Glucoholic

GoLightly Sugar Free Cinnamon Hard Candy

Glucoholic — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:33:51 +0000

Halloween is usually one of those tough days for The Glucoholic. Sweet, tasty, forbidden candy is everywhere. In an attempt to get our minds off of all the temptations we decided to partake in some of the great low carb menu items at the local Cracker Barrel. This turned out to be a great idea, especially since we found another great sugar free snack to review - GoLightly Sugar Free Cinnamon Candy. So come on up to the front door, ring the doorbell, say “trick or treat”, and be prepared for a great sugar free candy idea.

These individually wrapped hard candies are very flavorful. The cinnamon taste is wonderful and not overbearing. If you prefer your cinnamon treats to relax you as opposed to causing facial distortions, then this is the candy for you. The cinnamon flavor lasts for the duration of the candy, and these are pretty substantial candies. We were satisfied with just one.

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Grape Powerade Zero

Glucoholic — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:52:58 +0000

Over a year ago we reviewed Strawberry Powerade Zero. We’ve been drinking it pretty regularly around here, but lately have been trying to get out of several ruts at the same time. What better opportunity could there be to try another great Powerade Zero flavor? Well that’s just what we did. Grape Powerade Zero did not disappoint! This beverage had the same smooth, thirst quenching qualities as its strawberry sister. The grape flavor was excellent and less syrupy than some of its competition. We put the taste right up there with Grape Propel, and this is a good thing, since one or the other is usually sold out at our local grocery. Great taste with less despair - always a good combination.

The awesome quote on the shoulder of this bottle proclaims “Believe it. What you hold in your hand is indeed zero calories. Yeah, that’s right. You can stay hydrated with electrolytes + B Vitamins… without adding calories. How you like them strawberries?” This is ironic, since this flavor is grape. Marketing folks are so clever.

The nutrition information for the grape flavor is exactly the same as for the strawberry flavor. For review, the highlights are: zero calories, zero carbs, 55 mg of sodium, and 35mg of potassium.

Federal Trade Commission Endorsement and Testimonial Guidelines Compliance Statement: Coca-Cola has in no way paid for this review. No cash or in-kind payment was received from Coca-Cola by Glucoholic.com.

Archer Farms Diet Black Cherry Cream Soda

Glucoholic — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:58:45 +0000

Over a year ago we did a review of Archer Farms Diet Orange Cream Soda. We enjoyed that soda so much that we kept an eye out for more diet flavors from Archer Farms, and picked up a four-pack of the Diet Black Cherry Cream Soda flavor to review. After consuming half of a bottle we were horrified to notice that the back of the label reads BEST BY 23/AUG/2009. Awesome! It’s kind of difficult to fairly judge a product’s taste when all you can think about is that product tasting old, so we won’t try. A description of the product’s mature taste would be “not enough black cherry soda, and too much cream soda.” There was also some pretty bad aftertaste uncommon to sodas sweetened with sucralose, but maybe it was fermentation. We’re really not trying to knock Archer Farms’ products - we tend to like them very much.

However, the comments and emails we got in response to our review of the Diet Orange Cream Soda indicated that people get very frustrated with the hit-or-miss nature of finding well-stocked Archer Farms products in Target stores. It doesn’t seem to be improving since now you can’t even count on what’s on the shelves being fresh. Maybe we should have been more careful; but seriously, when was the last time you checked the expiration date on a bottle of soda?

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Little Debbie Nutty Bar Singles

Glucoholic — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:39:16 +0000

Happy Columbus Day! Bet you never thought you would see a Little Debbie product reviewed here at Glucoholic.com did you? We’re here to say “that’s a bet worth losing.” Little Debbie Nutty Bar Singles are great little 100 calorie snacks that won’t send your blood sugar through the roof. The Little Debbie Nutty Bars have been a favorite snack for thousands for decades. We ate them by the case in our house growing up. These individually wrapped snacks are a reminder that you don’t have to eat a case to be satisfied. We were glad to find that these snacks haven’t changed in all those years since childhood, and we bet they still taste pretty sick with some low carb peanut butter smeared across the top too! Thumbs up all around for this great low carb snack.

