March 08, 2004
Nutritionists ask: just how healthy is an Atkins bar?
By Peta Bee
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/articl...1030461,00.html
A RANGE of foods developed by the company behind the Atkins diet are labelled misleadingly, nutritionists claim.
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.
Collette Heimowitz, vice- president of education and research at Atkins in the US, defended the labelling of the products. “Not enough was known about sugar alcohols in 1998,” she said.
Nutritional content of an Atkins Advantage Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch Bar (per 100g)
Energy (calories) 1637kJ, 392kcal
Protein 32.2g
Carbohydrates 28.9g (of which sugars 1.9g, polyols 25.2g, maltitol 8.7g, glycerine 16.5g)
Fat 20.2g (of which saturates 9g, fibre 8.3g, sodium 0.2g)
Nutritional content of a Mars Bar (per 100g)
Energy (cals) 1885kJ, 449kcal
Protein 4.2g
Carbohydrates 69.0g
Fat 17.4g
"Nutritionists ask: just how healthy is an Atkins bar?"
That was my thought exactly! 
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