Glucoholic

Atkins Endulge Peanut Butter Cups

Glucoholic — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:22:36 +0000

Today we’re celebrating for two reasons. First, Independence day is upon us in the U.S.; and second, we found Atkins Endulge Peanut Butter Cups! These great little sugar free snacks come in packs of two. They are poured into a tray that makes getting the cups out whole, and without damage, a breeze. And what magnificent cups they are. The first bite leaves you with two words on the tip of your tongue - rich and creamy. These cups are not quite as sweet as some of their competitors, but we think the blend of dark chocolate and peanut butter is fantastic. The taste most reminds you of chocolate candies made from scratch. We’re happy to endorse these wonderful snacks.

The serving size is two cups. Two cups will get you 160 calories and 13 grams of fat, which includes zero trans fat. You’ll also get 5mg of cholesterol and 55mg of sodium. Two pieces also contain about 8 grams of digestible carbohydrate. As is true with many of the low carb diet products, this product has quite a bit of sugar alcohol, so consume wisely. You’ll also get 4 grams of fiber, 60mg of potassium, and 3 grams of protein! Those with food allergies should check the packaging carefully, as this product will impact most of them.

Trader Joe’s Valencia Peanut Butter With Roasted Flaxseeds

Glucoholic — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:51:52 +0000

We really wanted to like Trader Joe’s Valencia Peanut Butter With Roasted Flaxseeds. Unfortunately, this review was a lesson in not always getting what you want. We wanted to like this peanut butter because it’s a low carb food with lots of Omega-3 Fatty Acids. Unfortunately its taste got in the way. We were willing to overlook the remaining oil after minutes of intense stirring. We were willing to overlook having to store this peanut butter in the refrigerator. We just couldn’t get over the taste. Bitter, oily, and grainy is the best way to describe it. The roasted flaxseeds would probably have tasted better raw. Unfortunately, we can’t really recommend this peanut butter. For our money, we’ve not seen anything that can beat Smart Balance Omega Peanut Butter.

That’s a shame too, as each 32 gram serving is really nutrient filled. With each serving you would get 200 calories, 16 grams of fat, no cholesterol, and 55mg of sodium. You would also get a low 2 grams of digestible carbohydrate, including 3 grams of fiber, and 9 grams of protein.

Diet Gold Peak Tea

Glucoholic — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:49:08 +0000

A 2009 Chef’s Best Award winner, Diet Gold Peak Tea is a delightful sugar free drink. The brand is owned by The Coca-Cola Company, which knows a little bit about brand recognition. The packaging is simple, but elegant. The tea has a taste that can only come from quality tea leaves. With Coca-Cola’s help this tea should become quite popular. The tea could be slightly sweeter, but what person brought up on sweet tea in the south would refuse to have their tea a little sweeter? If you’re not accustomed to making a trip to the store for a new bag of sugar each time you brew a batch of tea, then you’re going to like this tea. We usually hate to give credit to a beverage that’s sweetened with aspartame, but Gold Peak gave us no options. We kept taking sip after sip waiting for some sort of aftertaste, but nothing ever materialized. This is a quality iced tea.

Each eight ounce serving contains 25mg of sodium and that’s it. Gold Peak’s mix of aspartame and acesulfame potassium must have taken months to perfect, because we think the aspartame is undetectable. With zero calories and zero carbohydrates, this sugar free drink has to be one of our better finds this year, and we encourage you to give Diet Gold Peak Tea a try!

Worldwide Frosty Chocolate Pure Protein Shake

Glucoholic — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:12:18 +0000

If you are in need of some extra protein in your diet you might want to give Worldwide Sport Nutritional Supplements‘ Frosty Chocolate Pure Protein Shake a try. Marketed as a protein supplement drink and not a meal replacement drink, these shakes might be more beneficial for the exercisers out there than the dieters. Though not quite as enjoyable as the Atkins or Slim-Fast shakes, they are totally drinkable. We thought they would have benefited from a little more sucralose. The label recommends that you shake the can gently, then slowly and carefully open the pop-top. We can attest that following these instructions very closely is advised.