Each individually wrapped bar provides 100 calories, 6 grams of fat, 0mg of cholesterol, 35mg of sodium, 11 grams of carbohydrate, and 1 gram of protein. Unfortunately, if you have food allergies you will probably want to avoid this product.

Federal Trade Commission Endorsement and Testimonial Guidelines Compliance Statement: McKee Foods has in no way paid for this endorsement. No cash or in-kind payment was received from McKee Foods by Glucoholic.com. If McKee Foods would like to pay Glucoholic.com for this review, then we will be glad to accept it and glad to disclose that information with this review. We, for one, welcome our new overlords at the FTC.

SoBe Lifewater Yumberry Pomegranate

Glucoholic — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:32:38 +0000

About six months ago we reviewed SoBe Lifewater Black and Blue Berry flavored water. We said that we were looking forward to tasting some of the other flavors. We should have stopped while were ahead. The Yumberry Pomegranate Lifewater flavor is a real disappointment. First off, what is a yumberry? It turns out that yumberry is another miracle fruit. Given the other 42 miracle fruits we’re supposed to be consuming for our health each day it’s getting a little hard to keep up with. This low carb, low calorie water is not horrible - it’s just that we were expecting so much more. The flavor is a little too tart and not nearly sweet enough. If you really enjoy those grass blends you can get at the juice bars, then you might like it. It’s got dandelion in it. Otherwise, stick with the Black and Blue Berry.

On a positive note, the nutrition information is almost exactly the same as for the Black and Blue Berry Lifewater. Each serving contains 6 grams of carbohydrate and 25mg of sodium, and a respectable amount of Vitamin C and other vitamins. You could do worse, but we would rather have the taste and the nutrition. Better luck next time SoBe!

Hunt’s Sugar Free Vanilla Pudding

Glucoholic — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:51:50 +0000

Most people love the smell of vanilla. It’s the most popular aroma in the world. We really love vanilla, and we were so glad that Hunt’s Sugar Free Vanilla Pudding caught our eye recently. It is a wonderful sugar free snack. These pudding packs are packed with sweet, rich, creamy sugar free pudding that is quite filling. Each bite starts off mellow, then peaks with a sensation that you are eating vanilla cake icing. The pudding also does not have to be refrigerated, which is great for those that want to keep some at their desk or that do not have refrigerators at work. We’re really happy to recommend these snacks.

Unfortunately, you might have a little difficulty finding them. We looked everywhere on the Hunt’s Snack Pack website and could not find them. We’ve purchased them twice recently at local grocery stores, so we’re a little confused as to why they are not available on the website. We’ll try to contact ConAgra Foods and see if they have an explanation. If you’ve tried these products, and especially if you’ve found them recently, leave a comment and let us know. It would be a shame if these snacks disappeared!

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Pillsbury Reduced Sugar Cream Cheese Cake Frosting

Glucoholic — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:44:56 +0000

Let’s say you’ve found a great low carb cake recipe. You really want to try it, but who wants plain cake? You think to yourself “there’s no way I can even think about frosting this cake or I’ll turn a great low carb snack into a sugar-laden, diet-busting disaster!” Worry no more. Pillsbury’s here with a great reduced sugar cream cheese frosting. Don’t get us wrong, you won’t be able to eat a dozen cupcakes slathered with this stuff. You will, however, be able to enjoy a sensible piece of that new cake with a touch of delightful frosting. This frosting tastes very similar to most cream cheese frostings we’ve had before. The texture might be slightly more creamy than your average cake frosting, but this does not detract from the taste at all. We also tried it as a thin coating on some low carb shortbread cookies and it was delightful. Go ahead. Treat yourself - you deserve it! We can’t wait to try the other flavors.

