Is There a Difference?
What an energy bar consists of and to whom one is marketed is interconnected, according to Dr. Liz Applegate, director of sports nutrition at the University of California at Davis. "What's evolved over the past decade-plus with energy bars is marketing toward women and making bars more appealing for women," she said.Do women require a different kind of energy bar?
"The standout difference between an energy bar marketed for women is smaller portion sizes," said Applegate, "so that they're lower in calories. Most bars that are targeted toward women are generally speaking about 200 calories or less, and they (include) a few key ingredients, like folate. There might be more calcium in a bar that's marketed toward women because a lot of women know they are at a greater risk for osteoporosis."
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Male and female eating habits, and the characteristics of each, could come into play when selecting an energy bar, said Nancy Clark, a registered dietitian in Boston.
"Women tend to eat less meat," she pointed out. "I'd say there are far more women than men who need a protein boost."
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A Matter of Marketing
The nutrition-requirement differences between genders, though, may be overblown.
"I think just like anything else, from shaving cream to shampoo, there are male products and products that are geared toward women," said LeeAnn Smith Weintraub, a Los Angeles nutritionist and dietitian. "To a certain extent, nutritional needs are different, but I think most of it's just marketing."
Lisa Reavlin, a spokeswoman for PowerBar, would see it that way. "While other companies are taking a more gender-specific approach (to energy products), we're more focused on nutrition science," she said.
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Reavlin allows that "when you're talking about things like micronutrients, certainly women have different fortification needs than men, but from a macronutrients perspective, the science is really focused on your needs for athletic performance and intensity level and duration level. We're (at PowerBar) trying to focus on helping to enhance people's athletic performance."
He added, "I think sometimes you have people selecting a certain form of these products (a bar vs. a gel, for example) but the specific recommendations for carbohydrates and proteins are less gender-specific and more performance-specific."
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Whether you're male or female and looking to heighten your energy and/or athletic performance, you can always go the traditional route: proper diet.
Dietitian Clark certainly thinks so. "You don't need a bar to give you energy," said the author of Nancy Clark's Sports and Nutrition Guidebook. "Most of them are just cookies by another name, but they fit the American lifestyle of grabbing and going."
More: How to Choose the Right Energy Bar
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