"Society needs nutrition education, not protein bars"

Protein bars are within everyone's reach. You can find them in the supermarket, near the cashiers so you don't miss seeing them, in online stores like Amazon, in gyms, in sports supplement stores…. and even in pharmacies. What flavour is it? Of those you can imagine: white, dark or milk chocolate, biscuit flavor, cheesecake or peanut butter…. and even the best-known brands of chocolate bars such as M&M, Snickers, Bounty or Mars. Promising ads everywhere: they give you protein, energy and some even claim to help you lose weight and burn fat. There is also no shortage of videos on social networks of influencers trying them out and alluding to how good they are.. But are they really necessary? And healthy?

Francisco Botella, coordinator of the nutrition area of the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SEEN), explains that protein bars are unnecessary. “People who eat healthy, for example, those who eat a Mediterranean diet, do not need to supplement”. Proteins can be found in various foods such as legumes, nuts, meat, fish, dairy products or eggs, he points out.. “If a patient tells me that they consume these types of products, I would tell them that there are much more beneficial sources of natural protein.. The best quality is in the egg white and in the albumen of the milk”.

Proteins are one of the basic nutrients in food at any age.. “They make up the whole body: skin, hair, bones, muscles…. practically our entire body is protein,” says Botella. Proteins are continuously being formed and degraded, so we need to incorporate them into our diet to replace those that are being degraded. The doctor adds that an adult should take a little less than 1 gram for every kilo they weigh per day, 0.8 grams is the ration indicated by the WHO. The amounts change depending on whether there is a pathology or a specific situation, such as pregnancy: “The range is between a minimum of 0.8 and a maximum of 1.5 grams for the vast majority of the population,” says the spokesperson. of the SEEN.

“We assume that we eat very badly. So the food industry offers us these apparent solutions, those foods that they call functional”. Is it necessary to take protein bars? “Obviously not”, says Botella. He explains that a poor diet is not improved with these products: “Society needs nutritional education, not bars”. “Companies are taking advantage of the bad habits of the population to sell them these products as something necessary when they are not, there are many commercial interests and this moves a lot of money,” he says.

Companies are taking advantage of the bad habits of the population to sell these products as something necessary when they are not, there are many commercial interests and this moves a lot of money

Francis Bottle

Ok, they are not necessary, but what about healthy? There are different types: there are some with more or less sugar, some even with 20 grams per unit and not very beneficial fats.. When buying one, you should look at its ingredients to find out why it is made, and thus know if it can be healthy or not.. “Less than a quarter of people look at the ingredients on the labels of the products they are buying, therefore, many people do not know what they are eating,” says the nutritionist.. What he's aiming for: “A protein bar loses much of its nutritional interest if it's accompanied by added sugars or unhealthy fats.. They become ultra-processed and therefore these would not be recommended.”

The endocrinologist talks about another of the false promises indicated in the advertising: “They do not help to burn fat or lose weight, the only thing is that they usually have a slightly higher satiety index and, perhaps, it takes a little longer to have hunger”. “I would never recommend a patient take protein bars to lose weight, it would be a little ridiculous from a medical point of view”. There is a large industry behind these foods and it must be taken into account: “In the end, everything is a marketing strategy,” remarks Botella.