sodium. It has only 4 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein to show for it all. This shaky breakdown also makes it tough to justify the 340 calories.

Dave's Killer Bread may do white bread right, but it has a ways to go in introducing a truly healthy protein bar. There are a few things that are bloated about this company's offering. The name (12 words long), the sodium count (180 milligrams), and its ingredient list, which is straight-up biblical in its density. The word "organic" is in there roughly a trillion times — which might portend solid nutritional value. Unfortunately, the preponderance of additions like sugars, syrups, and peanut, canola, and palm oils takes a lot of wind out of its healthiness sails.

The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk protein bar also exceeds the preferred saturated fat threshold, with 3.5 grams per serving. You may also find the protein return to be relatively modest in the context of everything else it has going on, with only 10 grams per serving. This same could be said for the 4-gram fiber count. Dave's mustachioed packaging IP implores you to rock on, but that might mean jamming out in a different part of the snack bar aisle.

When you think of Gatorade, what comes to mind are athletes in peak condition soaring, running, spinning, and generally doing lateral movements that regular folk don't do in their daily life (unless you count blocking your dog from attacking the DoorDash guy). So, with the iconic sports drink company dipping its hand in the protein bar game, you'd expect a product that turns your body into a well-oiled machine. Or at the very least, something that fuels you with energy and sustenance. All this, even though sports drinks may not be as hydrating as you think.

In that vein, Gatorade's Peanut Butter Chocolate protein bar is lacking in the nutritional department. It's advertised as a post-workout recovery, but let's start with its sodium count of 310 milligrams. You might as well down an instant ramen instead. The double-take-inducing 9 grams of saturated fat are another strike. While carb amounts alone are not necessarily negative indicators, the lilliputian fiber return of 1 gram (yes, 1) makes it difficult to digest (probably both literally and figuratively). The protein hit is formidable, at 20 grams, yes. But another glaring red flag is the 23 grams of added sugar. That's nearly ¾ of the recommended daily intake for men, and almost a day's worth for women. To paraphrase Nike: just don't do it.