Hard Candy as a Strategy

jgnatca

It's been smoky around here lately and the air quality is grim. Something to do with forest fires south of here. I blame that smoke for a tickle on the back of my throat and I've taken a soothing Eucalyptus lozenge a few times. There's no way I can rush a candy like that, so it rattles around in my cheek for a good long while.
That candy got in the way as I was doing food prep in the kitchen. Often I'll snack on the ingredients as I go, but not many foods pair well with Eucalyptus. So my urge to nibble was put aside. This got me to thinking, how hard candies could help control cravings and support weight loss.
I looked up the nutritional content of the Ricola Eucalyptus herb drop. It comes out to 200 calories for 100g. But there's no way a single drop comes out to 100g; it's more like 10g. A twenty calorie hit.
Then I test entered a few ingredients from a salad last week, and halved my usual consumption. I'm just grabbing a bite; it's not that much, is it?

cheddar cheese, 1/2 of a cube, 40 calories
unsalted roasted peanuts, 1/8 cup, 80 calories
sweetened dried cranberries, 1/3 of 1/3 a cup, 62 calories
Various nibbles of greens which won't add up to much

For a grand total of 182 calories. As compared to twenty calories.
The little lozenge, because of the way it's consumed (slowly!) can thwart unconscious snacking. That's a pretty good deal!

This doesn't work of course, if the chosen candy is eaten automatically, one after the other.
This same strategy would work with sugar free mint gum. As a bonus, the mint gum keeps me from tearing up when I am chopping onions.

It also helps if I fill the sink with soapy water, to clean up as I go. Not only do I have a tidier kitchen, but remove the temptation to lick the spoon.

ninthnarnian

Neat idea!

ninerbuff

Dang, when you said hard candy, I was thinking Jolly Ranchers.

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LastingChanges

Is there any sugar in these drops? I might steal this idea but not if it affects my teeth, unfortunately I get cavities from just looking at sweets =/

LastingChanges

Also is it safe to have cough drops daily for a long period?

LastingChanges

Found this under nutritional info, don't love that it has aspartame since I mostly try to avoid it. I sometimes use altoids peppermint to stop cravings. Peppermint is the only flavor that is 100% naturally flavored but it does have a little bit of sugar so it is not teeth friendly.

Polyols (polyhydric alcohols)
This product contains polyols such as isomalt, sorbitol and sorbitol syrup. Excessive consumption may have a laxative effect.
Aspartame
This product contains a source of phenylalanine in the form of aspartame and is therefore not suitable for persons suffering from the hereditary disease phenylketonuria.

AuntieAnon

How about peppermint xylitol gum, @HereToLoseOrWin ? It's good for your teeth! Works like the lozenges by preventing snacking, except instead of sucking, you chew. I don't know how common they are in the US, but here in Finland it's hard to find gum sweetened with anything else.

itsmegina

I chew sugar free gum often to distract my taste buds if I'm wanting to eat more after a meal or if I'm preparing food and don't want to be nibbling as I go along. It works for me!

MissBabyJane

I chew sugar free gums for that purpose, but my jaw hurts these days a lot, so I might change it up with candies

swift13b

I buy hard candies made with stevia to have throughout the day at work when I'm bored. Have to be careful though because one too many causes stomach pains!

jgnatca

Dang, I forgot to babysit this thread! I really do appreciate all your contributions. The candy I used did have sugar in it. I wanted to illustrate that even a hard sugar candy (which we associate with bad calories) is still superior to mindless nibbling.

It probably is not a good idea to pop those babies every day.

janiep81

I chew cinnamon gum for this purpose. Cinnamon seems to work better for me.

Francl27

Yeah when I start getting a cold and start having some cold-eeze lozanges, it definitely prevents me from snacking for a while. And they do make sugar free ones (Ricola too).

There must be some real candy alternatives though? I know that just chewy caramels keep my mouth busy a while (especially with all the bits and pieces that get stuck on your teeth afterwards), so maybe a hard caramel would do it? Plus they're delicious and very satisfying.

jgnatca

Cinnamon, mint, and caramel. Great suggestions. This goes along with the idea that all food fits, but quantity matters.

swift13b

Surprisingly I think this is one of the few areas where Australia has better options than the US! I like to order grocery products from iherb.com and I thought I'd find a lot of sugar-free options but didn't!

'Double D' is available in the major supermarkets and has a wide range of candies, unfortunately they include gelatine which I don't eat so I haven't tried them before.


There's also the Sugarless Confectionary Company which is available in pharmacies, they have chocolate plus a hazelnut spread (nutella-style) made with stevia.


Plus the ones I buy, which are from Aldi and of course I can't find a photo of them online. Again you have to be careful with these sorts of things but they're nice to have when a sugar craving hits!

jgnatca

I see the gummies are sweetened with malitol and stevia. A thoughtful gift for a diabetic.

For nibbling prevention, I'd still go with hard candy or gum.

Geedubbers

I have used this trick as well with DoTerra on guard throat lozenges. They are all organic all natural and non menthol. They do have clove oil which makes for an interesting flavour.