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Protein bars are within everyone's reach. You can find them in the supermarket, near the boxes so you do not miss seeing them, in online stores such as Amazon, in gyms, in sports supplement stores ... and even in pharmacies. What flavors? 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 even some claim to help you lose weight and burn fat. There is also no shortage of videos on social networks of influencers testing them 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 or eggs, he says. "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 or in the albumin of the milk."

Protein is one of the basic nutrients in the diet at any age. "They form the whole body: skin, hair, bones, muscles... practically our entire body is protein," says Botella. Proteins are continuously forming and degrading, so we need to incorporate them into our diet to replace those that are degraded. The doctor apostilles that an adult should take something less than 1 gram for each kilo that weighs the 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 pregnancies: "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 SEEN spokesman.

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"We assume we eat very poorly. 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 nutrition 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 them these products as something necessary when they are not, there are many commercial interests and this moves a lot of money

Francisco Botella

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

The endocrine talks about another of the false promises indicated in advertising: "They do not help 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 be hungry." "I would never recommend a patient take protein bars for weight loss, it would be a bit ridiculous from a medical standpoint." There is a large industry behind these foods and it must be taken into account: "In the end everything is a marketing strategy," says Botella.

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