Diabetes Talking

Question:

I saw a speciatly candy bar claiming to have ‘0 net effective carbs’.  When I read the back it claimed to have 18 grams of carbs – all of which were sugar alcohols.  I didn’t buy it.  What exactly does this mean? Please help.          -O

Response:

I saw a speciatly candy bar claiming to have ‘0 net effective carbs’.  When I read the back it claimed to have 18 grams of carbs – all of which were sugar alcohols.  I didn’t buy it.  What exactly does this mean? Please help.

This question has come up many times before. Please go to http://groups.google.com , go to advanced search, put this group’s name in the box for the newsgroup, and search on "sugar alcohols" You’ll get LOTS of info, without anyone needing to repeat themselves. (I don’t mean to be rude, but give a man a fish and you only feed him for one day.) Frank Lynch The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page is at: http://www.samueljohnson.com/

Response:

Got it, Frank.  Thanks.  It is just as I expected – death to the low carb WOL.         -O

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I saw a speciatly candy bar claiming to have ‘0 net effective carbs’. When I read the back it claimed to have 18 grams of carbs – all of which were sugar alcohols.  I didn’t buy it.  What exactly does this mean? Please help. This question has come up many times before. Please go to http://groups.google.com , go to advanced search, put this group’s name in the box for the newsgroup, and search on "sugar alcohols" You’ll get LOTS of info, without anyone needing to repeat themselves. (I don’t mean to be rude, but give a man a fish and you only feed him for one day.) Frank Lynch The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page is at: http://www.samueljohnson.com/

Response:

I saw a speciatly candy bar claiming to have ‘0 net effective carbs’.  When I read the back it claimed to have 18 grams of carbs – all of which were sugar alcohols.  I didn’t buy it.  What exactly does this mean? Please help.

It generally means that if I eat one, I fart like a steam whistle. Steam whistles like you see in old movies with those big locomotives and then brrrrrrrrrrp there it is. The whole town knows about it when it happens. Maybe it would be more like BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPP P P P PP. Eat wool, lift up, walk about, floss after meals

Response:

Got it, Frank.  Thanks.  It is just as I expected – death to the low carb WOL.        -O

Not sure what you mean… Even if you don’t want snacks w/ sugar alcohols, you can still do low carb without resorting to them. Frank Lynch The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page is at: http://www.samueljohnson.com/

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Got it, Frank.  Thanks.  It is just as I expected – death to the low carb WOL. -O Not sure what you mean… Even if you don’t want snacks w/ sugar alcohols, you can still do low carb without resorting to them. Frank Lynch The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page is at: http://www.samueljohnson.com/

I don’t feel at all deprived and I try never to eat sugar alcohols (though I am going to eat an Atkins bar tonight).  If you want to feel bad, eat a few carbrite candy bars or other maltitol products — you’ll feel a lot worse than deprived! — Bob M in CT

Response:

If you want to feel bad, eat a few carbrite candy bars or other maltitol products — you’ll feel a lot worse than deprived!

It’s this particular property that keeps me "honest" when eating maltitol products.  If I eat more than I should, I’ll spend most of the night and part of the next morning feeling pretty bad.   – awh

Response:

If you want to feel bad, eat a few carbrite candy bars or other maltitol products — you’ll feel a lot worse than deprived! It’s this particular property that keeps me "honest" when eating maltitol products.  If I eat more than I should, I’ll spend most of the night and part of the next morning feeling pretty bad. – awh

That’s true!  When I first got some chocolate bars with maltitol, I purchased two large ones and ate both of them.  That taught me!  Now, even a small carblite bar is too much for me. — Bob M in CT

Response:

I have tried the Atkins Endulge bars like the peanut butter cups that have 17g carbs and it claims to have only like 2.4 g net carbs. The sugar alcohols are what make the first number high and I eat maybe one a day or every other at least and I have no "gas" problems like that nor do I feel bad. I actually feel good because after a day or so, it may be smaller than but it tastes as good as a Reeses to me. It’s like I am cheating, but I am not. And I am still losing weight steadily. I treat myself with those or the nuggets that are available in various flavors. Have you ever thought that there are other things that you are eating that are affecting your stomach? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I saw a speciatly candy bar claiming to have ‘0 net effective carbs’. When I read the back it claimed to have 18 grams of carbs – all of which were sugar alcohols.  I didn’t buy it.  What exactly does this mean? Please help. It generally means that if I eat one, I fart like a steam whistle. Steam whistles like you see in old movies with those big locomotives and then brrrrrrrrrrp there it is. The whole town knows about it when it happens. Maybe it would be more like BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPP P P P PP. Eat wool, lift up, walk about, floss after meals

