I'm delighted the candy-producing industry is being shaken up from just business-as-usual table sugar type sweeteners.

However, merely offering a side-line consisting of the current compromised crop of sugar alcohols is a heck of a long way from a real solution, as testified by the indigestion suffered by myself and too many others, even to the point of downright stopping our weight loss progress.

Recently, I was encouraged in seeing Hershey foods, the giant of giants getting into the table sugar substitution act (but let's get real: none of these "Sugar Free" candies by any manufacturer are truly sugar-free, but merely free of common table sugar - just about any other sugar variety is still given a green light, yet allowable by law to misleadingly claim it's "Sugar Free" and implying a misleading all's well signal).
Back to Hershey's. When I thought of their potentially high research dollars available in devising the Next Big Thing for table sugar substitutes... for a while, we suffered through Lactitol's initial use (which has been mostly phased out for candy bars the past couple of years) and then progressed to a partially easier on the digestion Maltitol - yet far from being a good solution, what might be next? For those who haven't yet read the bad news, Hershey has regressed to injecting the retro sugar alcohol Lactitol, and even added what my eyes identify as a hydrogenated oil (translation: trans-fatty
acid) in the let's-get-excited-about-it-being-sugar-free peanut butter cups. You call that progress? It's not even keeping up with the state of the art! Still, I wondered if somehow their "mix" of it might be a superior blend or otherwise superior. My digestion and dietary progress paid the price one weekend for my giving them the benefit of the doubt - it doesn't matter if it tasted decent. A few quick moments of sugar alcohol chocolate bliss isn't worth the rest of the day in cramps, indigestion and ketosis-blowing aftereffects - especially when we surely can do better (and no, I didn't scarf down a whole bag).

Don't get me wrong: While we've got to get past shoving so many Oreo's and Hershey bars (both table or alcohol sugar varieties) down our kid's and our own throats, these "version 1" attempts are hopefully merely the first stumbling steps along a long path.
But heralding these initial problem-ridden steps as "sugar-free" is tempting the less-informed public into a potential complacency that the solution's been found and all's well? With carcinogen-causing trans-fatty acids in Hershey's Brave New "Sugar Free" Peanut Butter cups, combined with the problem-ridden aftereffects of Lactitol, all's most certainly not well - yet. And that "yet" can be quickened or lengthened by public ignorance/apathy or pressure to do better. It's up to us.

Kent, I've read a lot of your posts and respect them a great deal and would like your reaction on this too... thanks.