When eating on the run its important to make healthy choices, especially when choosing a nutrition bar. So in a sea of options, which ones are best? Registered dietitian Sarah Robertson weighs in on what bars top the list, offering the best nutritional value and the least number of additives.

What you Need to Know about Nutrition Bars

Some nutrition bars are really candy bars disguised as nutritious snacks or meal replacements. Several are loaded with sugar, artificial ingredients and unfamiliar additives. Some “protein” bars contain  an unnecessarily high amount of protein, in some cases as much as you should be consuming in one whole day. Too much protein can tax the liver and kidneys so its important to watch protein intake.

People closely watching their weight like nutrition bars because they can monitor exactly how many calories and how much sugar and fat they are consuming. However, “diet-friendly” and “low-calorie” do not necessarily mean healthy, especially if those 150 calories are highly-processed, empty ones. That means you may be selling your body short on the fiber, vitamins and essential minerals it needs to stay optimally healthy.

Healthy Choices for Nutrition Bars

Robertson suggests the following nutritional bars, sharing specific strengths so you can make more effective choices when adding them to your meal plan. Remember ingredients are listed from most abundant to least abundant, by weight, so ideally you want to see recognizeable food items listed as the first ingredient.

Lara Bars: All pure and natural. They are made of dried fruit, nuts and spices. Each Lara Bar variety contains less than 8 ingredients and are all real foods. They are an excellent source of heart-healthy mono and polyunsaturated fats,  as well as a good source of protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals.

Kind Bars: Are also all natural. They contain nuts, honey and dried fruits, and have very similar nutrients to Lara Bars. They are chock full of energy and nutrient dense, so they keep the body satisfied.

Kashi Bars: These bars contain wholesome ingredients and are minimally processed. However, some of Kashi’s bars are high in sugar, especially the GoLean Chewy Bars. The fruit and grain bars are the best, followed by their granola bar varieties.

Gnu Bars: Delicious, entirely natural and contain a lot of fiber. Be sure to drink plenty of water with a Gnu bar to offset extra fiber consumption.

Greens Bars: These snacks have a few more ingredients than the others, but they are identifiable as foodstuffs or herbs. These bars may suffice as a small meal replacement.

Clif Bars: ClifC Bars are the best option among the large variety of Clif Bars. They are very popular, but the first ingredient in the standard Clif Bar is brown rice syrup. The C bars contain very few ingredients, all of which are actual foods or vitamins.

Read and Understand the Labels

Ideally, you should consume whole foods for meals, and use bars as snacks or supplements on occasion. Sometimes that’s not practical so when you’re grabbing a bar on the go, its best to focus more on the ingredient list than nutrition facts.

First look for actual foods in the ingredients list. The longer the ingredient list, the more processed the food. Pay attention to the sugar; a higher sugar content (>10 grams) is acceptable if there is a decent amount of fiber in the bar (> 3 grams). Be sure to avoid bars that contain sugar and no fiber. Protein bars that contain exorbitant amounts of protein (>15g per bar, for example) absolutely should be avoided, as people already over-consume protein in the average Western diet.

This list is a great starting point if you need a quick fix hunger solution, however they are not a sufficient meal-replacement. Its a good idea to grab cottage cheese, a plain Greek yogurt or a piece of fruit to eat with it and create a fuller, more nutritious meal.