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Sugar Alcohol Article

Quote:

Nutritionists question claims made in labels on Atkins bar

A range of foods developed by the company behind the Atkins diet is labelled misleadingly, nutritionists claim.

10/03/2004 The foods, which include chocolate bars, milkshakes and cakes, are marketed to people on the controversial diet and are now sold at Boots, Asda, Tesco and healthfood shops around the country.

Experts believe that claims made in the labelling of the products could mislead consumers over the carbohydrate content. Analysis of the products found they have a higher carbohydrate content than prominent labelling suggested.

A 60g Atkins Advantage Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch Bar contains almost as many calories as a 65g Mars Bar and more than a regular bar of chocolate-covered marzipan.

Under European Union labelling laws, manufacturers are legally required to list the total number of carbohydrates on the packet. But makers of low-carb foods often include an additional label that has information on the “net carb” value of the food.

Displayed on the front and reverse of the Atkins Advantage Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch Bar is the claim that the bar contains “2g net carbs”.

The label adds: “For those controlling their carbohydrates, count only 2g of the 17.4g of carbohydrates in this product. Subtract polyols, maltitol (5.2g) and glycerine (10g), which have a minimal impact on blood sugar. Net carbs are the only carbs you need to count when doing Atkins.”

The net carb figure is reached by subtracting polyols or sugar alcohols, including maltitol and glycerine, intense sweeteners which are ingredients in most of the Atkins products. Because they contain fewer calories — maltitol has 2.1 calories per gram compared with 4 calories per gram in table sugar — than regular carbohydrates they are digested more slowly by the body and have less impact on blood glucose levels . This, according to Dr Atkins’s theory, is helpful in weight loss.

But Richard Faulks, a senior researcher at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, said that many sugar alcohols, including maltitol and glycerine, are metabolised for energy like regular carbohydrate and therefore trigger an insulin response, a fact the Atkins manufacturers appear to have overlooked and which casts doubt on the real meaning of the “net carbs” figure.

“Their theory is that sugar alcohols don’t raise blood sugar as quickly or as high as regular carbohydrates,” he said. “They are ignoring the fact that they do have some effect.”

Curiously, even Dr Atkins himself was once opposed to the use of sugar alcohols for people converting to his low-carb approach. The 1998 edition of the New Diet Revolution states: “Sweeteners such as sorbitol, mannitol and other hexitols or sugar alcohols are not allowed, nor are any sweeteners ending in the letters -ose, such as maltose fructose etc.”

By 2002, this statement had been eliminated and replaced by the recommendation that “some controlled-carb food products can come in handy” and “more and more companies are creating healthy products that can be eaten during the Induction phase of Atkins”. These included the diet’s spin-off company, Atkins Nutritional.

http://www.foodingredientsfirst.com...287&fSite=AO545

Well.......I, personally, DO have a problem with not counting the sugar alcohols. I am very sensitive and immediately stop loosing if I use them. (I actually haven't used them since my LF days, but also because of their "side effects")

One point that is missing here, is that not only does Dr A say

Quote:

“some controlled-carb food products can come in handy” and “more and more companies are creating healthy products that can be eaten during the Induction phase of Atkins”

He also cautions about using them, and notes that some are more sensitive than others, they can cause a stall, etc.

I'd like to see more things sweetened with Stevia and Splenda. I really can't find many.....is it because they're not stable? Or not approved for that use? Or are they out there and I'm looking in the wrong places? (I know soda is out there, but I can't drink it because of the carbination).

I'd love to grab a candy bar once in a while.....but the last time I tried 2/3 of ONE pnb cup kept me running to the bathroom all night! I gave the rest of it and the second one to my son, who had NO effect at all!

Stevia is not allowed to be used in this country as a food additive or sweetener, only as a "dietary supplement". The government claims that this is because it hasn't been "proven" safe even though it has been used for over 20 years in countries like Japan as a sweetener with no ill effects. The reality is that no major chemical corporation is paying for studies to "prove" it's safety, and major chemical compaines like Monsanto (which markets aspartame) lobby to have it banned. Sucralose is allowed to be used in all kinds of foods, it's just the latecomer to the artificial sweetener party and it is expensive to reformulate a product.

What puzzles me about the whole sugar alcohol debate is why more of the low carb companies don't use Erythritol more. It truly has virtually no effect on blood sugar, since almost none of it is metabolized. It has only 0.2 calories per gram - 95% of it is excreted unchanged, and you don't get the digestive problems the other sugar alcohols can cause (gas). Plus it is very similar to sugar in it's physical properties - it carmelizes when heated, etc. I use with it and stevia as a sugar substitute all the time.

Where do you find out info on how different sugar alcohols are metabolized?

