Larabar · Snack bars
Are Larabars Healthy? Peanut Butter Cookie Nutrition Facts and Ingredients
Short answer
Per 48 g bar, the Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar has 220 calories, 6 g of protein, 4 g of fiber, 16 g of sugar and 2 g of saturated fat. It is made from three ingredients, dates, peanuts and sea salt, and it is not ultra-processed (NOVA 3). The catch is sugar: none of it is added, it all comes from the dates, but it still makes up about a third of the bar by weight. Truvi scores it 44 out of 100.
Truvi score
44/100
Fair
- Processing56/100
NOVA 3; additives not listed
- Nutrition48/100
moderate nutritional quality (Nutri-Score C)
- Overeating30/100
fat + sugar combo, 29% kcal sugar, calorie-dense 4.6kcal/g
Our method, from the label. 75 and up is Excellent, 50 Good, 25 Fair, below 25 Bad. How the score works
Peanut Butter Larabar nutrition facts: is it healthy?
It is one of the least processed bars on the shelf, but it is not a light snack. Here is one 48 g bar, from the label data in Open Food Facts:
| Calories | 220 |
|---|---|
| Protein | 6 g |
| Fiber | 4 g |
| Sugar | 16 g |
| Saturated fat | 2 g |
| Salt | 0.2 g |
The good part is the ingredient list. There are no protein isolates, syrups, sweeteners, gums or emulsifiers. The fiber, 4 g per bar, comes from the dates and peanuts themselves, and the fat comes from peanuts, with 2 g of saturated fat.
The weaker part is sugar and calories. Larabar's own label lists 17 g of total sugars and 0 g of added sugars per bar; the label data we use rounds to 16 g. Either way, that is a lot of sugar for a bar this size, and at 4.6 calories per gram it is a dense food. The protein is modest at 6 g, so it is not a protein bar.
What's in a Larabar
Larabar lists three ingredients for this bar. Each one does a clear job.
- Dates. the base of the bar. They give it its sweetness and chewy texture, and they are where all of the sugar comes from.
- Peanuts. roasted peanuts and peanut butter made from peanuts. They supply the fat, most of the protein and the peanut taste.
- Sea salt. a small amount, which is why the bar lands in NOVA group 3 instead of group 1.
Larabar labels the bar gluten free, vegan, dairy free, soy free and non-GMO.
Is a Larabar ultra-processed?
No. NOVA is the food-processing scale used in nutrition research. Group 1 covers whole and minimally processed foods, such as fruit that has been dried and nuts. Group 3, processed foods, covers products made by adding salt, sugar or oil to group 1 foods (Monteiro et al., 2019). Dates and peanuts with a little sea salt fit group 3. Open Food Facts also puts this bar in group 3.
Group 4, ultra-processed, is where most snack bars sit, because they are built from industrial ingredients such as protein isolates, syrups, sweeteners and emulsifiers. Large reviews of the research link diets high in ultra-processed food with higher risks of heart disease deaths and type 2 diabetes (Lane et al., BMJ, 2024). Those studies are observational and look at the whole diet, not at single foods. This bar is not in that group.
Why the Truvi score is only 44
The Truvi score (our method) blends three parts. Processing scores 56 out of 100: better than most bars, held back by NOVA group 3. Nutrition scores 48, which is Nutri-Score C on our calculation. Nutri-Score counts total sugar, so the sugar from dates counts the same as added sugar.
The lowest part is the overeating check at 30. About 49% of the calories come from fat and 29% from sugar. Researchers who built a numeric definition of hyper-palatable foods, foods that are easy to keep eating, used more than 20% of calories from fat together with more than 20% from sugar as one of their markers (Fazzino et al., 2019). This bar meets that marker, and it is calorie dense. Our method reads that as a food that is easy to eat a lot of, which pulls the total down to 44.
So the score is not saying the ingredients are bad. It says this is a sweet, dense snack: a better pick than a candy bar, but not one to eat several of a day.
