Snackwell Sugar Free cookies say they have zero grams of sugar, but 4-6 grams of sugar alcohol. Should this be counted as straight grams in ecc (effective carbohydrate count) as described in Protein Power?

yes.

sugar alcohol, or mannitol, is the sweetest of all alcohols, and it is naturally found in pumpkins and mushrooms. the only advantage of using alcohols instead of sugar to sweeten the cookies here is that it doesn't get stored as glycogen.

If you go to the orange bar at the top of the page and click on Low Carb Tools, you'll come to the hidden carb calculator. Plug the nutritonal information into the calculator and you'll find out how many carbs those cookies really have. I'd be surprised if there weren't starches in there as well, so there will be more than 4-6 grams of carbohydrates in a serving, and they may set up cravings for more. There's a link at the bottom of the page to information about hidden carbs.

They're probably really low fat, too, so they'll taste like sweetened cardboard. If you need something sweet, a low-carb, high-fat treat, like a mock danish or one of Karen's desserts (No-bake Cheesecake or Chocolate Truffles) will taste a whole lot better, be more satisfying, and help keep your calories up. You can't lose weight eating this way unless you're eating 10-12 times your weight in calories, which means lots of fat.

A lot of people feel that foods like Snackwells are partially to blame for the alarming increase in obesity in North America over the past few years, so let's not reward them any more.

Susan