Response:

If you want to feel bad, eat a few carbrite candy bars or other maltitol products — you’ll feel a lot worse than deprived! It’s this particular property that keeps me "honest" when eating maltitol products.  If I eat more than I should, I’ll spend most of the night and part of the next morning feeling pretty bad.   – awh

Seems that treats sweetened with maltitol ( or malitol) seem to balance me out – their warning of a "laxative effect" is a welcome one, after the opposite syndrome that occurs with me, on a high-protein/low carb diet. Sugar alcohols, so far, do not affect my blood sugar at all, so I enjoy a treat a day, for sure. Friend of mine gets terrible stomach distress from anything containing sugar alcohols, poor thing. She did discover, though, that if she takes a Lactaid tablet before she eats a maltitol-sweetened food, she doesn’t experience the same problems. I have found the Hershey sugar-free products to be the least tasty of all, so I won’t buy them anymore. There are several pretty high-quality csugar-free chocolate products out there. Lee

Response:

Lee, The reason your friend doesn’t have trouble with maltitol when she takes a Lactaid tablet is because it supplies an enzyme that breaks down the maltitol–turning into sugar and defeating the whole purpose of substituting the sugar  alcohol. When the prescription drug that slows starch digestion for diabetics came out (Precose) a bunch of people discovered the same thing–that taking Lactaid with it cured the gastric side effects. This was exciting for a very short while until it was also discovered that the Lactaid effectively cancelled out the Precose as it undid the medication’s ability to slow the digestion of starches. — Jenny 168.5/137 Low Carb 9/1998 – 8/2001 and 11/10/02 – Now http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean How to calculate your need for protein * How much people really lose each month *  Water Weight Gain & Loss * The "Two Gram Cure" for Hunger Cravings * Characteristics of Successful Dieters * Indispensible Low Carb Treats * Should You Count that Low Impact Carb? * Curing Ketobreath * Exercise Starting from Zero *  NEW! Do Starch Blockers Work?

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – If you want to feel bad, eat a few carbrite candy bars or other maltitol products — you’ll feel a lot worse than deprived! It’s this particular property that keeps me "honest" when eating maltitol products.  If I eat more than I should, I’ll spend most of the night and part of the next morning feeling pretty bad.   – awh Seems that treats sweetened with maltitol ( or malitol) seem to balance me out – their warning of a "laxative effect" is a welcome one, after the opposite syndrome that occurs with me, on a high-protein/low carb diet. Sugar alcohols, so far, do not affect my blood sugar at all, so I enjoy a treat a day, for sure. Friend of mine gets terrible stomach distress from anything containing sugar alcohols, poor thing. She did discover, though, that if she takes a Lactaid tablet before she eats a maltitol-sweetened food, she doesn’t experience the same problems. I have found the Hershey sugar-free products to be the least tasty of all, so I won’t buy them anymore. There are several pretty high-quality csugar-free chocolate products out there. Lee

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Lee, The reason your friend doesn’t have trouble with maltitol when she takes a Lactaid tablet is because it supplies an enzyme that breaks down the maltitol–turning into sugar and defeating the whole purpose of substituting the sugar  alcohol. When the prescription drug that slows starch digestion for diabetics came out (Precose) a bunch of people discovered the same thing–that taking Lactaid with it cured the gastric side effects. This was exciting for a very short while until it was also discovered that the Lactaid effectively cancelled out the Precose as it undid the medication’s ability to slow the digestion of starches. — Jenny 168.5/137 Low Carb 9/1998 – 8/2001 and 11/10/02 – Now

Basically, I’ve come to the conclusion that you might as well just eat good chocolate. Why fill yourself with things like maltitol and lactitol when you can have the real thing?  The only trick is to ensure that you’re not going to go wacko and eat an entire 8 ounce bar. — Bob M in CT

Response:

does anyone else have good results with using LACTAID before ingesting sugar alcohols?

