Hi,

My wife, Trish, and I started doing Atkins yesterday. My question is about chewing gum made with Splenda during the Induction phase.

You see, Trish quit smoking about 6 months ago (YIPEE for her!!) and since then has been going through about a pack of gum a day. We found some gum made with Splenda rather than Nutrisweet and she is chewing it now.

I guess I want to know if that is okay during the induction phase and if she should be counting any carbs because of it.

Thanks in advance for any replies,
Arnie

Hi Arnie (& Trish)! The gum should have nutrition labeling. I believe most chewing gums have about 2g/carbs in each piece. If you chew 10 pieces a day....that's 20g!! Of course, that's gotta be better than smoking! I'd definitely suggest trying to find a way to cut back on the gum and find another "cig substitute". My ex-husband chewed on drinking straws!!

Best of luck to both of you!

Most of the sugar free gum I have come across have only 1 carb - the serving size says 2 pieces. I only chew 1 piece at a time so 1 carb.

Most are also made with sugar alcohols so you can subtract the carbs if you want. (I always count 1 carb per piece). check your package, I haven't come across any made with Splenda yet.

I have stopped chewing so much - my jaw hurts!!!

Ah! Thanks for correcting my info Kathy. I don't chew gum but picked up a packet to look at the label while in the grocery checkout the other day and saw "2g"...I didn't look closely enough.

Thank you for for your replies. I was poking around on some websites and it looks like Trident has two flavours that use Splenda and those two are available in Canada but not the US. I guess that's why you havn't seen them.

Arnie