For the life of me, I don't know what to believe. The Atkins bars (and just about all the other low-carb bars) add glycerine but don't count it in their carb content, claiming it doesn't affect "insulin or blood sugar levels".

Well, what I need to know is, "Does it count as muscle fuel?" If so, if it counts as energy at all, then it's as good as being a true carb, because it's that much LESS fat the body is burning and could stall ketosis.

So, anyone out there an expert on this food additive?

Thanks,

Tasha
(still holding steady at 10 lbs. down... grumble, grumble, grumble...)

Glycerine is indeed muscle fuel. In fact, glycerine, glucose polymer and polydextrose are very popular in sports drinks for long-distance athletes ... cyclists come to mind .. for the fact that it does not require insulin in order to be taken up into the muscle cells to be used as fuel. An insulin spike in the middle of a race can cause cramping, nausea, vomiting, etc, etc ..

For some people who are sensitive, these chemicals and the sugar alcohols such as maltitol or sorbitol .. can indeed cause an insulin and sugar spike. But it's mediated by indirect means, such as cortisol and adrenaline which are stimulated by the sweet taste receptors.

But the point you're asking, and it's a good one ... if the muscles are using the glycerine, what happens to ketones? Well, the ketones still in the system at the time the glycerin is consumed will just be excreted in the urine. However, since the muscles will have this wonderful source of quickly absorbed fuel .. there's no need to burn fat to make more ketones, until the glycerine is used up.

Because insulin isn't released, fat isn't being burned, but on the flip side, it isn't being stored either. The fat you EAT will just be passed out of the body as ketones. So, someone testing with the ketones sticks might continue to get positive readings but it's dietary fat, NOT body fat.

Bottom line: these bars, and chocolates and candies containing glycerine, sorbitol and other polymerized sweeteners ... have the potential to make blood sugar and insulin rise for some sensitive people, and will most surely put bodyfat-burning on hold.

A Rant

In our fast-paced world, where everything has to be done 10 minutes ago, people want fast food that they can just grab and eat on the run. These meal-replacement type bars are very, very popular in the high-carb world too. Translation: they mean big profits and money to the companies that produce them. Of course the low-carb industry wants to cash in on this lucrative market. The trouble is, the truly no-carb sweeteners (sucralose, aspartame, AceK, etc) will not give the bulk and texture as sugar, which is required to make these things edible. So, they use glycerine and sorbitol, which are thick, bulky syrups.

Up till now, the companies that manufacture the low-carb bars weren't required to declare the glycerine, sorbitol, maltitol, etc. except to hide it in the list of ingredients. Who would pay attention to the word glycerin, when the other ingredients read like a science experiment! In the last year however, the FDA's of many countries are cracking down and forcing companies to reveal and declare these things as carbohydrates (which they are). Of course the companies are posting all kind of defensive position statements ... their shareholders' profits are threatened!

Phew! OK, I'm stepping down off the soapbox.



Doreen

I was wondering the same thing myself. Thanks for the info, Doreen. Very informative.

Thanks Doreen, that's just the kind of in-depth information I wanted. It's as I suspected, then.

On a slightly different topic, do you or anyone else have experience with cyclamates, which I believe are marketed as Sucaryl in places like Canada and Australia? Dr. Atkins raves about the flavor being the best sugar substitute, but that the sugar industry conspired to remove it from the market, citing a few bogus studies that may or may not have hinted at health problems due to it.

I'd be curious to know whether or not I could get it shipped to me here in America, and if it's got a better taste than, say, Splenda.

Any anecdotal evidence?

Thanks,
Tasha

I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so I don't use sweeteners a lot, but I have been using cyclamate for years ... SugarTwin is the most common brand in Canada ... yes, Sucaryl too. Most generic and NoName sweeteners are made with cyclamate. It's a lot less expensive than Equal/nutrasweet and Splenda especially. It stays stable in heat, so you can cook with it, and it'll stay sweet. It also requires less maltodextrin filler than Splenda to make it bulky ... so it has only half the carbs. There's a liquid version that's ZERO carb, and a tablet form that's 0.02g. Personally, I like the taste better than Splenda .. or, if you mix the two together, gives an excellent sweet taste, without any bitter aftertaste, and you can use less overall (eg, 2 packets of each together will give the same sweetness as 6 packets of either one alone)

There's a petition before the FDA to have cyclamate approved for re-introduction to the US market. As of October 1 this year, it's in "abeyance" which means that the Office of Premarket Approval has reviewed the application and found it to be "deficient". The application will not be reviewed further until Abbott Laboratories, the "petitioner", can cough up whatever paperwork or documentation is necessary to correct the deficiency. Then, it will be put back on the waiting list to be reviewed.

Don't ya just love bureaucracy???


Global Drugs is an online pharmacy based in Alberta Canada, they have both Sucaryl and SugarTwin cyclamate products and they will ship to the US. The prices are in US $. Check them out here. There's a brown sugar flavoured SugarTwin that's nice ... in small amounts. Too much and it gets bitter.

hope this helps

Doreen

p.s. - for the record, I use liquid SugarTwin (zero carbs) and liquid stevia extract (an herb, zero carbs or very minimal)

If you have any good friends in Canada, they can very easily and legally mail you SugarTwin or Sucaryl for personal use on your part (not for reselling though).

Hermesetas packets and teeny tiny tablets also available in Canada (MUST specify the cyclmates version vs. the aspartame version).

See http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...?threadid=24415 this thread for interesting ConsumerLab results and discussion on the 'special dietary bars' and on Glycerin as well.

Valuable information!

Since my mother and sister live near the Ontario border in NY State, during my Thanksgiving visit I hopped over to Cornwall and bought a couple of boxes of Sugar Twin and a couple of bottles of Sucaryl. (My fiance bought Claritin, since you can also get this without a scrip in Canada.)

I think I've died and gone to heaven -- I have long loved to cook with a little sugar here and there, just to bring out a certain flavor in sauces or seasoning. I've used the Sucaryl a few times already and had excellent results. I taste no difference between it and sugar! I see no reason to ween myself from the "flavor" if I'm not being hurt by it anymore.

Thanks for the info, btw, on where to find it.

Cheers,
Tasha

Is there a conversion chart with the Sugar Twin. For example, if a recipe calls for a cup of regular sugar, does it convert how much Sugar Twin to use?

Every sweetener product tells you on the label how much to use to get a certain measure of sugar-equivalent, usually 2 teaspoons sugar equivalent.

The liquids vary, so you must check the label, the packets are usually 2 teaspoons sugar-equivalent per packet.