Hi all,

How is everyone doing today? I've been away for a bit but managed to stay legal and have lost 3 lbs. My question/problem/comment is about sugar alcohols. I've just received some delicious sugar alcohol sweetened chocolate fudge mettaways and peppermint patties from Sinfully Sweet/Diabetic Heaven.

I have probably eaten way too much of both already having had 2 servings of the patties and 1 serving of the mettaways. (My excuse is the cold I'm coming down with has me feeling miserable and I need some kind of comfort food).

I've been trying to enter the chocolates in Fitday as new custom food but the figures don't add up. Can someone tell me how they've been doing this?

Thanks.

Nicckkii

Oh, I forgot to mention too, that I'm wooried about the effect these alcohols may have on my diet despite reassurance from the Atkinscenter and othe Low Carb food producers that we need only count effective carbs and that sugar alcohols have very little impact on blood sugar.

Anyone with information please jump in now.

Nicky

Glad to see you are making progress with the weight loss.

In fitday, I log the net carbs and then just adjust the calorie count if need be.

I would go slowly with eating them until you know how they affect you. I seem to do ok with the ones that don't have chocolate in them. But, I'm a reformed chocoholic, so I have to watch the chocolate.

OMG! Who knew these things would be such an effective purgative. I've been going all afternoon. I guess I'll stick to one serving of only one type tomorrow and see how that goes.

Thanks for replying diemde. I hope this going results in a woosh but I'm noticing that my asnkles are a bit swollen tonight. I wonder if it's the flu or the chocolate? Oh well I'll see how it goes in the morning.

Nicckkii

Some people find that they are affected by the total carb count in these products, not the ECC. Check out this web site for some interesting info about the subject:
http://www.countcarbs.com/advice/To...ot_to_Count.htm

I found that I have to go slow with these little wonders too. Hee hee.
I love the Reese's Sugarfree peanut butter cups.
Watch out if you start getting cravings. I think they were a culprit for some I had a while back.
Tanya

Very informative article LC thanks.
TG: I did notice that I felt a stronger pull towards the bread in my kitchen last night than what I normally have.

So now I have 2 voices in my head:

Voice 1: I'm going to have to stop eating these things, aside from the laxative effect they might also ruin my diet and stall my weight loss efforts.

Voice 2: Go ahead eat them they're ok and they don't really have carbs in them. Plus some people eat them and still lose weight. Yuuuummmm they taste so good.

Hmmm, I wonder which voice I'm going to listen to. I know I'm going to finish what I already have in hand so for me the question really is do I reorder or not.

I'll keep you guys posted. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could eat all the sugar alcohols we wanted to and still lose weight?

Nicckki

My advise on Sugar-Free chocolate (sugar alcohols) is to do it in moderation. I always use it as a last resort... if I get a craving for something sweet, I use it... however, I do not use it as a snack all the time. And, I never keep it handy, cause then I'll go overboard.

Later!

I'm sorry to be a party pooper, but I don't eat any of those. I stalled for a long time and even gained a little by having low carb bars every day. I have to avoid anything like that if I want to continue to lose weight. My body does not seem to know the diff between alcohols, carbs, total carbs, blah, blah, blah.

My appetite is under better control if I avoid anything in the shape of candy no matter how I rationalize or how much the label tells me it's OK.

I am so greatful I read the information in these post. I have been stalling now for a coup;e of weeks and now I know what the cause is. I have been keeping a jar of low carb sweets handy "just in case" well out they go. Now maybe I can get moving again.

I dont think my body understands the difference either but they dont have a laxative effect on me no matter how many I eat.....but Atkins products liek the bars...DO.....lol funny! Russell Stover must use something different.

Sugar alcohols are what I call the mythical magical non counting counting carbs. I consider them the methadon of the low carb carb addict. Don't get addicted to them. Avoid them at all costs.
There are several problems with the carbs that don't count. One is everybody forgets about the cals in the product. If you read Dr Atkins answer in the DANDR 3rd edition Induction chapter 11 to the question about calories in the FAQ section you will see he clearly states in scientific terms that calories do matter and if you eat more then you burn up you will gain weight. So you have folks eating 2 Atkins bars a day as snacks because they had the extra room in their carb counts for the day and only 4 total carbs counted so they think they are okay and ignore the 400+ cals they added too. Then their weight loss stalls or slows to a crawl and they don't know why it doesn't work for them.



The bowel moving they cause actually has to be documented by the company making the SA with the GRAS FDA papers and it varies for each of them. The old Atkins bars had one that only needed 20 grams to move the average human. The new bar recipe uses one with a much higher number, 100 grams. SAs also occur naturally in some foods so it is the total amount of it in your intestines that has to be reckoned with and why some days 2 pieces does or doesn't move you.

Nicckkii, Even if you do decide to eat the SA foods remember Dr Atkins tells you in your DANDR that desserts and sweets are to be occasional treats not everyday events.

Happy low carbing to you.

Atkins4MyW said it well!!

I know for me eating sugar free treats sets off my cravings for more and have caused more stalls than I can tell you. I was replacing once vice with another and to me at the time the point was to get rid of the compulsion to eat garbage foods.
I did Atkins for a long time and did the best and felt the best when I was not eating any Frankenfoods........just real food.
It's great to have a "treat" available when you really need one........I tended to overdo and the sweetness just left me wanting more and more~

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the sound advice. I've decided to follow that advice (sigh) and won't order any more, just too tempting and not worth the possible stall.

Glad the info could help you too Memaw I know it's made me more aware of the possible associated pitfalls.

Niccckki