that really helped and I will do as you suggest. I have read Dr. Atkins book a couple of times but do not recall the info about sugar alcohols and from what I remember, his book had said that aspartime was ok. I had tried this diet before and lost 30 pounds but got lazy and so tired of eating meat and eggs. But that was about 5 or so years ago and there wasn't as much info and choices for the diet back then.