Sugar Alcohol

[Roger]

Is sugar alcohol ok for us?

I love this myoplex carb sense bar but it seems like it has 22g of sugar alcohol, is it ok?

Thanks a bunch,
Roger

[WakefieldWendy]

The answer is, it depends.

Sugar alcohols don't metabolize like other sugars. However, they affect some people a lot and others a little. For some people, they can eat them with no effect. For others, the carbs are like regular carbs in terms of how their bodies react.

Other points: sugar alcohols can cause stomach upset (i.e. gas, diarrhea). Sugar alcohols (and fake sugars) can give people cravings for the taste of sweet, or blunt sweet taste buds so that a larger dose of "sweet" is needed.

[Roger]

Do you think I should test the effect of this shugar alcohol on me with keto diastix?
Thanks,
Roger

[WakefieldWendy]

Roger, I'm not a doctor. If you are diabetic, you need to deal with this with a doctor.

If you are just looking to maintain health or improve weight issues, then my answer is that the sticks don't mean much, as the measure of stuff in your urine doesn't address whether the fat burning is dietary fat or stored body fat.

[Roger]

I´m not diabetic, I´m just afraid this sugar alcohol amount, 22grams, will take me out of ketosis.
Thanks for helping me out!
Roger

[WakefieldWendy]

We don't really speak about ketosis here. Here's the layperson's reason why.

The ketosis testing strips turn colours when you are burning lots of fat (I think especially or maybe exclusively when you are burning fat in the absense of carbs). However:

1. The strips can't tell you where the fat you are burning is coming from. So if you eat 3000 calories of fat, and no carbs, you are going to turn those strips all kinds of colours but not necessarily be losing weight. The goal of losing body fat is to burn it for energy, and the strips don't tell you if you are burning body fat or dietary fat.

2. The strips are inaccurate because they are based on urine concentration. So if you drink 5 liters of water, it may look like you aren't burning fat. If you drink 500 ml of water, it may look like you are doing pretty well. But neither of those may be accurate.

Generally I'd say - stick with real food whenever you can; and if you can't, eating a low-carb protein bar is a lot better than eating crap.

[Gaelen]

Hi, Roger...welcome in. I hope that you can do a little exploring here about the way that Protein Power works. Please take a look at the condensed information about the plan in the 'Getting Started' forums, and if you don't have a copy of any of the Protein Power books, you might want to check one out of the library or pick up a copy at your local bookstore.

'Staying in ketosis' isn't really relevant to success in following Protein Power, and ketostix are a notoriously inaccurate method of measuring fat metabolism. I'd be more concerned about the potential , gastrointestinal effects of the sugar alcohols.

[maxlharris]

My take on bars. I used to be a heavy bar user. I liked them a lot. convenient, and, relative to other meal options, relatively cheap. And some of them even taste better than linoleum.

I lost some weight with them. Then I stalled. Then I dropped them. And I lost weight faster. I'm reasonably sure it's the glycerine in them. It's allegedly non-digestible, but I dunno.

The move here is to experiment scientifically. Have a week without them and see how you feel about it. Or, have a week with them and see how you feel. Either way.