Dr Mercola Dr Mercola Organic Cocoa Cassava | 12 Bars

• Low Sugar - No refined sugar, artificial or corn-based sweeteners. Your body breaks down these sugars differently and their consumption is linked to insulin resistance, weight gain and disease.

• Lower in net carbs - Net carbohydrates are the total carbs in a product minus grams of fibre. For optimal health benefits, you want to focus on lower net carbs.

• Lower protein - Researchers are discovering that even moderate protein levels can activate your mTOR pathway which may have a detrimental effect on your health.

• Good source of healthy fats - Dr Mercola believe the calories from excess protein and carbohydrates should be replaced with calories from high-quality fats from foods like macadamia nuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds and coconut.

• High fibre - High levels of fibre are essential for health and for lowering net carbs. Ideal sources of fibre for bars include chia seeds, nuts, coconut, cassava and berries.

• Delicious homemade taste - No one enjoys a dry, tasteless bar. The perfect snack bar is moist, chewy and flavorful from whole foods – just like a snack you might prepare in your own kitchen using wholesome ingredients.

• Organic, non-genetically modified ingredients - Meets USDA organic standards and contains absolutely no genetically engineered ingredients (unlike what’s found in most snack bars today).

• Gluten-free -  Along with organic ingredients, this helps ensure your bar won’t contain traces of glyphosate, a potent health-damaging pesticide applied to wheat before harvesting.

With many of today’s snack or so-called "energy" bars, there’s a very fine line between them and what’s stocked in the candy aisle of your local grocery store.

Looking at the top-selling snack bars, you find sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup, cane syrup, and artificial sweeteners like aspartame. The top three bars contain total carb levels as high as 42 grams and 20 grams of sugars per bar.

That’s not much different from the 35 grams of carbs and 29 grams of sugars found in the most popular candy bar.

Aside from questionable sweeteners, today’s top-selling snack bars also contain excessive grains and genetically engineered derived ingredients like corn fibre, sugarcane fibre and soy protein isolate.

Not exactly what you need – or want – for your healthy eating!

Snack bars are here to stay. Convenient to pack along, they’re ideal for a quick recharge squelching hunger pangs, and beating mid-afternoon fatigue.