Eating Meal Replacement Bars

We talked about meal replacement bars last week. They are a quick answer to those emergency cases when you need something fast and easy. They are especially good if you are stuck at the office and you forgot your meal or even out on the road traveling. With that being said, I don’t want you to get the idea that this should be a daily habit. They can be good for a meal replacement when you have NOTHING else of nutritional value. I want you to remember that nothing will replace real food as far as your body is concerned. These bars are processed foods. Anything that has been processed has been partially broken down. What this means is that the “bar” has already been taken apart to a simple form where your body can easily digest it. This doesn’t sound too bad, right? Wrong! Think back to yesterday. The body burns more calories when it has to break down its own food. So try hard not to rely on bars because you end up cheating your own body out of a calorie burning opportunity. Whole foods also have those much needed antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that your body will absorb during food breakdown.

The next thing to remember is that these bars are approximately 350-500 calories. By calorie count alone, this is considered a meal. So I don’t recommend eating this with anything else but the water that you should already be drinking, Right! Remember this is not a candy bar, so you don’t get to pair it up with anything and it won’t cancel out any chips or a soda. The concept behind the bars is that they are an entire meal “wrapped” up to make life a little more convenient. But by no means should they replace real food.