Is anyone familiar with the CarboLite brand of LC foods? They have chocolate bars (like a Hershey bar) that claim to have 0 carbs. I got one today, and tasted a sliver of it and it tastes too good to be true. Now I am afraid of it.

They also have 0 carb crackers and chips.

I am sorry. They are not 0 carb by any means.
At the top of the page you will see an orage bar with Low Carb Tools. There is a tool there that tracks hidden carbs. Input the nutritional info from the wrapper and you will see that they are not what they seem. Some so called low carb choc bars have as many as 27 carbs or more in them.

I went crazy and bought tons of stuff and here's the scoop:

Chocolate bars - tastes amazing, but I get crazy bloated and gain weight if I eat 'em. I heard if you have 1 serving (7 in a bar) effects are not so bad - I have to the whole bar...lol. The ones I got say they have like .4 carbs a serving, not 0. I'm telling you they are so good, but I have no self-control.

Chips - Yuk and I got the BBQ flavor, after you start chewing they turn in to toasted paper

Crackers - same thing as the chips, but way worse...now I have to tell you, I never tried anything creative with them, like melting cheese on 'em or anything. They really are alot like the chips...

Protein Powder - I love it...yum, yum, yum. I use it with everything - fried chicken, shakes, in meatballs. I haven't tried chocolate. They are sweetened with Splenda, and it awesome with cream and water.

Just my two cents,
Erin

Um, sorry to break the news to you, but the labels LIE! You must do the math. They have as many as 12 calories from carbs per "serving", depending on which variety of Carbolite you buy. That makes 21 carbs per bar.

Maybe I should break it down more explicitly. Here's the Carbolite dark chocolate:

A) Protein count is 0.5 gms. Protein has 4 calories per gram.
0.5 gm x 4 cal/gm = 2 calories coming from protein.

B) The label lists 23 calories from fat.

C) Add calories from fat and calories from protein.
2 + 23 = 25 calories from fat and protein.

D) Total calories in serving is listed as 37. Subtract fat/protein calories from total to give remaining calories.
37 - 25 = 12 remaining calories from somewhere
The manufacturers pretend that the calories from maltitol aren't carbohydrates. Nutritionists, biochemists, the FDA say they most certainly are carbohydrates. The FDA is currently issuing warnings to to these lying, no-good low-carb manufacturers to comply or else. Those 12 calories are coming from carbs.

E) Carbs have 4 calories per gram. Divide calories from carbs by carb calories per gram to yield carb grams.
12 / 4 = 3 gm of carbs

F) There are seven "servings" in a bar. Multiply servings by carb grams.
3 gm carb x 7 servings/bar = 21 gm carbs in a single bar.

See how devious that is?! Those blasted bars have gotten me in trouble over and over again.

Here's what I'm doing now: I mix in a blender whey protein isolate (zero carbs, zero flavor), super premium cocoa powder (one carb, one fiber per tablespoon), a touch of Splenda, and water. With very high quality cocoa, it makes a very good chocolate "milk".

If you can still eat them and lose, then why not. But if you stall, they should be the first habit you re-think.

Allison

Thanks for the info. I am so glad that I didn't eat it. I only tasted a tiny piece, just a shaving off the end. When it tasted so good I knew that it was too good to be true. ah well.

thank you so much for the info. it is greatly appreciated. the bars are fantastic tasting but.... they always get you with the hidden carbs!! sooo complicated. i knew it was too good to be true but lived in denial of it. i haven't weighed in a while so i don't know if they have effected my loss at all. but i am going to stop. save the ones i have left for those really bad craving days. the chips and crackers are really gross. i can eat a lot of unpleasant things but this was like eating sawdusst. thanks for the heads up. bye & good luck -goodnugg

But remember that Dr. Atkins tells you that you can deduct certain carbohydrates from the counts, for example the fiber count and the sugar alcohols.

While some people on this board have noted that they have trouble with "sugar alcohols", not everyone has this problem. I have a friend who is type I diabetic who has no blood sugar problems after eating one of these candy bars. I have been able to eat a whole carbolite bar in a day and stay in ketosis. And I have to keep to 20 carbs or less or else I seem to fall out of ketosis, so I know my body isn't treating an occasional carbolite bar as 21 grams of carbs.

So while it's certainly useful to check the hidden carbs, that doesn't mean it's an illegal food. You must see how well you can handle the particular food in question.

Cheers.

All Good LCers Will Count Carbs for Themselves...
The Hidden Carb Calculator Uses Real Calorie Counts to Determine Carbs...
Insoluble Fiber is not Digestible, Sugar Alcohols Are Digestible To Varying Degrees, Soluble Fiber Is Still Under Heavy Discussion... and doctors and scientists don't know "yet"
IF a Carbohydrate Has Calories, It's Digestible to the Degree of Calories It Makes and Therefore It Makes Glucose in the Bloodstream...
Nobody HERE Says To NEVER Eat Sugar Alcohols NOR Do They Say ALL Sugar Alcohols Are OK and Have No Calories So Can Be DEDUCTED from the Total Carb Count ...

You do the math, and let everybody become knowledgable for themselves. Knowledge doesn't require defending, only understanding. There are plenty of threads right here where this is discussed over and over.

I have a ton of respect for Dr. Atkins and how hard he has worked and his understanding as a medical professional, but I do NOT believe that even the Atkins Corporation (not quite the same thing) should take liberties with labelling laws designed to protect consumers, flawed as the laws may be.

