Ingredient glossary

Fast-digesting, complete dairy protein with the isolate's lactose and fat mostly filtered out. High quality.

Slower-digesting dairy proteins. Complete and high quality; casein is what makes some bars chewy.

Complete, dairy-free protein — the base of whole-food bars like RXBAR.

Great for skin/joints but an incomplete protein (low in tryptophan), so it shouldn't be the only protein if muscle is the goal. Often used to pad the protein number.

Complete plant protein, inexpensive and common. Fine for most people; a few prefer to avoid it.

Plant proteins; pea+rice together form a complete amino-acid profile. The backbone of most vegan bars.

The one to watch. It still raises blood sugar meaningfully and is a common cause of bloating, gas, and laxative effects. We penalize it hardest.

Almost no blood-sugar impact and usually well tolerated in small amounts. Some emerging heart-health questions at high intakes.

Low glycemic but can cause GI upset. (Xylitol is toxic to dogs — keep bars away from pets.)

A 'rare sugar' that tastes like sugar with near-zero calories and no blood-sugar spike; generally well tolerated. Common in newer bars like David.

Plant-derived, zero-calorie, no blood-sugar impact. The cleaner way to sweeten.

A calorie-free artificial sweetener (Splenda). Considered safe by regulators, but many shoppers prefer to avoid it, and it may affect gut bacteria.

Artificial sweeteners. Regulator-approved but among the additives clean-label buyers most often skip.

Whole-food sweeteners. Still sugar (and still count toward it), but they bring fiber/minerals and no additives.

Cheap added sugars that spike blood sugar with no nutritional upside. A sign of a candy-bar formula.

Industrial, highly refined oils high in omega-6. Cheap filler fats that many health-focused eaters limit.

Used for that solid 'coating' texture. High in saturated fat, and linked to deforestation concerns.

Saturated but from coconuts; MCTs are quickly used for energy. Common in keto bars.

The natural fat from cacao — what real chocolate is made of. A good sign on a label.

Can contain trans fats. Rare now, but a clear red flag if you see 'partially hydrogenated'.

A real prebiotic fiber that feeds gut bacteria. Great, though a lot at once can cause gas.

Isomalto-oligosaccharides once counted as fiber but digest more like sugar than labels imply — 'fiber-syrup' that can inflate the fiber number.

A humectant that keeps bars soft. Harmless, but its carbs are often subtracted to make 'net carbs' look lower.

A catch-all term for flavor compounds. Usually benign but not transparent — you can't tell what's in them.

A modified fat that passes through mostly undigested, cutting calories. Novel; long-term data is thin.