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Top 24 Protein Bars Without Artificial Sweeteners in 2021

Greg Simon

In this article I review 24 of the top protein bars without artificial sweeteners currently on the market.

We’ll compare how much protein they provide us & their costs, and take a close look at their nutrition facts & ingredients too.

Those are good things to do when it comes to buying a protein bar, since there’s no shortage of junk out there.

There are umpteen brands marketing an army of protein bars at us, just look:

And as you’ll soon see…

…there’s still a huge difference in quality & purity among these 24 protein bars, even after eliminating all the ones with artificial sweeteners in them.

To kick things off, below are a few arbitrary rankings I put together.

Table of Contents

Protein bars without artificial sweeteners

Glossary

Buyer ratings

Based on average ⭐ of all online reviews at this time.

Product purity

My subjective viewpoint based on how clean the ingredients are.

Protein content

Ranked by grams per bar.

Cheapest cost per ounce

Using prices I’m looking at now (June 2021), which could change anytime.

Most processed / Least pure

The opposite of Product Purity above, these are the bars with the most artificial &/or unwanted ingredients.

Least amount of protein

Pretty self-explanatory. By the way, to qualify for the article a protein bar had to have a minimum of 8 grams of protein.

What’s next

Later on I will have individual reviews of all 24 protein bars included in this article, not just the ones in those Top 5 lists.

Next though, I want to take a little look at the processed nature of protein bars.

Science resources included

As is my custom here on heydayDo, I will provide links to all of the relevant sports science & medical resources, clinical studies, and nutritional data used in this article.

No artificial sweeteners, but…

There’s no getting around the simple fact that even with the cleanest ingredients, a protein bar is a processed food.

Some were born in labs, some have things in them that were created in chemical plants, & all of the popular ones are manufactured in food factories.

Grandma’s not in her kitchen baking these in the oven for us.

So while none of these 24 protein bars have artificial sweeteners in them, several of them have ingredients that we might want to avoid.

Gettin’ good at label reading is a nice trait to develop…😉

The quest for the perfect protein bar

I’ve dug around for clean & pure protein products a couple of times before, and then written about the gems I uncovered:

Top 8 Protein Powders Without Artificial Sweeteners

7 Best BCAAs Without Sucralose

In both of those cases it wasn’t too hard to find several 100% pure or real clean products worth recommending.

Good luck striking gold in a protein bar

With protein bars though, it’s a tougher task to find that special bar that has all 3 of the following characteristics:

high-protein (say, > 15 grams)
no artificial anything (sweeteners, fillers, etc.)
tastes like it’s from planet Earth

So I’m resigning myself to the (apparent) fact that I can’t be as much of a stickler for purity like I was with the BCAAs & protein powders.

Artificial sweeteners

Sugar substitutes are no strangers to controversy.

After all, on the one hand the FDA’s approved them for mass consumption.

But on the other hand there are concerned physicians & dietitians recommending we avoid artificial sweeteners due to health risks. (1)

Lack of research on human use

The effects of long-term use of artificial sweeteners hasn’t been studied on humans much, so research evidence is lacking. (2)

Current medical questions

Recently some prominent health authorities have brought up more health concerns, and you can check out their comments in the links below if interested.

Harvard Medical

Sharecare (a couple of short vids)

Yale University

Bottom line (for me anyway):

I’m not convinced that the FDA has my best interests at heart.

Nor do I need research evidence to convince me to stop consuming artificial sweeteners.

I avoid artificial anything whenever I can, just out of general principle:

Nature > Man-made chemicals

And with artificial sweeteners that’s real easy, ‘cause I REALLY dislike the way they taste.

A few words on sugar alcohols

In case you’re unfamiliar with them, sugar alcohols are a processed ingredient often extracted out of fruit, and they’re used as a sugar substitute.

You’ll see their quantity listed on a Nutrition Facts label, and their names in the Ingredients section; they usually end in -ol:

erythritol
maltitol
mannitol
sorbitol
xylitol
lactitol
isomalt

Initially, I was going to make a personal choice of mine and exclude bars that had any sugar alcohol, since technically sugar alcohols aren’t an artificial sweetener.

Actually, they’re not a sugar either; sugar alcohols are simply classified as a carbohydrate by the science & medical communities. (3)

Plus, the FDA lists them as natural sweeteners. (4)

Considered natural, but don’t taste like it

Despite all those facts & official classifications, for a moment or two I thought about leaving protein bars sweetened with sugar alcohol out of this article.

For one thing, I taste an “artificial-ness” in things made with sugar alcohols.

“Rumbly in my tumbly” – Winnie the Pooh

And my other rationale for excluding bars with sugar alcohol was because eating them sometimes gives my stomach a little discomfort.

It doesn’t happen every time I down something with a sugar alcohol in it and it’s not super uncomfortable to deal with by any means.

But when it happens, it’s noticeable.

I’m not the only one experiencing unwanted gastrointestinal adventures from eating sugar alcohols either, so I almost added them to the list of “banned ingredients” for this protein bar review.