The whole point of eating things with sugar alcohols is that the body will digest them poorly, thus avoiding a blood sugar spike.  If you take a product designed to make your body digest them well, you lose the benefit you were looking for.  You might just as well be eating pure sugar/chocolate/whatever in the first place.  

Response:

I think what I’ll do is use up some of the S-B baker’s chocolate I have.  I little of that and some splenda, maybe over nuts, might not be bad.

Have you tried making "Lynne’s Chocolate"?  The recipe has been posted in this NG lots of times: 1 oz unsweetened chocolate (the bar kind) 2 tbsp unsalted butter 1 tbsp cream 1 tsp vanilla extract 8 packets equal or splenda optional: 1 oz crushed nuts (macadamias are nice) Melt chocolate and butter, carefully. Remove from heat, Stir in cream and vanilla, Stir in sweetener, Fold in nuts Pour into tin-foil-lined something or other. Chill Variations on a theme: double the cream and the sweetner or, add 2 tablespoons of peanut butter or, pour into mini-muffin tins, then add 1/4 teaspoon PB to each candy. or, add 1 teaspoon peppermint extract. or, add ANY flavored extract (rasperry? cherry?) or, add twice the amount of mixed nuts w/o crushing for nut clusters (when I made this, for "tin-foiled-lined something or other", I used a butter dish.  It was just the right size.) Em

Response:

I think what I’ll do is use up some of the S-B baker’s chocolate I have. I little of that and some splenda, maybe over nuts, might not be bad. Have you tried making "Lynne’s Chocolate"?  [recipe cut]

No, but I will this weekend.  I have several large bars of S-B chocolate that I bought before concentrating on low carb.  Periodically, I’ll eat a bit of chocolate, but it’s unsweetened and a bit too much for me. — Bob M in CT

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Bob, I’m with you on the good chocolate. One interesting recent anedotal personal finding. I’ve been in extremely good control with the expensive high cocoa chocolates for many months. I’d eat one or two servings at night and that was all. However, after adding a couple of legal high fiber low carb items to my diet for about ten days, I suddenly got chocolate cravings that for the first time ended up with my going out of control with the chocolate stash. The desire to eat chocolate was utterly overwhelming! I’m not sure why this happened, but it was pretty scary.  OTOH, since I’m very familiar with how my body responds to various foods, I recognised the out of control chocolate cravings as a sign that something was out of whack elsewhere in my diet and eliminated all the legal "low carb" foods for the week. That included the Hi Lo cereal, Arnold Carb Counter bread (I’d only had one slice) and the Carb Smart ice cream (one serving a day.) The chocolate cravings disappeared after two days, thank goodness.  – Jenny 168.5/137 Low Carb 9/1998 – 8/2001 and 11/10/02 – Now My only problem with chocolate is getting it in small doses.  I’ve been thinking of getting some Scharffen Berger chocolate (I have unsweetened stuff, but this is too harsh for me, although I’m thinking of making some low carb recipes with it), but the local retailer was out and you have to order something like $70 of chocolate from S-B’s website. That’s a bit too much chocolate for me to have hanging out in my house.  What I need is a local low carb store that has S-F chocolate, so that I can go buy one small 2 ounce bar. — Bob M in CT My offer to mail you one stands….

Thanks!  I think what I’ll do is use up some of the S-B baker’s chocolate I have.  I little of that and some splenda, maybe over nuts, might not be bad. — Bob M in CT

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Bob, I’m with you on the good chocolate. One interesting recent anedotal personal finding. I’ve been in extremely good control with the expensive high cocoa chocolates for many months. I’d eat one or two servings at night and that was all. However, after adding a couple of legal high fiber low carb items to my diet for about ten days, I suddenly got chocolate cravings that for the first time ended up with my going out of control with the chocolate stash. The desire to eat chocolate was utterly overwhelming! I’m not sure why this happened, but it was pretty scary.  OTOH, since I’m very familiar with how my body responds to various foods, I recognised the out of control chocolate cravings as a sign that something was out of whack elsewhere in my diet and eliminated all the legal "low carb" foods for the week. That included the Hi Lo cereal, Arnold Carb Counter bread (I’d only had one slice) and the Carb Smart ice cream (one serving a day.) The chocolate cravings disappeared after two days, thank goodness.  – Jenny 168.5/137 Low Carb 9/1998 – 8/2001 and 11/10/02 – Now My only problem with chocolate is getting it in small doses.  I’ve been thinking of getting some Scharffen Berger chocolate (I have unsweetened stuff, but this is too harsh for me, although I’m thinking of making some low carb recipes with it), but the local retailer was out and you have to order something like $70 of chocolate from S-B’s website. That’s a bit too much chocolate for me to have hanging out in my house.  What I need is a local low carb store that has S-F chocolate, so that I can go buy one small 2 ounce bar. — Bob M in CT

My offer to mail you one stands…. — Jean B.

