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Should You Count Those "Net Carbs" or "Low Impact" Carbs
Should You Count Those "Net Carbs" or "Low Impact" Carbs -- Posted by Gumbo on 12-17-04 19:17
Should You Count Those "Net Carbs" or "Low Impact" Carbs
Every drugstore, supermarket, and department store in U.S. is filled with
snack products that claim to be perfect for low carb diet. The labels on
these products may list 24 grams of carbs but assure you that you only have
to count 2 or 3 of these grams in your daily carb allotment. They may call
these carbs "low impact carbs" or "net carbs" and display them promenently
on the front of the product, but the carb count on the nutritional
label--the only one that the FDA regulates will list a far higher carb
count.
If these disappearing "net carbs" make you suspicious, you may prefer to buy
products that list only a gram or two of carbs in their nutritional
information. But a look at their ingredient list may show that mysteriour
substances like glycerine or polydextrose are major ingredients of these
bars, too--exact same substances reported on labels of bars that claim "3
grams of Net Carbs" on the front of the package and list 20-something grams
of carbs in their nutritional information panel.
What's Going on Here?
Most of these "low carb" products are sweetened with substances called
"sugar alcohols." Maltitol, lacitol, and sorbitol are some of names of these
sweeteners. Despite the name, these aren't sugars or alcohols. They are
hydrogenated starch molecules which are a byproduct of grain processing.
These sugar alcohols are manufactured by the three large agribusiness
companies: SPI Polyols, Roquette America, Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland.
Having saturated world with high fructose corn syrup, these giant
corn-producing companies have now turned to hydrogenated corn starch
molecules as yet another way to wring profits out of surplus corn.
Despite wrapper claims, these sugar alcohols are metabolized. Each gram of a
sugar alcohol turns into anywhere from less than 1 to as much as 3 calories.
Erythritol comes in lowest, delivering less than one calorie per gram.
Maltitol--the sugar alcohol found in most "low carb" foods is the highest,
delivering 3 calories per gram. That is only a bit less than 4 calories you
find in regular sugar and starch.
It is because these sugar alcohols can be metabolized as carbohydrates that
US law requires that they be reported as carbohydrates on nutritional labels
and why their calories are included in calorie counts. But though many food
companies still mdo not report them in their label nutritional information.
Several years ago, after the FDA fined Atkins Nutritionals for ignoring the
20+ grams of glycerin found in their product in the nutritional panel of
their Advantage Bars, the company invented the "Net Carbs" designation that
it now places on the front of wrappers--but not on the nutritional panel.
This ruse was so successful, they went on to licensed use of this phrase and
Atkins "A" to other companies so that they too could continue deluding
customers about the carb content of their foods. .
Small print on back of these label explains that fiber and sugar alcohols
have a "negligible effect on blood sugar". This, they suggest means that you
can ignore them, and magically converts foods that have 24 grams of
carbs--and the associated calories--into foods with a diet-friendly 3 grams.
If it were true that these foods did not raise blood sugar, it would make
them ideal for the low carb diet. However, it is not always true. Some lucky
people can eat these low carb treats and still lose weight on a low carb
diet. But hundreds of people who have stopped by the
alt.support.diet.low-carb news group to ask why their weight loss has
stopped cold, discover that it is these sugar alcohol-laden low carb junk
foods that have caused their long-term stalls.
Lying Labels?
The reason for this, is quite simply, that sugar alcohols, particularly
Maltitol, the one that is most common in these products, can have a very
significant impact on blood sugar. This isn't speculation. It's a fact. Many
people with diabetes, who track any rise in their blood sugar with a blood
sugar meter, find that these products cause a significant rise in their
blood sugar, contrary to the label claims.
I'm one of them. My blood sugar rises almost as high when I eat a
maltitol-sweetened Russell Stover "No Sugar" candy as it does if I eat a
regular Russell Stover candy of same size. The only difference is that it
takes two hours for the blood sugar rise to occur when I eat the "no sugar"
candy compared to the one hour that it takes when I eat regular candy. This
blood sugar rise is followed by a period of low blood sugar--the hallmark of
an insulin response--and, for me, the trigger for intense, diet-busting
hunger. So much for "truth in labeling."
I am not only person who has found this to be true. Fran McCullough warns
readers of the very high blood sugar spikes reported by diabetics after
eating glycerine-containing Atkins bars in her book, Living Low Carb.
A comprehensive review published by Canadian Journal of Diabetes gives a
very good overview of the scientific research into how sugar alcohols affect
both normal people and people with diabetes.
http://www.diabetes.ca/Files/SugarAlcohols--Wolever--CJDDecember2002.pdf.
