Like X said I would turn to them as a last resort, but when I buy them I don't even care about taste anymore as I am more concerned with the macronutrient breakdown. In general, the better tasting they are the worse they are for you... kind of like a glorified candy bar.

Good advice is to look at what the first few ingredients are on the labels..for alot of the bars, such as Met-Rx Big 100 bars, Corn Syrup is actually number one or two on the ingredients list! Not exactly the kind of carbs I want to be consuming in the middle of the day.

So just look at the ingredients and use that in combination with what your goals are to see if a bar is really going to benefit you or hurt you.