Maggie,

That was a very interesting article. I am apparently am luckier than I thought. It would seem that the correlation is thus:

Maltitol and other sugar alcohols would be akin to a carb with a very low glucose index number, but yet different people metabolize it at different rates. (stands to reason) Another correlating relationship is that if maltitol makes you gassy, you're not metabolizing it, and the more gassy you are, the better in terms of the rate you absorb. (Which explains why I am routinely able to eat as much maltitol as I want with no effect on ketosis, but a sharp effect on my digestive system. LOL!)

Now, about this erythritol... If your hypothesis is correct, because I'm good with the maltitol, I don't have the dreaded enzyme, and I WOULD metabolize this stuff, and I probably should avoid it. Do you know any foods that contain it? I'd love to test the theory. (Oh, the sacrifices!!)

Charski,

I've noticed that my overall craving has dropped quite a bit as I progressed. The first few days, I went through at least a box a day of the Russell Stover stuff. Now, I'll have 2 or 3 nibbles. I'm into the gummi bears from Estee in a bad way though. (at $2.79 for a teeny a bag, they are mercifully self-governing.) But, pre Atkins, I was a truly prodigious consumer of chocolate. Pound of M&Ms? Maybe two days if they were lucky.

Bright,
I somtimes substitute sharp cheddar cheese for the chocolate cravings, but I love cranberry juice with my cheddar cheese, so that's a whole other show. We have no Krogers here in FL. But, it sounds good. I'll look for someone else's brand. I'm hooked on DietRite sodas and Canada Dry diet ginger ale, and sugar free Tang. (yum)

Star,
I keep a can of whipped heavy cream in the fridge too, for quick shots. But, I find, I rarely have any, and then only a teeny shot (about a capful)...

Jeez, I sound like such a hedonist. LOL! I truly am a junk food junkie. Thanks be that so muchis available to keep me from being a loon. That's why I didn't last on Atkins 4 years ago.; I got SO bored.

Shay,
Wait till you're at least almost through induciton, if you're low willpower. But when you do venture out, try the Pure DeLite dark chocolate bars. 0g net carbs, it's only 1oz., and it leaves the same delightful, long-lingering bittersweet aftertaste that the best Belgian dark chocolates do (it is, in fact, Belgian chocolate). But just buy one. One is enough to see if you get gassy, etc, to know if the impact carb deal works for you. Essentially, treat it like you would treat the same amount of chocolate ExLax. Really. Because if you're sensitive to it, great for your carbs, but I hope you have a good book.

I had a fruit fest tonight, ate a fruit salad with blueberries, apples, strawberries, grapes, plain fat free yogurt and no-sugar granola. I'm now in my 45g week, but I probably had 80g worth of that to cap a 90g total day. We'll see how I test in the morning.

I'll do induction style for a day at least. And tomorrow is martial arts, which is basically a one hour boot camp. Under WW, it used to be worth 11 exercise points for one hour! Anyway, it burns any form of sugar in my system. That will help the process.

Jackie,
The ricotta thing sounds just icky and bizarre enough to try!

Cheers!
Phil "Llarion: The Jazzinator" Traynor
7/20/03 - 244/217/185
Visit Llarion's Lair!
- Do not meddle in the affiars of dragons; for you are crunchy; and go well with ketchup

Well, the morning strip indicated 40mg/dL. Wow.

Cheers!
Phil "Llarion: The Jazzinator" Traynor
7/20/03 - 244/217/185
Visit Llarion's Lair!
- Do not meddle in the affiars of dragons; for you are crunchy; and go well with ketchup

I do without. I have to. If I take "just one bite" of anything chocolate (low carb or otherwise) it sets me off on a binge. I know I'm the exception to the rule here, folks. I'm envious of those who can get by with eating the chocolate stuff, fake or otherwise.

April
352 / 205 / 180
5'10", large frame, size 13 shoe
www.geocities.com/aprilreinhardt

Phil! I'm right with ya on the Pure "DeLite" Dark chocolate bars - so much so that I had a number of boxes shipped to my current home (in the former Sovet Union - Georgia) so that I could indulge on occasion!

By the way (per your sig line)... I may be crunchy but I'm low carb so I bet I'd go better with a dollop of mayonnaise

Hugs,
Rachel
165/142/130
Haec trutina errat. (Latin for,"There is something wrong with this scale".)

April,

I can entirely understand. Willpower is the key component to success in any behavior modification exercise. I hope that you find the strength to really corral that willpower!!

Rachel,
They so rule...
And it better be high-test mayo; the lite stuff has carbs!

Cheers!
Phil "Llarion: The Jazzinator" Traynor
7/20/03 - 244/217/185
Visit Llarion's Lair!
- Do not meddle in the affiars of dragons; for you are crunchy; and go well with ketchup

Phil, I suspect that you will not have any problem with erytritol. Neither ketosis wise or digestively. I found a copy of my previous post on the topic, and I'll past it in here for your information. The key difference between erythritol and other sugar alcohols is that it has almost 0 calories. Here's the post:

I've written a number of times that I react to sugar alcohols not very differently than I do to sugar. I must now amend that to read "most sugar alcohols."

This all started when, (already in maintenance) I first ate an Endulge chocolate bar. I had this deja vu feeling, which reminded me of how I felt prior to starting this way of eating. I noticed that there was a significant amount of maltitol in it, first ingredient, as a matter of fact. (True for most lc chocolate bars.) Next time I "Endulged," I put my glucometer to work and found that I had a 38 pt rise in blood sugar at 30 minutes. I have avoided all sugar alcohols since.

