If you’re a label reader like me, you’ll know that finding healthy vegan protein bars isn’t always easy.
Tons of non-dairy protein bars claim to be good for you (“only 1g of sugar”, “zero net carbs,” or “20g of plant protein!”). But many contain questionably healthy ingredients, like soy protein isolate, brown rice syrup, sugar alcohols, and seed oils.
If you’re trying to avoid the junk in protein bars, then reading ingredient labels is a must. As part of developing that habit, knowing what to look for when determining what’s healthy, and what’s not, is crucial.
In this post, I share some pointers on how to weed out the bad stuff, and I also indulge you in the good stuff: The best vegan protein bars based on taste and nutrition.
Ingredients I Try to Avoid in Protein Bars
Certain ingredients are common culprits in seemingly healthy protein bars. While some of these ingredients are generally safe for consumption, I wouldn’t consider them healthy by any means.
- Soy protein isolate: This is the bottom of the food chain in terms of protein sources. The extraction method behind this soy protein isolate relies heavily on chemicals that can residually remain in the final product. Sadly, soy protein isolate is a low-cost ingredient found in countless protein bars.
- Isomalto-oligosaccharides (IMOs): Despite these fiber-like sweeteners being used as a sugar alternative in protein bars, studies have found IMOs problematic in raising blood sugar to levels similar to dextrose, or pure glucose.[1]
- Seed oils: Sunflower oil, soybean oil, and canola oil are high in omega-6 fatty acids. Excessive consumption of omega-6 can lead to an omega-3 imbalance, potentially contributing to chronic inflammation. Palm kernel oil is another seed oil that I avoid due to its major environmental implications.
- Artificial sweeteners: Sucralose, acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), and aspartame are zero-calorie, zero-sugar sweeteners that are found in protein bars, shakes, and powders. But, the science around these synthetic sweeteners is pretty mixed (leaning on the side of sketchy).
- Sugar alcohols: Erythritol is one of the most common sugar alcohols that’s found in both vegan protein powders and bars. A recent study published in Nature Medicine found erythritol poses considerable cardiovascular health risks.[2] If the bar is ultra-low in sugar, watch for sugar alcohols like this one.
- Lecithins: Soy and sunflower lecithin are frequently found in vegan protein bars. While they’re generally safe to consume, lecithins can cause minor digestive issues like stomach aches and diarrhea.
Also, if brown rice syrup is one of the first ingredients, I wouldn’t call that healthy either (talking about you, GoMacro and Cliff Bars.)
Now, I am sure you can dig up a positive argument for some of these ingredients and call me out in the comments as misinformed. But from what I found with my research, these are ingredients I try to avoid for my own health. In short, you do you!
7 Best Vegan Protein Bars for Clean Ingredients
What makes a particular vegan protein bar the best? Well, that sort of depends on your nutritional goals and dietary preferences. Someone looking for a low-carb, high-protein bar has a different set of standards versus someone seeking a calorie-dense meal replacement bar.
Below, I recommend vegan protein bars at both ends of the spectrum, but with the common denominator that each product uses high-quality, clean ingredients. Disclaimer: Some links are affiliate links to Amazon. See my disclaimer for more.
Kate’s Real Food Protein Bar
I’ve been eating Kate’s Real Food bars for years. So I was pretty excited to try their new protein bar. Available in three flavors–peanut butter cup, peanut butter brownie, and snickerdoodle–these plant-based protein bars use clean, whole-food ingredients and they are delicious!
With 15g of protein, each bar packs enough calories to serve as a meal replacement or a hearty snack between meals. Depending on the flavor, each bar uses either peanut butter or almond butter as a first ingredient, as well as oats and pea protein as the primary recovery fuel.
Sweetened with honey and white or dark chocolate (which contains natural cane sugar), there’s no stevia, monk fruit, or other processed sweeteners or ingredients.
Kate’s Real Food Protein Bars are USDA-certified organic, gluten-free, soy-free, and non-GMO. They’re not the bar you want if you’re cutting carbs or sugar. But they are the vegan protein bars you want if you’re looking for something clean, healthy, and nutritious.
Because these protein bars are new, the best place to get them is KatesRealFood.com.
Feel Plant Protein Bars
If the colorful packaging isn’t enough to grab your attention, these vegan protein bars from Feel are intentionally made with 100% organic ingredients designed for more than just recovery and replenishment. Each variety is themed around its particular intention, from immunity, energy, balance, and focus.
For instance, Feel’s Golden Goodness bar (Immunity) contains turmeric and black pepper, while the Matcha Latte bar (Energy) has 65mg of matcha powder. All six varieties contain healthy, real food ingredients like sunflower seeds, dates, pea protein, hemp hearts, pumpkin seeds, and chia seeds, among others.
Feel Plant Protein Bars are about as natural as they get. There are no oils, lecithins, or artificial sweeteners. Just whole food ingredients that are mindfully combined for a tasty, nutritious protein bar.
While the macros vary per bar, you can expect 15g of protein, 12g of carbs (7g of sugar), and between 9g and 12g of fat. These bars are balanced; not overly calorie dense with an average of around 190 calories per bar and nutritionally suitable for all walks of life. They’re low-FODMAP, gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free, dairy-free, and grain-free.
POSSIBLE Meal Bar
More than just a high-performance plant-based protein bar, the POSSIBLE Meal Bar is chock full of healthy, organic ingredients, including almonds, dates, cherries, pumpkin seeds, coconut oil, oats, chia seeds, and quinoa sprouts. While each variety has unique ingredients, pea protein is the primary source of protein.
With 20g of protein per bar, POSSIBLE has a reputation for whole food performance. In addition to being dairy-free/vegan, these protein bars are gluten-free, non-GMO, and clean label stamped, meaning they’re tested for industrial and environmental toxins and contaminants, like heavy metals and BPA.
