Confused

[Poppy]

In the supermarket yesterday, I was seduced by a box containg Low Carb Breakfast Bars. On the box front was the claim 2.5 net carbs. Not having had my reading glasses with me I couldn't read any of the info on the back. On getting home I see that a bar contains 15.0 g carbs of which sugars 1.5, polydextrose 8.5, maltitol 2.5g, & glycerol 1.7g. Then it states that Net Carbs are the only ones that I need to count.

So being new to this, and trying to reduce my carbs drastically, do I count this bar as 2.5g or 15.0g? You will probably all say "Throw them away" but I did try one with my lunch and found it quite pleasant.

 

[StephenFromScotland]

Hi Poppy,
These bars are good incase you have a hypo then i'd say,
But please be carefull on what is on the front of the packet, diabetes is becoming big business these days, why don't you try the alpen light bars? but in moderation or a digestive and cheese?

 

[fergusc]

Be careful, Poppy
These 'net carbs' claims are dubious to say the least. Polydextrose, maltitol and glycerol are all metabolised into glucose in the small intestine and will all have an effect on blood sugar.
'Low sugar' and 'sugar free' are very misleading terms. In fact they mean low sucrose or sucrose free which, as we all learn with experience, is definately not the same thing at all!

All the best,

fergusc

 

[StephenFromScotland]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by fergusc</i>
<br />Be careful, Poppy
These 'net carbs' claims are dubious to say the least. Polydextrose, maltitol and glycerol are all metabolised into glucose in the small intestine and will all have an effect on blood sugar.
'Low sugar' and 'sugar free' are very misleading terms. In fact they mean low sucrose or sucrose free which, as we all learn with experience, is definately not the same thing at all!

All the best,

fergusc
yeah,
I learned the hard way with this too and dextro is like rocket fuel sugar! which goes to the blood very very quickly, I keep dextro tabs with me incase i get the shaking stephens!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

 

[fergusc]

Sarah,
The only difference between these artificial sweeteners and regular sugar is that they will raise your blood sugar more slowly. They will still raise blood sugar.

Diabetics are being conned by 'sugar free' labelling. Manufacturers are simply replacing one type of sugar with another.
Any ingredient with an -ose suffix will be completely metabolised into glucose. Anything ending in -ol is a sugar alcohol and is typically 75% metabolised into glucose.

'Net carbs' is one of those 'too good to be true' deals. We all know they usually are too good to be true.

All the best,

fergusc

 

[Poppy]

Well, I have now consumed my 2nd bar out of the box and this time did tests every 20 mins and it did push my BS up by about 2.0 but this is so much lower than a couple of weetabix etc that it doesn't seem too bad. I probably wont buy another box once this one has finished.

Fergus thats great info on the ose and ol's. Every little piece of information really helps to get my head around this.

Sarah, what was that chocolate bar that you tried for scientific reasons? That list for the carbs is a great one. Many thanks