Pillsbury Reduced Sugar Cream Cheese Cake Frosting has 120 calories per two tablespoon serving. There’s 7 grams of fat and 70mg of sodium per serving. This frosting contain no cholesterol and only 2 grams of saturated fat. Total digestible carbohydrates come to about 15 grams. Pillsbury wisely used Splenda to help sweeten this delicious frosting, along with 5 grams of sugar alcohol. This frosting contains soybeans.

Russell Stover Sugar Free Chocolate Covered Peanuts

Glucoholic — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:04:50 +0000

We’ve really enjoyed some of the sugar free snacks from Russell Stover. We’ve been looking for the Sugar Free Chocolate Covered Peanuts in stores for some time, but were never able to find them. Ordering them online always seems like such a gamble when chocolate is involved, so we were really glad to find them recently at a local grocery. We were really impressed with the quality of these snacks. Not surprisingly, the chocolate shell is a dark chocolate instead of a sweeter chocolate. This is fine, and the sweetness provided by the sugar alcohol and Splenda on board is adequate. Peanuts are such a commodity it seems silly to say this, but the peanuts seem to be high quality as well. For lack of a better way to explain how, it’s almost as if they are softer than some peanuts you find in chocolate covered peanuts. We highly recommend this product.

We usually get a lot of complaints about reviewing products with a lot of sugar alcohol. We would probably be more reluctant to give good reviews to products with lots of sugar alcohol if we had experienced any real problems while doing the reviews. It seems far more likely that the majority of people are simply not paying attention to serving size and are consuming way too much. We never consume more than the recommended serving size and it’s smooth sailing. As an aside, keeping consumption down does not seem to impact blood glucose negatively either.

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EAS Advantedge Chocolate Fudge Shake

Glucoholic — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:35:46 +0000

Happy Labor Day to all of our U.S. readers! Welcome to another great product review to everyone out there. This week we’re testing EAS Advantedge Chocolate Fudge Shakes. We’re happy to say that these shakes taste fine and are easily competitive with competing products from Atkins and Slim-Fast. They are so similar that it would be hard to pick a winner out of the three. The chocolate flavor is good and the shake seems to be a little less chalky than some of the other brands’ shakes. We’re happy to recommend them, especially if you can find them at a good price.

Nutritionally, the EAS Advantedge Chocolate Fudge Shakes are very competitive with other brands. Each 11 ounce shake contains only 110 calories, 3 grams of fat, 20mg of cholesterol, 280mg of sodium, and 2 grams of digestible carbohydrate. You’ll also get 540mg of potassium and 17 grams of protein in every shake. You’ll get twenty percent or more of twenty different vitamins and minerals in each shake as well. These shakes are sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame potassium, and contain milk and soy.

Old Orchard Healthy Balance Apple Juice

Glucoholic — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:45:22 +0000

We’re really excited about this product! A dear friend of The Glucoholic recently asked if we had tried Old Orchard Healthy Balance Apple Juice. We had not, but ran right out to get a bottle to test. This juice is awesome. Let’s say that again. This juice is awesome! We might have a real contender for product of the year with this one. Once in a while we review a product that, from the first taste, you know is going to be a staple. This is one of those products. It really is impossible to tell the difference between this low carb drink and regular apple juices. The juice is mellow, smooth, and very sweet. People who’ve been missing apple juice while following a low carb diet need to run to the store to pick up a bottle as soon as possible.

Each eight ounce serving of Old Orchard Healthy Balance Apple Juice contains only 31 calories, 10mg of sodium, and 6 grams of sugar. The taste alone would be enough to justify drinking this juice, but you’ll also get 62mg of potassium and 100% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C with each serving. We were also glad to see the Splenda logo on the label letting us know we would experience excellent sweetness with no unpleasant aftertaste. Finally, we were really happy to see that Old Orchard has made a significant commitment to JDRF. We think that’s pretty cool.