Boots diabetic food range.

Just had a bit of hotel chocolate 100% dark Ecuador chocolate according to the sales assistant no carbs and there is no nutritional information on the wrapping, it was just like eating cocoa powder out of the tin lol.

Philchap1 that sounds so horrible on every level. Can they sell things without nutritional information anymore?

I didn't think they could, here's a couple of photos of the packaging which isn't very clear, it states 100% cocoa but cocoa powder contains carbs.

They don't have to put nutritional information on foods unless they make a health claim or it contains added vitamins or minerals. They will have to put labels on by Dec. 2016. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/food-labelling-giving-food-information-to-consumers ( I don't know if confectionary actually counts as food though)
There won't be much carbohydrate in 100% chocolate but all the bars I can find have some. I suspect the sales assistant didn't really know and she was referring to added sugar.
Having said that I like Hotel Chocolat's official approach to selling chocolate to people with diabetes much better than those that sell do called diabetic chocolate
"If you are looking for a box of chocolates with 'diabetic chocolates' written on the lid, you won't find it here!......" then sensible info such as portion size (30g),the type of chocolate to choose, to include carb count as part of a meal,to eat it. as part of a meal, not to eat it if glucose levels are high etc http://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/help/dietary-information

The bars of chocolate aren't that bad - they use lactitol etc as the sweetener so it's not really a digestible sugar (in my experience). The problem comes along when you try to eat any of their biscuits, individual chocolates, or other treats - they're loaded with that lovely trickster maltitiol (also known as liquid pasta).

The problem rests with the people who buy these products. If people continue to buy them then the retailers will continue to sell them and people will continue to get ripped off. There should be more published information about them and their ineffectiveness and unsuitability for people with diabetes. It's frustrating that there is so much misunderstanding about diabetes.

I had diabetic chocolate when i was a youngster almost 30 years ago. I wouldn't go within a million miles of anything branded diabetic food now as i see it as an artificial industry.

A diabetic is better off eating 100% cocoa dark chocolate, hardly any carbs and has lots of flavanoids, good for cardiovascular health etc.

philchap1 said:

I didn't think they could, here's a couple of photos of the packaging which isn't very clear, it states 100% cocoa but cocoa powder contains carbs.

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Shop around, go on amazon, there's plenty of retailers selling 100% dark chocolate from all regions of the world. I had a bar from Grenada a few days ago, was really nice. Even if you get your hands on a Lindt 99% cocoa bar there's only 8 carbs in 100grams.

To my surprise, I found that Fortnum & Mason's does sugar-free chocolate bars, it's not just Boots ! No 10 (£5 for 100g) is milk chocolate with 40% cocoa solids and No 9 is dark chocolate at 70% cocoa (same price). Fortnums doesn't give any nutritional info on the website, but it does state that the sugar-free dark chocolate is made with maltitol. The No 4 chocolate bar (also £5 for 100g) is 100% cocoa though.

Thorntons advice me that they will not be selling the sugar free stuff after this year as the law says Diabetics know what they can and can not eat.... they will be selling 30% less sugar products but if you read the label they are full of carbs

Robbity said:

The only piece of good and accurate advice I got from my diabetes nurse when I was first diagnosed was to avoid foods labelled in any way as diabetic. So sometimes they can get things right!

Robbity

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Actually, the latest NICE guidelines [2015] also carry this same advice.It was added as section 1.3.8 in [2009].
[QUOTE: 1.3.8 Discourage the use of foods marketed specifically for people with diabetes. [2009]