Sugar alcohol "Extra" carbs? Help with tracking?

Posts: 14,213
1/13/13 3:36 P

That is very interesting. I do Atkins, and whenever I ate items with sugar alcohols, I would kick out of ketosis. I never thought that maybe it was just that i was partially absorbing sugar alcohols, and going over my CCLL. I just have to make room on my tracker by cutting other carbs. Makes a lot more sense now. Thanks Becky.

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Posts: 1,510
1/13/13 12:28 P

Thank you Becky. What a surprise to discover that I had already read that article (spark points earned back in October). Just goes to prove that it's easy to forget something until it has a direct impact on you.

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Posts: 24,639
1/13/13 9:35 A

Here is an article on sugar alcohols from sparkpeople
www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_art
icles.asp?id=948

Sugar alcohols are cabohyhdrates (same calories as all carbs and sugar); but not completely absorbed or used by the body. Therefore many people will subtract these carbs and calories. To be "most" accurate only 1/2 of the sugar alcohol carbs/calories should be subtract. So...

11 grams of sugar alcohol (would really be 6 grams)
Total carbs: 9 + 6 = 15 grams (subtract 20 calories from the total calories)

Becky

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1/12/13 6:30 P

Thanks MissRuth. I'm glad to know I don't have to add anything else to my tracker for today.

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1/12/13 4:46 P

They're not EXTRA carbs; they are included in the "Total carbs". Any product that claims to have "no sugar added" has to spell out the sugar alcohol used. Sugar alcohol has less carbs than sugar, but still has carbs. So technically they added no "sugar" per se.

And sugar alcohol is sort of a confusing name. It has nothing to do with booze (has no ethanol in it). It's found in plant products but it's not the kind of thing you'd have lying around your kitchen, to whip up a batch of cookies. If you look at the ingredient list, you'll find at least one ingredient ending in "-tol". Those are your sugar alcohols. They're commonly used in toothpaste and mouthwash and sugarless gum.

The biggest problem with sugar alcohols may be that they can cause digestive distress. Gas, bloating, diarrhea. A lot of people can consume them in moderate amounts with no problem. They bloat me up like a stuck pig, so I avoid them.

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1/12/13 4:03 P

I was wondering if atkins would help me with carbs tracking and all

current weight: 230.6

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1/12/13 3:43 P

I thought I had this food tracking all figured out. BUT
Today after my run, I bought a Think Thin creamy peanut butter bar, mainly because it had 20g of protein. It also said NO sugar and I didn't see anything I recognized as a sugar substitute either. I prefer not to consume the popular substitutes (just my preference)
As I read the nutrition label carefully later on to enter it into my tracker, I found
sugar = 0, but sugar alcohol = 11 g
total carbs =22g, but EXTRA carbs = 9 g

I found several people who entered this bar into the food database and nobody included the extra carbs or sugar alcohol. Actually, there wasn't any place to enter sugar alcohol.

Any information will be greatly appreciated.

BTW, the bar tasted very good!

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