You'e trying to make better food choices, terrific! We are all busy and risk skipping meals if we don't have the time to find our way to good choices. Protein bars can give you great support that way. Skipping meals can actually slow your metabolism and cause weight gain. The next time you find yourself with that mid-afternoon slump, grab a protein bar! You can find protein bars in almost any grocery, drug or warehouse store. Too often, people mistakenly think that they are all basically alike. That isn't the case. In order to be sure you get the most nutritional value from your selection, here are a few things to look for:

1) Read the label - just because it says "protein" on the front, does not mean that the ingredients shape up to be something that is actually healthy!

2) How many calories does the bar have? Unless you are regularly extremely active and have a high metabolism, you don't want one over 200 calories.

3) How much protein is really in the food? Bars vary widely. You want to find a bar that has a minimum of 10g of protein. While adding any to your diet is usually appropriate ,(unless your protein intake has been restricted by your doctor) you are addding fat, sugar and calories too so look for the higher protein level.

4) How many carbohydrates and fat grams? Almost all protein bars are sweet. Read the label and see how many grams of carbs are in the bar. (how many grams of sugar will be broken out under the carbohydrate heading).

Ultimately you want to make comparisons and find bars with:

a)low calories

b) the most protein and the least sugar and fat grams.

Luckily, we have lots of choices that will fit the bill.