Note the finding, on Page 5, that for normal people, research shows that
chocolate bars sweetened with maltitol raised the blood sugar of normal
people as high as did chocolate bars sweetened with sucrose--table sugar.
Not for Everyone!
However, there are other people with diabetes who report that they don't see
a blood sugar rise when they eat foods containing these sugar alcohols. They
find these products give them a way to incorporate legitimate treats into
their diets and are grateful that they are now so plentiful.
There are also a number of successful low carbers who report in diet
newsgroup that they have been able to lose significant amounts of weight
while including these "low carb" treats in their food plans on a daily
basis. You will often find them railing against "puritanism" of those who
warn new dieters against them.
So, clearly these products do not affect everyone in same way. For some
people they are a godsend. For others, they turn out to be "Stall in a Box."
Why Do Sugar Alcohols Only Affect Some People?
Since it seems that only a subset of the population metabolizes sugar
alcohols as sugar, it is quite possible that some people lack some enzyme(s)
needed to digest them and turn them into blood sugar. Since those people's
bodies can't turn these sugar alcohols into glucose, they do not experience
a blood sugar rise when they eat them.
Lending some support to this idea is fact that some of the people who report
that they did not experience a blood sugar rise when they ate a product with
a sugar alcohol in it, add that they experienced intense diarrhea or gas
later on. These are classic symptoms of what happens when starches pass
undigested into lower gut where they may be fermented by bacteria (causing
gas) or suck water out of cells lining the colon (causing diarrhea).
Many of us who do get blood sugar rise do not experience this diarrhea. Our
digestive enzymes appear to be able to break down these hydrogenated
starches into glucose--though given the time lag, this happens slowly.
Diabetes expert Rick Mendosa has a very interesting web page
http://www.mendosa.com/netcarbs.htm that points out "If the sugar alcohols
had no impact on our blood glucose, they would have a glycemic index of
zero. With the the December 2003 publication of Geoffrey Livesey's amazing
review of sugar alcohols, we now know a lot more about them than ever
before. His article, "Health potential of polyols as sugar replacers, with
emphasis on low glycemic properties," is in Nutrition Research Reviews
2003;16:163-91.
Mendosa goes on to say: "Only two of the sugar alcohols have a GI of zero,
according to Livesey's research. These are mannitol and erythritol. Several
others have a very low GI, but two maltitol syrups have a GI greater than
50. This is a higher GI value than that of spaghetti, orange juice, or
carrots."
What about Glycerine?
Glycerine is another sweet additive that manufacturers add to low carb bars.
Here again, you'll find tha, because manufacturers claim glycerine does not
raise blood sugar they omit it in the carb section of the label information
or, if they do list it, they do not include it in number of diet-counted
"impact" carbs. ( Glycerine is sometimes spelled Glycerin and is another
name for glycerol.)
As Lee Rodgers, proprietor of The Low Carb Retreat explains that it is only
true that Glycerine does not raise blood sugar when people are not low
carbing. Rogers states:
1.. When liver glycogen is full, glycerol is converted to fat.
2.. When liver glycogen is empty, glycerol is converted to glucose.
3.. And sometimes just goes right through without doing anything
In short, if you are in ketosis (having emptied your liver of glycogen, its
stored carbs) glycerine is likely to turn into blood sugar, and then, of
course, it raises insulin, defeating mechanism by which low carb weight loss
takes place.
This past issue of Rick Mendosa's Diabetes Update Discusses in more detail
why FDA insists that glycerine must be treated as a carbohydrate on product
labels.
What about Fiber?
Perhaps the most confusing part of new "net carbs" designation is that it
combines sugar alcohols and fiber in the same designation. This is
unfortunate.
Fiber, unlike sugar alcohols, is not metabolized into a significant amount
of calories and does not turn into blood sugar. Therefore it can usually be
deducted from a food's total carb count.
But even here, a little caution is required. That's because labeling laws
outside United States often treat fiber differently. In many European
countries, fiber is already deducted from the label's total carb count. For
example, imported Scandinavian bran crackers that list 3 grams of
carbohydrate and 3 grams of fiber do not contain zero grams of carbohydrate.
If they followed U.S. labeling conventions, their labels would show 6 grams
of carbohydrate and 3 grams of fiber, since the European labels have already
deducted the fiber from the total. This is also true of many imported
chocolates.
To make it even more confusing, many U.S. nut labels also deduct fiber from
total counts, too--walnuts in particular. Despite fact that Walnut labels
usually say "3 grams total carbohydrate, 3 grams fiber" walnuts are not a
zero carb treat! They contain about 2 grams of carbohydrate per ounce.
