Watching Your Weight: The Nutrition Bar Trap

Meal replacement and energy bars were originally designed for endurance athletes who need easily digestible food with lots of carbohydrates. But marketing has brought the nutrition bar habit to everyone. Stop and think: It takes 30 seconds to eat a food bar, but these products can contain 350 calories and 45 grams of carbs each.

America is having a whirlwind love affair with nutrition bars. A few years ago these chocolate-covered, nut-filled snacks were only available at vitamin shops or sporting goods stores. Now they're everywhere—in your local grocery store's diet food section, next to the cereal in the breakfast food aisle, at the check-out line with the gum and candy bars … even in gas station convenience stores alongside the Cheetos and Twinkies.

And the variety? Wow! Fifteen years ago you had to choose between Powerbars and old-fashioned granola bars. Now we've got Luna bars, Atkins bars, Mega Protein bars, Snickers Marathon bars, Nutri-Grain bars, and many, many more.