Have you ever actually looked at the ingredient list for your favorite energy bar?

Ever notice a little thing called soy protein isolate?  Chicory root or inulin?  Those are the ingredients they use to bulk up the protein and fiber content of their product.  Go ahead, read your label again and see what you find…

How does Phantom FUEL differ?  Well, it’s all real stuff.  Where does the protein come from?  All natural nut and seed butters.  Where does the fiber come from?  Rolled oats and oat bran and a handful of seeds and nuts.

Take this into consideration: One egg has 6g of protein and 212mg cholesterol. If you eat 2 eggs at breakfast, you’ll be getting 12g of protein and 424mg cholesterol.  Eat one Phantom FUEL bar instead, and you’ll get almost the same amount of protein, but NO cholesterol.  Zero.   Okay, that was fun, now back to all of those other protein/energy/meal replacer bars…

For the following, the closest thing to a Phantom FUEL bar was used…in general, a peanut butter/chocolate combo, or a honey/almond combo.

Kashi:  7 whole grains on a mission, right?  Sadly, they still add in a bunch of non-whole grains too.  The GoLEAN bar is 70% saturated fat, compared to Phantom FUEL where only about 25% is saturated…it’s like olive oil…some fats are good for you, and GoLEAN isn’t.  The “chewy granola bars” label claims to have such “tasty ingredients” as soy and whey protein isolates, chicory fiber, and vegetable glycerin.

Power Bar: has only 8% fiber, they use soy protein isolate, and they have to add in some iron with the rest of their vitamin blend.  Not to mention, it’s only a 45g bar for $2.

Clif Bar: contains 2 types of FLOUR, soy protein isolates, and chicory inulin.

Luna: made by the same company that makes Clif, and uses the exact same ingredients.

KIND: uses glucose to ‘glue’ the nuts together, and even though they use real nuts, they still use chicory for added fiber.

Special K bars:  In the ‘less than 2%’ part of the ingredient list is rolled oats.  The protein bar contains high fructose corn syrup, and the granola bar has 2-4 hydrogenated oils and artificial flavorings.

PRO BAR: The peanut butter/chocolate chip version contains 35% of your daily fat.  And though they do contain rolled oats, there’s also oat flour, vegetable glycerin, canola oil and arabic gum to hold it together.

Now the create-your-own internet bars:

Element (as seen on Shark Tank): creating your own still gives you no options to add any grains to your bars. One bar is only about 2.2 oz and they sell for $3.  If you buy the classic recipes, you get a 1.8 oz bar for $2.

YOU bars: the honey/cashew version only has 3% fiber and gives you 20% of your total daily fat in only a 45g bar that costs $2.50. I tried to create my own version of a Phantom FUEL Sergeant’s Seed bar (to get the same size, you have to get an XL, which is $5/bar!), but it only gives you 2 choices for nuts and seeds, ended up being 100 more calories, contained 50% of your total daily fat, and 36% of your daily allowance for saturated fat.