But I didn’t, and you’ll find that a few of the most popular bars made with sugar alcohols are also featured in this article:

Quest
Met-Rx
Gatorade
Orgain

What’s not in these protein bars

Below is a list of the most common artificial sweeteners we’re likely to find in processed foods like protein bars.

Protein bars that have any of the sweeteners listed below were excluded from this review, regardless of their popularity or protein quantity.

Sucralose

AKA Splenda® (5)
FDA says it’s A-OK. (6)
Old research using rats found health issues, but no long-term human studies have been done. (7)

Acesulfame potassium

AKA Ace-k (8)
FDA OK’d it in 1988 and never looked back. (9)
Evidence of risks exist but again, no long-term studies on humans. (10)

These two — sucralose & Ace-k — are the biggies you’ll most likely see in a flavored protein product that is sugar-free.

I’ll list the other sweeteners that the food industry uses, but I don’t think they’re used much (if at all) by the supplement companies that crank out protein bars & powders.

Aspartame

AKA Equal® & NutraSweet® (11)
Links to health problems are weak, though rumors are strong. (12)
FDA & other world-leading health authorities say its OK. (13)

Saccharin – AKA Sweet ‘N Low® (14)

Advantame – FDA approved in 2014. (15)

Neotame – FDA says it’s OK; I’ve never come across it. (16)

Cyclamate – banned in the US, OK for use elsewhere. (17)

Protein bar reviews

Alrighty then, onto examining the 24 sucralose-free bars individually.

Besides main features like grams of protein & cost, I have Ingredients and Nutrition Facts labels you can check out too.

I might mention a notable thing or two that comes to mind along the way…

…but I’m going with the assumption that you’ll be seeing the same stuff (good or bad) that I am, down in the macros and ingredients info I’ve provided.

Taste is a very subjective personal preference

I don’t provide my opinion on how they taste for a few good reasons:

1. We all have our own individual taste preferences, and mine are abnormal…so how I think something tastes is irrelevant & probably useless info to share here.

2. You can click the image or product name and be instantly connected to tens of thousands of people who are happy to tell you how they think it tastes.

3. For the bars in this review that I haven’t ever tried (there’s 9 of them I think), I have no desire to plunk down the ca$h to buy a box of each of them, since those particular ones aren’t sold individually where I live.

How they’re listed here

By the way…

…the order in which these protein bars appear below is only based on their buyers’ ratings — not on how clean of a product it is, or how much protein it has in it.

Indeed, you’ll be coming across some popular sucralose-free bars that have a bucketful of artificial ingredients and a lot of processing.

(Here’s looking at you, Met-Rx and Gatorade.)

Buyer ratings & their comments

The ⭐ rating is calculated using all online reviews available at the time I wrote this article.

The % number you see is the percentage of reviewers who gave the product a 5 or a 4 star rating.

Current prices

The “Cost/oz.” calculation I provide is using prices I’m seeing today, and they will likely be a little different by the time you’re reading this.

To check current price &/or read buyer comments on Amazon, click on the bar’s pic or its product name.

24 best protein bars without artificial sweeteners

Power Crunch Triple Chocolate

4.8 ⭐ 95% 1,300+ online reviews

Features

Protein – 13g

Sugar – 5g

Sodium – 100mg

Cost/oz. – $1.06

Top 24 Protein Bars Without Artificial Sweeteners in 2021

Protein bars without artificial sweeteners

Top 5 by buyer ratings

Top 6 by product purity

Top 6 by protein content

Top 6 by cheapest cost/oz.

Most processed & least pure

Least amount of protein

Glossary

Buyer ratings

Product purity

Protein content

Cheapest cost per ounce

Most processed / Least pure

Least amount of protein

What’s next

No artificial sweeteners, but…

Grandma’s not in her kitchen baking these in the oven for us.

The quest for the perfect protein bar

Good luck striking gold in a protein bar

Artificial sweeteners

Lack of research on human use

Current medical questions

Bottom line (for me anyway):

A few words on sugar alcohols

Considered natural, but don’t taste like it

“Rumbly in my tumbly” – Winnie the Pooh

What’s not in these protein bars

Sucralose

Acesulfame potassium

Aspartame

Protein bar reviews

Taste is a very subjective personal preference

How they’re listed here

Buyer ratings & their comments

Current prices

24 best protein bars without artificial sweeteners

Features

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Notes

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#11 – 24

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My notes

Some Quest bars have sucralose, some don’t

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Wrapping Up

About heydayDo

Hi I’m Greg Simon. Fitness training & nutrition researching since 1982. Organic food & wine grower. Surfer. Congenital heart disease survivor (so far). Read more…

heydayDo is my “fitness after 50” website that’s about embracing the physically active lifestyle as we get older.

It’s an information-sharing, personal opinion blog of mine.

(So if you’re looking for medical or nutritional advice, please consult with your doctor or health professional for that.)

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