I went to CVS after work yesterday for a few items, and while I was there I stopped by the nutrition aisle and looked at the various snack and “energy” bars. I had resisted to this point trying one of the Atkins Advantage bars, simply because I have been eating as much real food as possible, staying away from processed items. Then I saw it. My weakness…chocolate and peanut butter. Atkins makes a Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar and I suddenly craved it! Oh, I didn’t think for it a minute it would taste good, but I had to know. In looking over the nutritional information, I was truly puzzled how they could come up with only 3 net carbs impacting me when it still had 12 grams of carb once you subtract the fiber. I’m not a math whiz, but that didn’t compute. No matter, I trusted the good folks at Atkins and purchased the bar.
Since my commute home from work is usually an hour, I unwrapped the precious treat and ate it very slowly. Can I tell you? It tasted great! I mean, for a bar…it really had great chocolate taste, and peanut butter flavor wasn’t bad. I thought to myself, this might just be the perfect treat to keep around to help me battle any chocolate cravings.
I did eat dinner a little bit later, did some chores, and settled in at around 9 PM to watch the Food Network before bed. WHAM! I’m suddenly hit with the worst cramps I’ve had in ages! Then came the, um, okay — I’ll just say it — gas. Wicked gas! Good thing my husband is still out of town – it would have driven him away! I am fortunate enough to say that I did not wind up with a case of diarrea, but I was shot as far as being able to do anything after 9 PM. I resignedly just pulled up the covers and tried to go to sleep early just to escape the cramps.
What caused this unpleasant reaction? My dinner, which consisted of sauteed beef and vegetables, and a little cheddar cheese? Nope. Pretty straightforward low-carb meal just like the last nine weeks of my life. The offending item had to be the Atkins bar.
Now, the Atkins website does not list maltitol in the ingredients of this bar. But if it wasn’t maltitol, what else could have caused this? Glycerine? Maltodextrine? I have Splenda regularly so it wasn’t the sucralose. Hmmm. Can anyone help me out with this?
Atkins does include maltitol in some of their other chocolate coatings (the “candy” bars called Endulge), and I’d love to hear about anyone’s experiences with this sugar alcohol or any other ingredients that cause unpleasant reactions.
Poor LST! I feel your pain, but have to say Mrs. Megamas and I haven’t experienced these issues with Atkins Endulge bars (Mrs. M has religiously consumed one Caramel Nut Chew per night since July 2003). I too have found it hard to reconcile the math on the “new” Atkins bar formulations. After the low carb “bust,” they started stating on some of their products that they were “low in sugar.” I can’t tell from the ingredient lists on their website where this sugar is coming from unless it’s naturally occurring sugar buried in the named ingredients.
The only other thing I can take a wild guess at is not the glycerine, but the third ingredient in the list: polydextrose. According to Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydextrose), polydextrose is a soluble fiber commonly used to replace sugar, starch, and fat in commercial products. If there’s that much fiber in the Atkins bar, it could be what was ailing you. Mrs. M was told by her doctor to get more fiber in her diet, and after figuring out that was going to be difficult to do without supplements, I started buying her tablets with calcium added (she doesn’t eat much dairy). She will not take the tablets on days she has to be in meetings or such because of the gas problem; as a matter of fact, ANY day she doesn’t feel like dealing with the bloat and associated issues, she won’t take them, including weekends.
I’m not saying the Endulge bars would have less of an effect on you, but they might be worth a try. Even though polydextrose is still high on the list of ingredients, maybe they don’t have to use as much because of the maltitol. That sugar alcohol by itself has, in other candies, given me the royal runs, so I try to avoid eating much of it. But I’ve never had a problem with the Caramel Nut Chew, the Peanut Caramel Cluster, or the Chocolate Covered Coconut bar.
Let me know what happens!
Megamas
I wonder if it could be something similar that is in fat free chocolate and other goodies which just gives me horrible stomach stuff?
Lalie