CARBS vc. NET CARBS?

Oh I know the answer to this one. I did low carb for a while and lost a good bit of weight...unfortunately, I couldn't keep it off:laugh:

NET carbs are basically carbs with fiber and sugar alcohols subtracted. For example, if I had some bread that had 15 carbs and 4 grams of fiber, then the NET carb count would be 11. If the bread had any sugar alcohols, then the number of grams of that would get subtracted from the total carb count, as well. Here's more about that subject:

What Are Net Carbs?
By Laura Dolson, About.com

A carb is a carb is a carb, right? If this is so, then why do some products marketed to low carb eaters have one number on the "Nutrition Facts" panel, and a much lower number labeled "Net Carbs," "Net Atkins Count," or something similar, prominently displayed on the front of the label?

It's all about blood glucose. The whole idea of a low carb diet is that we are eating in a way to keep our blood glucose from spiking up. And it turns out that some ingredients that, while classified by the FDA as carbohydrates, don't cause as much of a blood sugar rise as pure starch or sugar. Unfortunately, however, it's not so straightforward as the manufacturers would like as to think. Some of the ingredients are better than others, and probably all of them vary according to the individual. So when you see that "Net Carb" label, it should be a sign that you'd best get out your magnifying glass and read the REST of the label very carefully. Here are some of the things you might see:

Fiber

Fiber is the most straightforward. The idea of subtracting fiber from the total carbohydrate when figuring out the carb count of a food came from the authors of the Protein Power books over 10 years ago, and it makes good sense. By definition, fiber isn't digested in the small intestine and so isn't broken down into glucose and absorbed into the blood.

This is true for any natural fiber that is eaten as part of a plant. But what about manufactured ingredients that have the chemical structure of fiber? I think the jury is still out on some of these ingredients. When I see "oligofructose syrup" I have to wonder if this ingredient acts the same way in the body as oligofructose which naturally occurs in a plant, even though these molecules can be regarded as fiber in most ways.

A Note on Glycemic Index and Glycemic Impact

One of the difficulties with determining "net carbs" is that even with regular foods, it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict the blood glucose reaction of any one person to a food. If you look at this list of the glycemic indexes of foods you will see that there is a great amount of variation for any one food. This is also going to be true for many of the ingredients that are not counted as "net carbs" on some labels.

This is especially so because when there is testing of these ingredients they are almost always on "healthy" subjects who do not have a problem with processing glucose. The Atkins company has stated that diabetics may respond differently to their products. I would ask, "What about pre-diabetics? What about people who don't yet have prediabetes, but have insulin levels which are higher than normal?" There is a whole range of non-diabetics who are somewhere on the Road to Diabetes, and I just don't think we know how they are likely to react to these ingredients. Since these are the people most likely to respond well to low carb diets, these questions are important to consider.

Sugar Alcohols

Sugar alcohols (mostly with names ending in "tol," such as sorbitol, maltitol, and erythritol) are sweet substances which have a highly variable impact on blood glucose depending on which one. If I was going to advise people to avoid a single ingredient in "low carb" products, it would be maltitol. The other sugar alcohols range from a little to a lot better than maltitol, with erythritol being the best. There is a chart at the bottom of this article about sugar alcohols which compares the different types.

Sugar alcohols must be included in "total carbohydrates" on the label, and if used in sugar-free foods, also have their own line on the label so you can see how much of the total carb count is from sugar alcohols.

Glycerine

Glycerine (or glycerin) is an interesting and sort of mysterious molecule. The glycerol molecule (another name for glycerine) is the backbone of the triglyceride molecule - the storage form of fat in our bodies (3 fatty acidsa are "hooked on" to each glycerol molecule). It is not a carbohydrate, but our bodies can use it to make glucose. Although there is not as much research on the blood sugar impact of glycerine as I'd like to see, the signs are pointing towards it having quite a low impact in most people.

Polydextrose

Polydextrose sounds very suspicious, doesn't it? "Dextrose" is sugar, plain and simple. Polydextrose is a sweet manufactured product from dextrose which supposedly acts like fiber (although it is not counted as fiber on food labels). I've only been able to find one study which looked at its impact on blood glucose. In that study, done in China, it did not raise blood sugar.

Oligofructose and Inulin

These ingredients are in a class of carbohydrate (oligosaccharides) in between sugars and starches. They have a lower impact on blood glucose than sugars, because most of oligosaccharides makes it through the small intestine without being digested, at least in most people. Interestingly, by the time they get to the colon, oligosaccharides have positive effects. Read more about oligosaccharides here.

Thanks for your help! If you don't mind my asking, why couldn't you keep the weight off after your low carb diet? I'm afraid that will happen to me and I am trying to do low carb now

I don't know for sure about LovelyLady, but I know personally I couldn't handle (and my body couldn't handle) the low carb. I really love bread and pasta and felt it was unfair to starve my body of them. But I did it because it worked... for awhile. But once I was allowed carbs again, it went downhill. Your body just needs these things. I've changed my mindset when it comes to dieting lately (mostly due to MFP)... you can't deprive your body of things it needs. Instead of cutting out carbs or cutting them down to next to nothing, it's more about balancing things properly with everything else. I find that when you do diets that either deprive you of certain things or require you to focus only on certain things, you just can't stick with them because it's not how your body was meant to survive. It needs balance and it needs all of those things... in moderation of course. Now I focus on balancing things properly instead of cutting out things in particular. I find that I'm more successful when it's a true life change that is healthy for you instead of a fad thing that generally ends with gaining the weight back anyway.

Just my 0.2 cents!

Thanks for your help! If you don't mind my asking, why couldn't you keep the weight off after your low carb diet? I'm afraid that will happen to me and I am trying to do low carb now

I don't know for sure about LovelyLady, but I know personally I couldn't handle (and my body couldn't handle) the low carb. I really love bread and pasta and felt it was unfair to starve my body of them. But I did it because it worked... for awhile. But once I was allowed carbs again, it went downhill. Your body just needs these things. I've changed my mindset when it comes to dieting lately (mostly due to MFP)... you can't deprive your body of things it needs. Instead of cutting out carbs or cutting them down to next to nothing, it's more about balancing things properly with everything else. I find that when you do diets that either deprive you of certain things or require you to focus only on certain things, you just can't stick with them because it's not how your body was meant to survive. It needs balance and it needs all of those things... in moderation of course. Now I focus on balancing things properly instead of cutting out things in particular. I find that I'm more successful when it's a true life change that is healthy for you instead of a fad thing that generally ends with gaining the weight back anyway.

Just my 0.2 cents!

You took the words right out of my mouth! Those are my sentiments EXACTLY!