Response:

does anyone else have good results with using LACTAID before ingesting sugar alcohols? — read and post daily, it works! rosie http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20031011/frontpage/121390.shtml

Response:

Bob, If there’s a Trader Joe’s near you, check out their Terra Nostra 73% chocolate. Ambrosial and $1.59 per bar if I remember correctly. .  The Lindt 70% is excellent too and they carry it at Brooks drug stores. — Jenny 168.5/137

Thanks, Jenny.  Both of them are near me (Brooks is very close — I can walk from work to there in a few minutes).  I’ll have to check them out. — Bob M in CT

Response:

Bob, If there’s a Trader Joe’s near you, check out their Terra Nostra 73% chocolate. Ambrosial and $1.59 per bar if I remember correctly. .  The Lindt 70% is excellent too and they carry it at Brooks drug stores. — Jenny 168.5/137 Low Carb 9/1998 – 8/2001 and 11/10/02 – Now http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean How to calculate your need for protein * How much people really lose each month *  Water Weight Gain & Loss * The "Two Gram Cure" for Hunger Cravings * Characteristics of Successful Dieters * Indispensible Low Carb Treats * Should You Count that Low Impact Carb? * Curing Ketobreath * Exercise Starting from Zero *  NEW! Do Starch Blockers Work?

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – My only problem with chocolate is getting it in small doses.  I’ve been thinking of getting some Scharffen Berger chocolate (I have unsweetened stuff, but this is too harsh for me, although I’m thinking of making some low carb recipes with it), but the local retailer was out and you have to order something like $70 of chocolate from S-B’s website. That’s a bit too much chocolate for me to have hanging out in my house.  What I need is a local low carb store that has S-F chocolate, so that I can go buy one small 2 ounce bar. Bob-is there a Whole Foods near you?  (Their store locator says the only one in CT is in Greenwich.)  The one near me has a pretty wide selection of good-quality chocolate, including many S-B varieties. Em Thanks for the info.  I didn’t try there, I tried a store in New Haven. The store supposedly carries S-B chocolates but was out.  I’ll try Whole Foods sometime (Greenwich is a bit hard, as it’s impossible to get to in the morning, and then you really don’t want to go there in the evening, as it’s impossible to get out of Greenwich).  The only reason I went to the New Haven store was to go to Pepe’s Pizza with my friend and his two girls. — Bob M in CT

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – My only problem with chocolate is getting it in small doses.  I’ve been thinking of getting some Scharffen Berger chocolate (I have unsweetened stuff, but this is too harsh for me, although I’m thinking of making some low carb recipes with it), but the local retailer was out and you have to order something like $70 of chocolate from S-B’s website. That’s a bit too much chocolate for me to have hanging out in my house.  What I need is a local low carb store that has S-F chocolate, so that I can go buy one small 2 ounce bar. Bob-is there a Whole Foods near you?  (Their store locator says the only one in CT is in Greenwich.)  The one near me has a pretty wide selection of good-quality chocolate, including many S-B varieties. Em

Thanks for the info.  I didn’t try there, I tried a store in New Haven.   The store supposedly carries S-B chocolates but was out.  I’ll try Whole Foods sometime (Greenwich is a bit hard, as it’s impossible to get to in the morning, and then you really don’t want to go there in the evening, as it’s impossible to get out of Greenwich).  The only reason I went to the New Haven store was to go to Pepe’s Pizza with my friend and his two girls. — Bob M in CT

Response:

My only problem with chocolate is getting it in small doses.  I’ve been thinking of getting some Scharffen Berger chocolate (I have unsweetened stuff, but this is too harsh for me, although I’m thinking of making some low carb recipes with it), but the local retailer was out and you have to order something like $70 of chocolate from S-B’s website. That’s a bit too much chocolate for me to have hanging out in my house.  What I need is a local low carb store that has S-F chocolate, so that I can go buy one small 2 ounce bar.