Net Carbs and Restaurant Food
Where "net carb" designation becomes truly dangerous is in restaurants
because new "low carb" restaurant menus do not give you complete nutritional
data or any hint of an item's ingredients, only the "net carb" count.
So for all you know, that "3 gram net carbs" cheese cake may contain 40
grams of maltitol, which is the equivalent of 30 grams of sugar. Nor can you
distinguish between a food that contains 10 grams of fiber and one that
contains 10 grams of a lacitol, the sugar alcohol many dieters have found
causes profound diarrhea. All you know when you see that "net carbs"
designation is that the carb count of the food you are about to eat is much
higher than what restaurant would have to report were it giving you legal
carb counts. You can hope that the additional carbs are fiber, but you may
very well be wrong.
So What Does This Mean for You?
If you are just starting out low carbing, you would be well advised to treat
with caution any supposedly "low carb" product that cites net carbs rather
than total carbs. If you are one of people who do metabolize sugar alcohols,
these "low impact carbs" will turn into regular, old, high-impact glucose,
and eating a couple of these treats each day can easily derail your low carb
diet by adding another 20 to 40 grams of carbohydrate to your intake.
That's why you might be wise to try low carbing without any of these suspect
foods for the first few weeks of your diet until you have become accustomed
to how your body feels when your blood sugar has stabilized on a truly low
carb regimen. If you crave a sweet treat during these first few weeks, try
one of truly low carb treats and snacks whose recipes have been posted on
web. You can find these recipes using Google Groups Advanced Search scanning
the alt.support.diet.low-carb newsgroup for term "REC." You'll find hundreds
of recipes containing no "hidden carbs" at all. Do this until you've gotten
the hang of what low carbing feels like to your body.
Once you've gotten into a steady low carb regimen and are losing weight
steadily, you can test these commercial "low carb" products to see what
effect they have on you. If you keep losing weight after introducing them,
you can relax. You are one of lucky ones who can, in fact, treat them as
having "low impact" carbs. If you don't, well, for you there's no free
lunch. Continue making your own truly low carb treats--and losing weight.
If you are diabetic, you don't have to guess about how sugar alcohols affect
you. You can turn to your trusty blood sugar meter to see what they do to
your blood sugar. But if you test, test products containing sugar alcohols 2
and 3 hours after eating. Testing only at one hour after eating may be too
early and you may miss blood sugar spikes they cause. With the new "low
carb" pastas, you may have to test as many as 5 hours after eating and you
should also look at your fasting blood sugar the next morning. Several
people have reported that while they didn't spike on the low carb pastas,
their fasting blood sugars were significantly elevated the next morning.
Watch Out for Increased Hunger
No matter what you see on your scale or observe on a blood sugar meter, be
alert for an increase in your hunger level when you eat these "net carbs"
foods. My own experience and that of some other low carb dieters who have
reported this on the newsgroup is that some of "low carb" products made with
sugar alcohols cause an increase in hunger that is out of proportion to the
blood sugar readings they produce. I have found this especially noticeable
with foods containing lacitol.
If you notice yourself suddenly getting hungry, or just plain eating more
food after you have introduced a new "low carb" treat into your diet, back
off for a few days and see what happens to your hunger level. If it goes
down, you'll need to treat these foods with caution. The whole point of low
carbing is to eliminate the hunger cravings that make dieting so difficult.
Don't Forget the Extra Calories
Even if you can eat snack products containing sugar alcohols without
experiencing blood sugar spikes or hunger cravings, it's worth giving some
thought to the question of how good an idea it is to fill your diet up with
calorie-dense low carb junk food.
Though the best selling diet book authors make it sound as if low carbing
somehow magically "melts fat away" this is not true. Low carbing evens out
blood sugar which eliminates hunger and makes it very easy to eat a lot
less. But to achieve long term weight loss you must eat less than you burn
each day.
As you get closer to your weight goal, this becomes more and more evident.
The smaller you are, the less food your body burns. As a result, most people
find they cannot get last the 20 pounds off without watching their calories
closely and eating only 9 - 10 times their body weight in calories. (i.e. if
you weigh 140 lbs you may find you have to eat as little as 1269 to 1400
calories a day to lose, depending on speed of your metabolism and your
activity level.)
With that in mind, you can see why, independent of the blood sugar issue,
that snack bar with its 240 calories that you eat every day between meals
may have serious repercussions for your diet--it is adding 1680 calories a
week--over 1/2 pound's worth of calories--besides replacing more nutritious
foods like the high fiber, low carb vegetables that are an important part of
the diet of long-term successful low carb dieters.
Source: http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/products.htm
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