Sugar Alcohols as a class, under FDA regulations, and in the absence of product lab testing, have 2 calories a gram. Glycerine is known to have 4.32 calories a gram. Polydextrose is known to have 1 calorie a gram. Ask any pharmacist or biochemist. So on and so on.

repeat after me:
All Good LCers Will Count Carbs for Themselves... etc. etc.

Lee, you can't subtract the carbs from the label when they're not listed. The front of the Carbolite packaging says in big bold letters, "ZERO CARBS". The nutritional information panel lists 0.4 carbs. Now how can you subtract the 20 grams of carb from sugar alcohols from that if the manufacturer has intentionally omitted them from the total carb count? It's deceptive and misleading.

For heaven's sake Lee, I said the very same thing. Go back and read.

With all due respect, you posted a lengthy discussion of how those bars have "21" grams of carbohydrates. For someone on a low carbohydrate diet that's going to be a no-no. At the very end of your post you mentioned that these foods may cause plateaus, which I agree with. But to say that this item has 21 carbs misleads novices into thinking that it's a high carb product.

Dr. Atkins has said that sugar alcohols are ok to subtract from the carb count because Dr. Atkins believes that they have a very limited impact on blood sugar levels.

And Island Girl, I wasn't "defending" or not defending anything. It appeared that the previous post was incomplete, it failed to mention that sugar alcohols, the apparent source of hidden carbs in this case, may not be a problem for some people. Please go back and read my post.

I've been doing low carb diets off and on since 1987 and I just want to make sure that a balanced discussion is taking place. I can see that there are a number of you who don't appreciate my point of view, so maybe I should just be silent.

Lee, not everyone follows Dr. Atkins plan. Many low-carbers follow plans other than Dr. Atkins. The FDA says they are carbs. Some other low-carb companies label total carbohydrates (including alcohol sugars) and then list alcohol sugars separately, for those who choose to subtract them. For Carbolite to simply omit them from the total carb count is both illegal and misleading. The FDA has issued warnings. The bars will be re-labeled with their true carb count soon.

Allison

My intent was not to "defend" the mislabeling of carbolite bars. Nowhere did I say that I agreed with the "netting" of carbs on nutrition labels.

You're right, not everyone follows the Atkins plan which is why I noted "Dr. Atkins has said..." Well, who hasn't been reminded on an almost daily basis that not everyone is on the Atkins Plan (or any low carb plan). Why if I had a dollar for every time someone gave me a cross look for eating pork rinds...

Lee365, I've been lowcarbing a while myself. I'm sincerely puzzled and would very much like to know WHERE "Dr. Atkins has said", and I'm QUOTING you here, that one can fully deduct sugar alcohol grams from the carb count of any food products one ingests.

I'd really appreciate a page number and edition reference, I do have every edition of Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution and would be glad to look it up and stand corrected if he literally says as much in his books, rather than infer it on the company labels.

Nothwithstanding whatever Dr. Atkins might or might not have said, however, the misuse of the labelling is definitely illegal (and every low carb bar manufacturer has been doing this). Have a good browse at http://www.atkinscenter.com and check out the statement about changes re labelling as "requested" by the FDA.

As for reading your previous post, I'm in the somewhat enviable position of having read ALL the previous posts, in this conversational thread AND in the many discussions on hidden carbs on this Forum and in several others... just so you know. I'm not about to repeat myself over and over again about how sugar alcohols don't affect everyone the same way. I did, however, give you the benefit of the doubt and assumed you had read this thread, at least, in its entirety.

Yes, not everyone is affected by sugar alcohols. Yes, everyone should have the opportunity, from a base of KNOWLEDGE and not fiddled labels with "hidden" carbs, to find out if they are affected by sugar alchols. End of story.

IslandGirl --

Visiting that piece on the Atkins site made me laugh simply because they've put it in such tiny, pale gray font. I couldn't read it. I tried to enlarge the font, but they've made it a fixed size that doesn't budge! I opened a different browser to try to read it -- same thing! Can't enlarge it to read because they've fixed the font so that it's permanently tiny and pale!

No problem though, I'm a geek, I'll copy and paste it into a buffer.

They are really reticent to get the information out!

Allison

IslandGirl I don't have chapter and verse memorized, so a quick search at the Atkins Center will have to do:

http://atkinscenter.com/dev/Archive...1/5-553235.html

"All Carbs Are Not Created Equal...Other carbs, such as sugar alcohols, have a minimal impact on blood-sugar levels; still other carbs, such as dietary fiber, pass through your body without having an impact on blood-sugar level. To date, the FDA has not focused on these important biochemical differences and treats all carbohydrates alike...Actually, this number is a conservative one because most labels don't give you the additional info you would need to do further subtraction, such as the amount of sugar alcohol grams contained in the product. "

I hope that helps you. RE: "I'm not about to repeat myself over and over again about how sugar alcohols don't affect everyone the same way." I looked over the site and did note that you have repeate messages about "hidden carbs". I really wish that if you're going to take the time to post messages about hidden carbs in say, candy bars or syrup, that you would also mention the issue of sugar alcohols in those same posts. Oh well, very soon all the nutrition labels will be in compliance and the point will be moot.

allisonm: It appears that much of the Atkins site is in that fixed font, not just that message about updated nutrition labels. I guess they assume that there will be no one with eyesight problems reading their messages!