My wife just brought home some cereal bars that say thay have 4 net effective carbs. I checked them and they have 27 carbs,1 fiber, and 17 grams sugar alcohol. I thought sugar alcohols were bad for us. Am I right? Are we being tricked by the evil big corporations trying to make a buck?

Yup.

Do a search for sugar alcohol on this site and you'll find a lot of threads about them.

Sugar alcohols are definitely a YMMV thing! (Your mileage may vary.)

Some people have very bad reactions to SOME of the sugar alcohols, most notably maltitol. Some of them, most notably erythritol, seem to not affect many people at all. The reaction of which I speak is digestive upset - because they cannot digest the sugar alcohols they pass right through the digestive system in a somewhat, uhm, EXPLOSIVE manner!

Now, other people do not HAVE that reaction, but find that the sugar alcohols may raise their insulin levels, thereby acting very much like any OTHER sugar on their system. Which means, it probably sets off cravings for more sweets.

Then there are those fortunate souls such as myself, on whom the sugar alcohols, particularly speaking of maltitol here, seem to have no ill effects whatsover. I do not get any cravings from ingesting them, nor do I suffer digestive upset - however, I only eat them in very small amounts (single serving at a time) and therefore have not really TESTED the CYP effect to its fullest! (cr*p your pants, sorry, maybe more info than you needed! )

All that to say - sugar alcohols, in and of themselves, are not necessarily EVIL, and especially the erythritol has been shown to be pretty safe for most people. You may have to be a human guinea pig to figure out how they affect YOU.

For the reasons I stated above, for my personal consumption, I do NOT count sugar alcohols towards my carb count for the day, and my weight has not been the worse for it!

Char

Don't squat with yer spurs on!

I have bought some of these bars as well (for emergency only). I bought the strawberry flavor, and they include:
Malitol
Sorbitol
citric acid
malitol syrup
corn starch
sucralose
etc.

I am lucky enough not to have any problems with the sugar alcohols, like most people. I thought I would share that I have tried these, and they are VERY GOOD tasting, but just be careful of the sugar alcohols, until you find out how you react to them.

~*Have a wonderful LC Day! *~

but can you really subtract the sugar alcohols from the carb count to get your net?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by razorback:
but can you really subtract the sugar alcohols from the carb count to get your net?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It might help to have a look at this:

Can I Have Sugar Alcohols????

Started on 9/20/03
235--&gt;190; 150 goal

[This message was edited by paladin on 01-20-04 at 10:26 PM.]

Most folks here do NOT...as they, as well as I have found, that our bodies process these sugar alcohols much like sugar...causing the b.g spike/fall cycle, headaches, hunger, cravings for sweets. Not to mention the unpleasant GI effects
The general recommendation from most here, was to count at least half of those sugar alcohol carbs, if not all
The bars tend to stall me, I know from experience, probably cause when I didn't know any better I was consuming all those hidden carbs.

You can always subtract dietary fiber from your carb count to = net carbs, which means you can have lotsa fiber-rich foods.

Hope this helps a little


"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'."
- Yoda ('The Empire Strikes Back')
Start Atkins 9.1.03
225/198/130ish
Valentine's Day Goal: 180

I saw these bars as well during my last visit to Walmart.

I've learned that it's easy to get hooked on these sugar alcohols. Too many of them, even if they are agreeing with your stomach, can cause a stall, or even a gain. When I hit my stall, I did away with all the bars and other products loaded with sugar alcohols, and the scale started to move again - in the right direction.

When I do indulge in a bar (in emergency situations I find it better than grabbing something on the run) I typically do go by the net carb count by subtracting the sugar alcohols. That's only because I'm not eating them that often. I definitely wouldn't make that practice, or eating them, for that matter, a daily routine.

"The more I meet people, the more I love my dogs"

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