Hi all,

I have a question- Does anyone understand how the Carb Solutions bars Sam's Club carries work? It lists 14g total carb., but has no fiber or sugar alcohol to subtract from carbs. The bars advertise 3 grams "net" carbs- I have been eating them here and there, wondering if they are "legit"-

Any info would be appreciated!

Thank you, Heather

Check to see if glycerine is listed. That always confuses me too. I have the Atkins Morning Start Bars. They list 14 g total, 5 g fiber, 2 g sugar alcohols. They print a net of 2 g even though in my book it should be 7 g. The other 5 g are glycerine as explained on the packaging.

I hope that helps.

I guess it could be splenda or another AS as well. But I don't think those are usually included in carb counts.

A friend of mine lived on the Carb Solutions bars while on Atkins. I don't advocate that, but, he still lost. I think this is an instance of YMMV, especially since he is a man, and they seem to lose easier.

Good luck!

-Jess

Thank you Jess- that helps. The weird thing is there's not listing of glycerine in either the ingredients or Nutrition Facts... there's a little sentence "For those watching their carbs count 3 grams. The remaining carbs have little effect on blood sugar."

...seems kinda fishy! my husband eats them a lot since he's a former sweet addict- they are good if you can't pack breakfast- maybe i should just quit 'em all together =)

Thanks for the feedback!

Glycerine makes up the rest of the carbs thus only 3 net carbs are "counted". But for some, glycerine counts. This is why many people "stall out" when eating bars. If you are one of those that glycerine does not affect, than you only count 3 net carbs to your daily total.

Hi - I have a similar concern. Went to my local pharmacy last night to pick up some Advantage bars (2.99 each!) and saw right beside them the Shoppers Drug Mart brand "Life" bars, so I took one of each to the pharmacist and asked her to compare to see if they were the same (price for Life bars is $1.29) - she said they were slightly smaller (50g vs 60g) and had less fat (5g vs 11g) but otherwise were identical. So I bought them and ate one for breakfast this morning since I didn't have anything else handy, and lo and behold, as I looked at the very hard to read packaging (small dark type on a silver wrapper) I noticed that the first ingredient listed was sucrose/fructose - so I think I just consumed my first hidden carbs - carb count was 22g and there was no "net carb" info that I could see. Help?!? Anyone else run into these bars?
Thanks,
AJ

DON'T eat those Life brand bars...sugar as a first ingredient isn't really a hidden carb is it?

Those aren't low-carb bars, those are energy bars...not Atkins friendly in the least. The pharmacist lied to you.

That does seem fishy. If the remainder is glycerin, it should be listed as an ingredient at least. That is a shame because I think those Sam's club bars are alot cheaper than the Atkins version.

-Jess

Hi Gaijingal - thanks - do you know of any other low-carb bars that are cheaper than Advantage in the T.O. area? I've had little luck - I'm in Brampton area and even Herbie's, which usually has amazing prices, is at the $2.99 price point. Was told Zehrs or Loblaws have them cheaper at $1.99 but was hoping I'd be able to find a cheaper product - do you know if our Walmarts or Zellers would carry them?

Re: the pharmacist - I think she was comparing only the nutritional info item by item - and Advantage bars list carbs as 22, same as the Life bars - but wouldn't the sugar content then be contributing to the carb listing on the Life bar? I'm confused as to how they could be the same carb count when one has sugar and one used Splenda.

Heather,

The cheapest price I've seen for Advantage Bars is $2.29, and that was a sale Dominion had when they first started carrying them. We're lucky though, when I bought them in the States, they were $2.99 US! In fact, the $2.99 is a drastic drop from the 4-4.50 range the bars were a year ago here.

As for the 22 g on both bars, I can't answer that, as I don't have a bar in front of me. Sorry.

Post it if you find a cheaper price, 'Kay?

Hey All,

Anyone looking for Atkins Advantage bars, Costco has them for 29.99 for the case of 15, which is cheaper then anywhere we have seen.

They also have a couple of other lookalikes, but we are new to this, so we stuck with the Atkins brand.

Thank you gaijingal- i may look for the Advantage bars- if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!
=) guess i'll stick w/my celery sticks and cream cheese...

Just thought I'd jump in here and say....I LOVE THE CARB SOLUTIONS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH BARS! They're SO yummy! :-)

I saw the comercial for those, and went out to get LC bars. I couldn't find them,. but bought other kinds. They were so so. I finally found the cookie dough ones and was so excite dI bought the whole box as they weren't sold individually. Silly me, I actually expected them to taste like cookie dough. I was severly disapointed. They tasted like every other chocolate fake protien bar. I stopped eating the bars for a long time, maybe a month. Now I can't even stand the smell of them. That's probably a good thing as they don't fill me up like a regular meal would, and they are too high calorie for me to have just as a snack. Bars are good for carrying around in case of ermergancy (like everyone having chocolate cake) but for the most part they are a huge waste of money and carbs.

Yum. Just had half a Carb Solutions creamy chocolate peanut butter bar.

The carbs in the Carb Solutions bars, as in sugar-free chocolates and candies, are polyols (sugar alcohols), which are carbohydrates, and so must be listed on the package as such, but are made up of molecules too large for the body to digest. They therefore pass through without being broken down and passed into the bloodstream, so their effect on blood sugar levels, and therefore insulin response, is little or none. This is why the carbs listed are high, but the effective carbs are only 2 or 3 for these bars.

The problem with eating foods with these sugar alcohols (manitol, sorbitol -- if it ends in "ol," it's an alcohol) is that they act like beans, i.e. if you eat too many you'll get a serious case of gas. It can actually be quite painful.

Dana Carpender goes into detail about these sugar alcohols in her wonderful book, "500 Low-Carb Recipes." I can't recommend this book too highly!

I live in upstate New York and we have a store chain called Wegmans that carries the Carb Solutions bars for $8.99 for a box of 6. There's also a $1.00 off coupon printed on the inside of the box toward your next purchase. These are the best price I've found.

They're actually very cost-effective if you're using them for emergency meal replacements, or even to short circuit a carb craving. They're very dense and sweet, almost sickeningly so. My problem with them is that I seem unable to have just one. Maybe I'm still too new to low-carbing to be able to moderate my taste for chocolate. They're an awfully expensive snack.

However, they didn't seem to have an effect on my carb levels, so if they work for you, I'd say use them and just count the 2 or 3 effective carbs toward your daily allowance.

Gina