Bars that score higher on our scale
These four bars score higher on the same scale, mainly because they have less sugar per gram. Three of them are NOVA 3 like the Larabar. The Kashi bar is ultra-processed (NOVA 4), so if you want to avoid ultra-processed food, look at the other three.
-
Over Easy Overeasy Banana Nut Breakfast Bar
Oats, almonds, honey, almond butter, tapioca fiber, dried bananas and egg whites. Per 52 g bar: 230 calories, 8 g protein, 7 g fiber and 10 g sugar. Some of that sugar is added, from honey.
68Good
-
Over Easy Banana Nut Breakfast Bars
The same recipe in a second listing. Per 52 g bar: 9 g protein, 7 g fiber and 9 g sugar.
63Good
-
Kashi Chewy Bars Chewy Peanut Butter Gran 7.4oz
A smaller 35 g bar with 139 calories and 6 g of sugar. It is ultra-processed: soy protein crisps, brown rice syrup, invert cane syrup, soy lecithin and xanthan gum.
51Good
-
Autumn's Gold Cinnamon Almond Grain Free Granola Bars
Almonds, pecans, coconut and pumpkin seeds, sweetened with maple syrup and honey. Per 35 g bar: 210 calories and 6 g sugar, but 4.5 g of saturated fat from coconut.
52Good
Full ingredient list and nutrition
Dates, peanut butter (peanuts, sea salt) roasted peanuts.
| Energy | 458 kcal |
|---|---|
| Fat | 25 g |
| of which saturated | 4.2 g |
| Carbohydrates | 50 g |
| of which sugars | 33.3 g |
| Fiber | 8.3 g |
| Protein | 12.5 g |
| Salt | 0.47 g |
Questions people ask
Are Larabars healthy?
They are one of the least processed bars you can buy: the Peanut Butter Cookie bar is dates, peanuts and sea salt, with no added sugar. They are also high in sugar from dates (16 g per 48 g bar) and calorie dense at 220 calories. Truvi scores it 44 out of 100, mostly because of the sugar and calorie density, not the ingredients.
What are the ingredients in a Peanut Butter Larabar?
Dates, peanuts and sea salt. The label data lists them as dates, peanut butter (peanuts, sea salt) and roasted peanuts.
How much protein is in a Larabar?
The Peanut Butter Cookie bar has 6 g of protein per 48 g bar, all from the peanuts. It is a fruit and nut bar, not a protein bar.
How many calories are in a Peanut Butter Larabar?
220 calories per 48 g bar, with 12 g of fat, 24 g of carbohydrates and 4 g of fiber in the label data we use.
Do Larabars have added sugar?
Not this one. Larabar's label lists 0 g of added sugars. All of the sugar, 16 g to 17 g per bar depending on the label source, comes from dates.
Is a Larabar ultra-processed?
No. It is NOVA group 3, processed food, because a little sea salt is added to whole foods (dates and peanuts). Ultra-processed bars, NOVA group 4, are built from ingredients like protein isolates, syrups and emulsifiers, and this bar has none of them.
How is the Truvi score calculated?
It combines how processed the food is (NOVA and additives) with its nutritional quality (Nutri-Score), and for some foods how easy it is to overeat. Each part is scored 0 to 100 and blended into one number. It is our opinion from the label, not a medical rating.
Sources
- Larabar. Peanut Butter Cookie: ingredients and nutrition facts.
- Monteiro CA et al. Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them. Public Health Nutrition, 2019.
- Lane MM et al. Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses. BMJ, 2024.
- Fazzino TL, Rohde K, Sullivan DK. Hyper-palatable foods: development of a quantitative definition and application to the US food system database. Obesity, 2019.
- Open Food Facts. Larabar Peanut Butter (label data, ODbL).
Label data: Open Food Facts, barcode 0021908423173. Score: Truvi score (truviScore v10), balanced setting.
Automated estimate from the product label, an opinion, not a statement of fact about the manufacturer. Ingredient and nutrition data from Open Food Facts (ODbL) may be incomplete or inaccurate. Based on published food-science systems (NOVA · Fazzino · Nutri-Score). Not medical advice.
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