Energy bars are seen from professional events to the local amateur weekly events. And everywhere companies are making new ones better than before etc. But if it doesn’t taste nice they probably aren’t going to sell. You may have seen us recommend some of these products in our 5 top tips for race nutrition.
Science in sports foods is well known and popular no matter the skill level. With the primary ingredient in there Go-bars being fruit they certainly pack good flavours. With 4 that we have tried being; chocolate fudge, Blueberry, Redberry, and Banana fudge. My personal favourite was the Banana Fudge but others here did prefer the other flavours and not one of them was dislikeable.
Packing around 334Kcal per 100g and 67grams of carbohydrates the bars provide a good boost of energy. Containing 12grams of protein helps the body break down carbs into a more usable energy quicker. Whilst the science behind energy says 50g of carbohydrates and roughly 5-10g of protein per hour, SIS has made these bars to measure. Whilst you may not want to eat one of the 40-gram mini ones every half hour. They do not need washing down with water and taste better than a lot of the competitor’s bars out there.
Cliff is better known amongst hikers and more Tour distance riders their energy bars are great competition. Made up mostly of oats there energy bars taste like flapjack with extra bits in! I mean who doesn’t like flapjack and chocolate chips! With 8 different flavours, there’s one for everyone! A personal favourite in this group is the crunchy peanut butter ones whilst other cyclestore staff backed the Blueberry Crisp.
Looking into the science for these bars per 100grams. Packing 403Kcal (dependent on the bar) a whopping 63grams of carbohydrates balanced out with 15 grams of protein! packing a lot of energy in meaning you can roughly get away with
one bar every hour or so. Whilst these were slightly harder to go down than the SIS ones it was not like an energy bar just flapjack.
Between these two SIS seems to have the upper edge on “Results in sport” meaning they have been tried and tested more. But on paper, the Clif bars are easier to consume and are less like an energy bar in taste and texture. Between these two we found it was more down to personal choice in the flavours, with science in sport having a slight edge in research.