Several months ago, I became aware of a new, allegedly different form of sugar alcohol called Erythritol. Eventually I got to looking into the product and there did seem to be some differences between it an other sugar alcohols. Main difference? It has zero calories. All the other sugar alcohols have calories. Only pure sucralose, cyclamate, aspartame, et al can claim zero calories. (In most forms they do have some calories, from the sugary fillers that need to be added to make them usable so you have to count some carbs from the filler. In products such as syrups, soft drinks and jello, however, they have zero calories and can be counted as zero carbs.)

BTW, I've self-tested the sucraolse sweetened syrups and get no blood glucose reaction to them at, 30, 60 and 120 minutes.

By way of comparison, sugar, maltitol and erythritol have the following values:

1 tsp. of sugar, weighs 4 grams, has 4 gm carb & 15calories.
1 tsp. of maltitol, weighs 4 grams, has 4 gm carb & 8.5 calories
1 tsp. of erythritol, weighs 4 grams, has 4 gm carb & 0 calories

(the other sugar alcohols are the same weight and carbs and have calorie values from 7 - 10 per tsp.)

So I finally bought some Erythritol and it's been sitting in my cabinet for over a month, now. Today I tested it. I tested it the way I test any suspect item. With a home based mini-GTT (Glucose tolerance test) , ingesting the stuff and then doing blood glucose readings at 30 minutes, 1 hour and 2 hours. In this test, I prepared 50 gms of Erythritol (that is about 4 Tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon) by adding enough water to dissolve it. My results:

Time: BG Action:
3 pm 94 (drank - well, gagged down - erythritol solution)
3:30 93
4:00 92
5:00 93 (celebrated with some porterhouse & an eggplant/zucchini/onion dish)

I'm ready to pass this item for my personal use, but would be interested in seeing if anyone who has a glucometer wants to try to replicate my results. I bought a pound and a half of this stuff from some place called Global Polyols, who had the best price. If you email me, I'll send you 50 gms. as long as you promise to test it out and report what you find. (Offer ends when this container runs out.)

All I can say is I'll be damned! I really didn't expect this result. This stuff has got the same texture (I mean the same -crunch followed by melt) as sugar and, although it's only 70% as sweet, you couldn't prove that by me. Of course it's been quite a number of years since I actually tasted real sugar. There is a cool afterfeeling (not a taste, actually) that's not unpleasant.

I think I'll go dip a strawberry in it for dessert.

Products containing erythritol are "AtLast" chocolate bars and the Zcarb line.

Maggie
5'1"
Atkins since '98 (160)
Maintaining nicely (110)

Redhead until further notice!

p.s. The container is long gone so the "offer" has expired. LOL!

Sounds fascinating. Does it have the minty burn like Lactitol? I'll hafta look for it!

Cheers!
Phil "Llarion: The Jazzinator" Traynor
7/20/03 - 244/217/185
Visit Llarion's Lair!
- Do not meddle in the affiars of dragons; for you are crunchy; and go well with ketchup

[This message was edited by Llarion on 09-02-03 at 08:45 PM.]

I wouldn't describe it quite that way, but I have not tried lactitol independent of other ingredients. My last encounter with lactitol was Hershey's latest foray into the LC arena.

Blecchhh! (which, as a former hershey chocolate lover, was both a disappointment and relief to me. LOL!)

The erythritol has a noticeable "cooling" component but it doesn't come up to being a "burn." It is definitely not a taste - just a sensation - which is often absent when used in certain recipes.

I'm planning to start a thread in the cooking forum on my recent culinary adventures with the stuff within the few days.

Maggie
5'1"
Atkins since '98 (160)
Maintaining nicely (110)

Redhead until further notice!

i'm a chocolate lover as well. and i'll admit to even eating them on induction, it was a rough time and i needed to baby myself =P i've tried every brand i can find near me in the search for the ultimate low carb chocolate bar! the best i've found is...

ROSS CHOCOLATES! they are the best =P taste just like the real good dove/symphony type smooth milk chocolate. ive tried pure delite, carbolite, fifty-fifty, and a couple smaller brands, nothing is as good to me as ross chocolates.

mint is my favorite =P

Well! news for dark chocolate lovers!

I just found that Lindt makes an 85% Cacao Extra Dark Chocolate bar that is quite low in carbs. I eat about half a square at a time (it's that intense!), and I count it as 1 g carb. I found it at Lunardi's, which is a local upscale type grocery store.

Per package nutritional analysis:

4 squares is one serving (each bar has 2.5 servings)
210 calories
8 g carb
3 g fiber
5 g net carbs

I ~never~ liked dark chocolate until I discovered the European style ultra dark chocolates. Once you've had it, you can't go back!

~~~Teelbee

"remember, amateurs built the Ark, professionals built the Titanic."

174 (Mar. 2002 highest weight)
164 (Jan. 2003, begin LC)
164/135.5/137-134

I tried Shelly's chocolate fix last night and it was really great!

Susan

LC and feeling better every day!

Atkins since 7/18/03
210/190/140

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Llarion:
Maltitol and other sugar alcohols would be akin to a carb with a very low glucose index number, but yet different people metabolize it at different rates. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually, the glycemic index of maltitol is very close to table sugar (sucrose).

Check out the glycemic index table at about.com http://diabetes.about.com/library/me...i/ngilists.htm

The average glycemic index for sucrose is 58. The average of the four numbers for maltitol is 59.

It amazes me that something with that high a glycemic index could be included in a low-carb diet. It's just amazing.

By comparison, the glycemic index for lactitol, the sugar alcohol that Hershey's uses in their products, is only 2.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> The average glycemic index for sucrose is 58. The average of the four numbers for maltitol is 59. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

... which helps explain why an Endulge bar might as well be a Hershey bar (regular!) as far as my blood sugar is concerned.

Thanks for the info.

Maggie
5'1"
Atkins since '98 (160)
Maintaining nicely (110)

Redhead until further notice!