Tag Archives: maltose

Carb alert No. 2: Sugar-free may not be low glycemic

by Cary Castagna
Edmonton Sun
February 18, 2010 purba-ray.com

Here’s the second of three carb alerts from the folks at Granola Gourmet and staff at the Mayo Clinic:

Sugar-free doesn’t mean carbohydrate-free. Sugar-free foods may play a role in your diabetes diet — but sugar-free doesn’t mean carbohydrate-free. When you’re choosing between standard products and their sugar-free counterparts, compare the food labels side by side. If the sugar-free product has noticeably fewer carbohydrates, the sugar-free product might be the better choice. But if there’s little difference in carbohydrate grams between the two foods, let taste — or price — be your guide.

No sugar added, but not necessarily no carbohydrates. The same caveat applies to products sporting a “no sugar added” label. Although these foods don’t contain high-sugar ingredients and no sugar is added during processing or packaging, foods without added sugar may still be high in carbohydrates.

Sugar alcohols contain carbohydrates and calories, too. Likewise, products that contain sugar alcohols — such as sorbitol, xylitol and mannitol — aren’t necessarily low in carbohydrates or calories

If you are concerned about your intake of sugars, make sure that added sugars are not listed as one of the first few ingredients. Other names for added sugars include: corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, honey, and maple syrup.

Granola Gourmet (www.granolagourmet.com) makes gourmet energy bars for diabetics and their families.

MayoClinic.com gives users access to the expertise and knowledge of the more than 3,300 physicians and scientists of Mayo Clinic.

The CRAP they put in our food!

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it ANY MORE. I went to the Natural Food Expo representing my company Granola Gourmet last week. We attend these shows looking for innovative ways to improve our products quality. With an eager eye, I was looking for more ways to reduce the glycemic impact of the Granola Gourmet Energy Bars.

Already we know that Granola Gourmet Bars have a low impact on blood sugar but there are always things you can do to improve. We looked at many other snack bars and read the ingredients and tasted them. Many of them we tasted and spit out once we got the texture and flavor and found them unremarkable (so I won’t comment).

SOOO many of them use Brown Rice Syrup for sweetening and to keep the product together. Not educated on the product we went to see a manufacturer of the syrup and discussed the benefits of using the product. The man I spoke to was a knowledgeable scientist (that’s what interested me so much in the first place). He said the product was a great product for diabetics.

I even found a bar that used it and claims it is also good for diabetics. So, I thought I was safe to test the product. WRONG!!! My blood sugar shot up quickly and in a controlled situation I was able to conclude that this product was not good for me. I looked on line and found a posting at Wikipedia. I was shocked by this quote:

“Brown rice syrup is not suitable for consumption by diabetics, as the glucose and maltose cause rapid rise in blood-sugar.”

Read it for yourself at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rice_syrup

Bottom line, if you are going to take a chance on a new food product do your homework. Try it under a controlled situation and don’t trust anyone but your own blood sugar readings. Your results may be different than mine or that of other diabetics.

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general informational purposes only. Granola Gourmet does not treat, cure or prevent diabetes or any disease, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.