Bob- is there a Whole Foods near you?  (Their store locator says the only one in CT is in Greenwich.)  The one near me has a pretty wide selection of good-quality chocolate, including many S-B varieties. Em

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Bob, I’m with you on the good chocolate. One interesting recent anedotal personal finding. I’ve been in extremely good control with the expensive high cocoa chocolates for many months. I’d eat one or two servings at night and that was all. However, after adding a couple of legal high fiber low carb items to my diet for about ten days, I suddenly got chocolate cravings that for the first time ended up with my going out of control with the chocolate stash. The desire to eat chocolate was utterly overwhelming! I’m not sure why this happened, but it was pretty scary.  OTOH, since I’m very familiar with how my body responds to various foods, I recognised the out of control chocolate cravings as a sign that something was out of whack elsewhere in my diet and eliminated all the legal "low carb" foods for the week. That included the Hi Lo cereal, Arnold Carb Counter bread (I’d only had one slice) and the Carb Smart ice cream (one serving a day.) The chocolate cravings disappeared after two days, thank goodness.  – Jenny 168.5/137 Low Carb 9/1998 – 8/2001 and 11/10/02 – Now

My only problem with chocolate is getting it in small doses.  I’ve been thinking of getting some Scharffen Berger chocolate (I have unsweetened stuff, but this is too harsh for me, although I’m thinking of making some low carb recipes with it), but the local retailer was out and you have to order something like $70 of chocolate from S-B’s website. That’s a bit too much chocolate for me to have hanging out in my house.  What I need is a local low carb store that has S-F chocolate, so that I can go buy one small 2 ounce bar. — Bob M in CT

Response:

Lee, The reason your friend doesn’t have trouble with maltitol when she takes a Lactaid tablet is because it supplies an enzyme that breaks down the maltitol–turning into sugar and defeating the whole purpose of substituting the sugar  alcohol.

Thanks for the info, Jenny…I’ll let her know!!! Lee

Response:

Bob, I’m with you on the good chocolate. One interesting recent anedotal personal finding. I’ve been in extremely good control with the expensive high cocoa chocolates for many months. I’d eat one or two servings at night and that was all. However, after adding a couple of legal high fiber low carb items to my diet for about ten days, I suddenly got chocolate cravings that for the first time ended up with my going out of control with the chocolate stash. The desire to eat chocolate was utterly overwhelming! I’m not sure why this happened, but it was pretty scary.  OTOH, since I’m very familiar with how my body responds to various foods, I recognised the out of control chocolate cravings as a sign that something was out of whack elsewhere in my diet and eliminated all the legal "low carb" foods for the week. That included the Hi Lo cereal, Arnold Carb Counter bread (I’d only had one slice) and the Carb Smart ice cream (one serving a day.) The chocolate cravings disappeared after two days, thank goodness.  – Jenny 168.5/137 Low Carb 9/1998 – 8/2001 and 11/10/02 – Now http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean How to calculate your need for protein * How much people really lose each month *  Water Weight Gain & Loss * The "Two Gram Cure" for Hunger Cravings * Characteristics of Successful Dieters * Indispensible Low Carb Treats * Should You Count that Low Impact Carb? * Curing Ketobreath * Exercise Starting from Zero *  NEW! Do Starch Blockers Work?

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Lee, The reason your friend doesn’t have trouble with maltitol when she takes a Lactaid tablet is because it supplies an enzyme that breaks down the maltitol–turning into sugar and defeating the whole purpose of substituting the sugar  alcohol. When the prescription drug that slows starch digestion for diabetics came out (Precose) a bunch of people discovered the same thing–that taking Lactaid with it cured the gastric side effects. This was exciting for a very short while until it was also discovered that the Lactaid effectively cancelled out the Precose as it undid the medication’s ability to slow the digestion of starches. — Jenny 168.5/137 Low Carb 9/1998 – 8/2001 and 11/10/02 – Now Basically, I’ve come to the conclusion that you might as well just eat good chocolate. Why fill yourself with things like maltitol and lactitol when you can have the real thing?  The only trick is to ensure that you’re not going to go wacko and eat an entire 8 ounce bar. — Bob M in CT

Response: