Can someone please give me some information on carob? My roommate bought me a bag of carob chips to snack on as he said they're a good alternative for chocolate. I've been trying to find out whether carob is compatible with Atkins (Induction or OWL). From the web I've seen stuff saying that because it has the same calories and amount of fat as chocolate it's not actually healthier. However, I obviously don't care about the fat content (the more the better!). The carb content is lower and carob has fiber in it. Therefore IMHO better than chocolate. Plus the sugars are natural not refined and added in.

Anyway, any info would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I'm not wolfing them down. I weighed out 50g and counted them at 200 chips. I snack on around 20 at a time meaning I actually consume around 2g Atkins carbs. I probably have one serving a week or so - so it is a real treat not something I am doing too much.

They're listed on fitday.com. Carob is just not chocolate, but they still contain all the sugar you would get in chocolate. A cup of the chips has 97+ grams of carbs.

Don't know how much you may have already eaten, but I hope not much.

As far as I know, the only real difference (apart from taste) is that carob has no caffeine, while choclate does.

Since the carob you're eating is in chip form, it's probably safe to assume that it contains sugar. Is there a nutrtional panel on the bag?

There's nothing wrong with eating either chocolate or carob as long as it contains no sugar.

Here is the comparison between carob flour and cocoa:

100 grams Carob Flour
Total Carbohydrates 88.88 g
Dietary Fiber 39.80 g
Total Protein 4.62 g
Total Calories 222.00
Total Fat 0.65 g

100 grams Cocoa
Total Carbohydrates 54.30 g
Dietary Fiber 33.20 g
Total Protein 19.60 g
Total Calories 229.00
Total Fat 13.70 g

Karen

Carob is naturally sweet without adding sugar. It's a naturally high-carb food - like beets or carrots.

You're probably not doing yourself any favors snacking on them during induction or OWL.