At 390 calories per bar, the POSSIBLE Meal Bar provides ample sustenance and energy. These protein bars are designed to support outdoor excursions, meal replacement nutrition, and post-workout recovery-not calorie-cutting or low-carb dieting. They’re not just high in protein, but they contain 20g of healthy fat and 39g of carbs.
In addition to the POSSIBLE Meal Bar, the POSSIBLE Snack Bar is a lighter alternative that’s also worth trying.
1st Phorm Vegan Power Pro Bar
1st Phorm’s Vegan Power Pro Bar delivers serious nutrition and recovery-optimized protein using a combination of pea protein and peanut butter. In addition to 15g of protein, this is a sufficient meal replacement bar that has around 270 calories per serving, depending on the flavor.
Available in four varieties-Apple Cinnamon, Banana Nut Bread, Chocolate Brownie, and Chocolate Mint Cookie-these vegan protein bars have some of the best reviews for their extremely good taste and real food nutrition.
In addition to pea protein and peanut butter as the primary ingredients, 1st Phorm Vegan Power Pro Bars contain dates, coconut oil, and a whole food vitamin blend with spinach, broccoli, carrot, sweet potato, orange, apple, strawberry, sunflower seed, shiitake mushroom, and maitake mushroom.
With around 22g of carbs and 17g of fat (flavor dependent), these vegan protein bars have a balanced macronutrient profile. While they don’t have a lot of sugar (10g), they are sweetened with stevia. As a consumer of 1st Phorm protein products, these bars check all the boxes in high-performance protein bars.
IQ Bar
If you’re looking for a low-sugar vegan protein bar that doesn’t compromise on nutrition, the IQ Bar fits the bill. With almonds and pea as the primary sources of protein, this simple protein bar contains nothing unnatural and everything whole.
With 9g to 12g of carbs per bar (depending on the flavor) and 7g to 9g of fiber, IQ Bar has very low net carbs. They make this pretty obvious on the label. In turn, this is one of the most keto-friendly vegan protein bars you can buy (that still tastes good). Though, it does contain stevia if you’re sensitive to that.
Still, IQ Bars provide a wide range of real food ingredients, including healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals. Each flavor has unique fruits, like blueberry, banana, and lemon juice. For chocolate lovers, you can enjoy cocoa butter, cocoa, and unsweetened chocolate. Every bar has Lion’s Mane, which is a cognitive-boosting mushroom.
Each bar has 12g of protein and an average of 12g of fat (again, variety dependent), with 160-180 calories per protein bar. The fruit lovers trio consists of banana nut, wild blueberry, and lemon blueberry. The chocolate lovers variety offers chocolate sea salt, peanut butter chip, and almond butter chip flavors. My favorites are wild blueberry and almond butter chip.
ALOHA Organic Plant-Based Protein Bars
Also in the health-minded category of vegan protein bars, ALOHA Organic Protein Bars are a low-sugar option (between 3g and 5g of sugar) that are sweetened with monk fruit extract. Some contain chocolate chips, maple syrup, brown sugar, etc. for sweetness as well.
The ingredients vary widely from flavor to flavor, making some better than others. For instance, some contain brown rice syrup, sunflower lecithin, and sunflower oil, while others are entirely free of these ingredients.
Each bar packs 14g of protein made from a blend of brown rice protein and pumpkin seed protein. The other macros vary, but average around 10g of fat and 25g of carbs, totaling about 220 calories per bar.
ALOHA’s Protein Bars come in a range of flavors (13 different types at the time of writing this). My favorite is maple sea salt, not just because it tastes the best but also because it’s one of the cleanest protein bars in this lineup.
Laird Superfood Protein Bars + Adaptogens
One of the few vegan protein bars that use a performance-minded blend of protein sources (pea protein, pumpkin seed protein, and hemp protein), Laird Superfood Protein Bars + Adaptogens provides an abundant amino acid profile designed for recovery.
They’re considered functional protein bars, not just because they’re made with intentional, real plant-based food sources, but because they contain the adaptogen Lion’s Mane mushroom extract. This weapon offers a host of benefits, including sharper cognition.
Each flavor—including dark chocolate sea salt, lemon almond, mint chocolate, peanut butter, peanut butter chocolate chip, and pumpkin—has slight differences in ingredients but the same protein blend and superfoods.
But you can expect close to the same macronutrient profile, delivering 10g of protein, 8g of fat, and about 20g of carbs (including 8g of sugar), packing around 180 calories.
What’s Your Favorite Vegan Protein Bar?
These are just some of my top picks for the best vegan protein bars, as determined by the cleanliness of the ingredients and how good they taste. But what’s yours? If you have a favorite protein bar worth sharing, let me know in the comments below or hit me up.
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About the Author
This article was written by Tyler Tafelsky, the lead editor here at VeganProteinPowder.reviews. Tyler is an experienced writer in the health and athletic space who has tried hundreds of different plant-based nutritional products and writes about his favorites here on this blog. Learn more about Tyler by viewing his full author bio or by following him on social platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram. You can also visit his personal site TylerTafelsky.com to learn more about what he’s up to.
Scientific References:
- Gourineni V, Stewart ML, Icoz D, Zimmer JP. Gastrointestinal Tolerance and Glycemic Response of Isomaltooligosaccharides in Healthy Adults. Nutrients. 2018 Mar 3;10(3):301. doi: 10.3390/nu10030301. PMID: 29510490; PMCID: PMC5872719.
- Witkowski, M., Nemet, I., Alamri, H. et al. The artificial sweetener erythritol and cardiovascular event risk. Nat Med 29, 710–718 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02223-9