I seem to have no blood sugar response while eating them but they still knock me out of ketosis.

I also think that the reason sugar alcohols are used more than splenda is due to bulking and texture reasons not sweetness. Also trying to create a full mouth feel. A lot of times Artificial sweetners work better combined.

Erythritol isn't used much in products simply because of it's high price. But it is a great product. Maltitol is sweeter and cheaper, but stalls me out every time I ingest it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CindySue48

(I know soda is out there, but I can't drink it because of the carbination).

minor threadjack ahead

I have been buying the new Arizona No-Carb Green Tea drinks at Costco.

sweetened with Splenda and NO Carbs or Carbonation!

they are REALLY GOOD too, I really miss the taste of fruit juice - and these have become a daily staple for me.

the arizonabev.com website is featuring these and also promoting the Atkins For Life kit

Quote:

Originally Posted by owen93

minor threadjack ahead

I have been buying the new Arizona No-Carb Green Tea drinks at Costco.

sweetened with Splenda and NO Carbs or Carbonation!

What's funny is their original Diet Arizona Iced Tea has been sweetened with Splenda® for a while now, but is near impossible for me to find (and trust me, I'm always looking for drinks sweetened with Splenda®).

Why sugar alcohols cause a stall.... Net Carbs...

Here's what I've learned from personal experience as well as reading from DANDR:

Carbs are used in nutritional jargon for all sorts of things, not all of them caloric, digestible, or with the same effects on insulin. When the nutrition breakdown of foods is done, fat and protein analysis counts exactly fat and protein. Whatever else is left in the food is termed "carbohydrate" but as I mentioned not all of the "carbohydrates" are truly nutritional or have the same composition. Maybe that helps to explain why there is such a confusion about carbohydrates.

A basic safe rule of thumb for net carbs for a low carb dieter who is trying to lose weight is total carbs minus fiber. Fiber doesn't have any effect on insulin, nor is it caloric. It just passes through your system. So if you are doing low carb (Atkins induction, for example, is 20 grams), you subtract the fiber to see where you are. Now I know that there is soluble and non-digestible fiber, but in my experience that is a negligible distinction and won't affect a stall.

The more controversial net carbs pertains to subtracting non-nutritive but caloric sweetners like sugar alcohols (maltitol--which can make you gassy), glycerine, and other caloric sweetners, and alcohol itself that do not have a rapid rise effect on blood glucose and thus do not cause the same insuln spike (and subsequent fat building) that a standard carbohydrate would. They do have calories, however.

If you are doing a low carb plan like Atkins to lose weight, your body is supposed to switch from primarily burning glucose, to burning ketones instead, and ketones are the byproduct of burning fat cells. So if you are in ketosis (not to be confused with ketoacidosis), you are efficiently burning fat for fuel. By keeping net carbohydrates at a minimum, you keep in ketosis and burn your fat stores. Glucose + insulin is the building block of your fat cells. So a person who eats more carbohydrates than are burned from activity is having the glucose + insulin fat building taking place in the background. Whenever there is an insulin spike and blood sugar goes down, this stimulates hunger/cravings/appetite. So the reason you are hungry an hour after eating a plate of fried rice is that the carbs were metabolized with an insulin spike but there was not enough protein and fat to sustain an even blood glucose level, and when the blood glucose goes radically down to compensate for the high rise from the rise, you get hungry. White Rice is a high glycemic carbohydrate.

Now the problem with net carbs that subtract sugar alcohols, or alcohol, etc., is that as a rule your body will always burn available nutritive carbohydrates first before burning fat. So, if you are eating a chocolate bar that has 20 grams of maltitol in it, although you probably won't gain any extra weight from it because your insulin/glucose spike didn't occur (which may be appropriate for weight maintenance), you will still have to burn off the malititol before burning off the ketones. Thus you get knocked out of or slowed in ketosis.

So if you are in Induction or OWL, I would suggest that to help keep you to the plan that you don't subtract the sugar alcohols for your net carbs and you will get a more accurate picture of your metabolism. I think Dr. Atkins original premise was correct when it comes to stimulating weight loss.

My mother was eating 3 lc chocolate bars a day and wondering why she was stalled out of weight loss... well 3 lc chocolate bars probably have 60 grams of sugar alcohols. That's going to knock her out of ketosis for sure. Add that to her other 20-odd net carbs and she is consuming 80 grams of carbohydrates. Without sufficient additional exercise, she can maintain with that load, which she did, but is likely not to lose weight--plus she has added empty non-nutritive calories to her diet.

I also think that getting knocked out of ketosis by sugar alcohols (since appetite is suppressed by ketosis) also causes your appetite to surge since you are back on a carbohydrate-fueled system and stimulates the sweet cravings to seriously kick in.