I am really confusing myself here....(BIG SHOCK )

Is Malitol and Maltodextrin the same thing??

Is Sucralose bad for you??


I really am wanting to know if these will cause a stall???


Thanks so much, Christi

Splenda (which we can have) list ingredients Dextrose, Maltodextrin and sucralose. I'm sure they aren't the same things but they are all in an acceptable atkins item.

sorry, not sure abotu the malitol and maltodextrin????? I doubt they are the same though.

Thanks so much, Christi

Sucralose is an artificial sweetener which is derived from sugar, but which the body cannot process. It is the sweetening ingredient in Splenda, and is used in the manufacture of many sugar-free and low-carb products. In its natural liquid form, it is carb-free, but when it's packaged either in packets or in bulk form, dextrose and maltodextrin are added to it to bulk it up and make it pour measure like sugar. Thus, bulk and packet Splenda have some carbs -- <1g per packet, or 24g/cup for the bulk stuff (0.5g/tsp). Liquid Splenda is carb-free, but is currently only available for commercial usage (DaVinci has started making an unflavored syrup that is basically liquid Splenda). Basically, it's like Equal and Sweet n' Low, but without the nasty and possibly dangerous aspartame and saccharin. Sucralose/Splenda is by far the best sweetener to use on a low-carb diet.

Dextrose is a sugar and maltodextrin is a starch; both are full-fledged carbohydrates, and cannot be deducted or ignored in your carb intake. If a product lists either of these on the ingredients list, it will have at least a trace of carbs even if the label rounds down to 0.

Maltitol is a sugar alcohol, which is technically classified as a carbohydrate but is not fully digestible as such. Sugar alcohols are commonly used to sweeten and provide texture to low-carb and sugar-free products such as candies and nutrition bars, since they behave a bit more like sugars during the cooking process. Theoretically, you cannot digest sugar alcohols, so you can subtract them from the carb count -- if a SF candy bar has 20g of carbs, but all 20 of those come from maltitol or another sugar alcohol, the "net" or "impact" carbs is zero. In reality, people find quite often that sugar alcohols have at least some impact on blood-sugar levels and must be counted at least partially. Heavy consumption of sugar alcohols is a very common cause of weight loss stalls. Because sugar alcohols are indigestible, they are also notorious for causing tummy troubles; speaking from personal experience, you will only pig out on SF chocolates once!

Hope this clears things up.

That cleared everything up! Thanks so much for the great information!!

Christi