The fat in protein bars

[SquatsN'Blood]

Very often I see protein bars with 0 sugar and a lot of protein and fat, with only a tiny bit of saturated fat. For example, I'll see 12g fat total, but only 4g saturated. Are the remaining unsaturated 8g healthy fats? Is this a good bar to eat during the day (i.e. not pre or post workout)?

 

[Techo]

Personally I try to stay away from bars. I just don't find them very healthy. If I want a protein snack that doesn't need to be refridgerated I'll go for some jerky. Sure 4g doesn't sound like that much, but its around 20% of your sat fat requirments for a 2000kcal diet. Keep in mind this is just my opinion about how careful you are w/the sat fat. Bryan does suggest staying away from sat fat, but not to get paranoid about it. I admit that I try to keep it as low as possible.

The thing that you may be concerned about is trans fat. I would not assume the remaining 8g are of a healthy nature since trans fat is not listed... Check the label. Do you see anything that says something to the effect of "partially hydrogenated oil" ? Here's a site that talks a bit about trans fat... You may want to do a search on recent threads on this site about trans fat. Seems I remember a recent debate about it...

Hope that helps!