To be honest, I tend to not turn to bars as snacks for the most part because none of them really meet my standards when it comes to ingredients & nutrition facts. Some bars may have good macros but then also add all these extra chemical sweeteners that I try to steer clear of. I was really excited when Hemplete protein bars launched because it’s one of the first protein bar brands in the space to make strides in texture, taste, and ingredients.

Below I’m going to break down how it stacks up against its competitors and why I truly believe this is a superior bar.

Protein Bar Review

Cliff Energy / Protein Bar – 250 Calories

This bar has a whopping 23 ingredients, 21g of sugar and only 10g of protein – yikes! I am not a fan of Cliff bars for anything other than maybe very intense backpacking trips. If you’re sitting around the office or not doing anything very active, this bar is most definitely not for you. That much sugar will cause a huge insulin spike only leading you to crash later. Insulin spikes also tell the body to stop burning its fat stores and instead, absorb some of the fatty acids and glucose in the blood and turn them into more body fat. While it’s normal to spike your insulin at appropriate times, having chronically high insulin levels is where you run into problems, and is not the way to go if you’re living a more sedentary lifestyle.

If you read the company’s slogan “energy bar” then you get a much better picture of what a cliff bar is good for. Again if you’re backpacking or doing intense levels of rock climbing, this could be a solid bar for you. However, for most of us with a minimum level of exercise and desk jobs, this would not be a good go-to snack bar.

Go Macro Protein Bar – 290 Calories

While this bar has the word macro in the title, I am not that impressed with its macro profile. This bar still has 37g carbs and 14g sugar which is fairly high for a grab-n-go snack. I do like the fact it only has 9 ingredients and taste is pretty good. Still, I am not a fan of the ratio of 11g protein to 14g sugar.

Luna Protein Bar – 200 Calories

Luna bars take the carbs and sugar down a little bit more to 26g carbs and 10g sugar. At what cost though? This bar only has 8g protein and 28 ingredients. If this is part of your daily snack routine, I swap it out for something a bit more comprehensive and less added ingredients.

Hemplete Protein Bar – 200 Calories 

Superior taste and ingredients, I honestly don’t think there’s a better protein bar on the market. Hemplete protein bars also have 18g carbs with only 3g sugar! The peanut butter flavor has 10 ingredients total with stevia as the sweetener. It’s very rare that I find a bar that tastes so good, checks all my boxes ingredient wise and has low sugar. That’s why Hemplete nutrition protein bars are my new go-to for all snacking needs and even when I’m traveling.

Here’s a visual breakdown below if you want to see how Hemplete protein bars compare to its competitors.