Each 11 ounce can equals one serving and contains 110 calories and 1 gram of fat. A serving also contains 10mg of cholesterol and 170mg of sodium. It was refreshing to see that the label’s usage of “net carbs” was actually correct, in that 5 grams of carbohydrate minus 3 grams of dietary fiber does actually yield 2 grams of net digestible carbohydrate. It would have been nice if Worldwide had replaced the 1 gram of sugar with more sucralose so that this would be a truly sugar free drink, but it’s really hard to complain about 260mg of potassium, 21 grams of protein, and 70 percent of the recommended daily intake of calcium. We’ll take the trade off. Worldwide Frosty Chocolate Pure Protein Shakes are sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame potassium. Persons with milk, soy, peanut, or egg allergies should avoid this product.

Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom Krunch Lites Ice Cream Bars

Glucoholic — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:02:59 +0000

Several weeks ago we reviewed Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom Black Raspberry Ice Cream Bars. They were so good we decided to give another Blue Bunny product a shot. It’s really starting to get hot in our neck of the woods, and Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom Krunch Lites Ice Cream Bars seemed like the right choice to provide us with some relief. We were not disappointed. Chocolate and rice covering vanilla ice cream on a stick - what’s not to like? Seriously, these things are great. Delicious ice cream, rich chocolate, and crispy rice make these bars a dream to eat. If there’s anything to complain about it’s that they’re smaller than the non-diet competitors. This is pretty standard for your low carb treats, and totally acceptable given the extraordinary taste of these low carb snacks.

Each individually wrapped bar contains 90 calories, 6 grams of fat, 5mg of cholesterol, and 35mg of sodium. One bar will also provide about 6 grams of digestible carbohydrate, including 2 grams of fiber. Though each bar contains 2 grams of sugar, they also contain 70mg of potassium and 2 grams of protein. Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom Krunch Lites Ice Cream Bars are sweetened with Splenda and acesulfame potassium and also contain milk and soy. If you are envious of all those people enjoying ice cream bars this summer, we encourage you to pick up a box of these low carb snacks!

Edy’s No Sugar Added Fruit Bars

Glucoholic — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:16:43 +0000

We’re really glad to be bringing you Edy’s No Sugar Added Fruit Bars today. Frozen treats are a summer favorite for many. Thankfully the low carb options for these treats continue to grow, and these fruit bars are a good example. Winner of one of the 2008 ChefsBest awards, these fruit pops made with real fruit taste great. You can really taste the fruit in the strawberry, tangerine, and raspberry flavors. We thought the tangerine had the strongest flavor, but all three flavors were truly fantastic. They come individually wrapped and provide a cool, refreshing, low carb snack on a hot day.

Serving size is one fruit pop. Each popsicle contains 30 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, and no sodium. Each popsicle also contains about 6 grams of digestible carbohydrate, including one gram of fiber. You’ll get one gram of sugar, so it’s not a completely sugar free snack. Edy’s No Sugar Added Fruit Bars are sweetened with Splenda and acesulfame potassium. As a bonus, they also provide 25 percent of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C. We’re glad to recommend these low carb snacks to help keep you cool this summer.

True Lemon Crystallized Citrus Flavors

Glucoholic — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:59:15 +0000

When we first started reviewing this product we thought we were on our way to a negative review. We got three glasses of cold water, and mixed in the True Lemon, True Lime, and True Orange flavors. We took three sips. Then we said “what’s the point?” The Glucoholic has never been fond of just dropping citrus in water. It’s probably the acidity, but it just seems like tongue-kissing the terminals of a nine volt battery. Being from the south, our first stroke of genius was to add a pack of Splenda to each water. Now we were getting somewhere. Definitely drinkable, but still a little like that homemade lemonade you make in restaurants when they don’t have anything you want to drink. Then we tried a little in some Splenda-sweetened iced tea. Paydirt! This stuff really does taste like the natural flavors. The orange was especially intriguing. We felt a little silly, and then sillier again when we saw all the things you can do with these crystallized citrus flavors on the True Lemon website.

Nutritionally, there’s nothing to report except the exceptional 25% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C per packet. Zero of everything else means you can use it for many purposes without any worry. We noticed there’s a new True Lemon Naturally Sweet flavor, which has Truvia brand stevia already in the packet for sweetness. This should be pretty handy for those who just want to carry the packets to flavor their tea. Overall, we give these crystallized citrus flavors a good rating, and can’t wait to try some of their cooking and baking recipes.

Northland Light Cranberry Grape Juice

Glucoholic — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:25:03 +0000

We are very glad to see competition heating up amongst similar low carb products. Until Northland Light Cranberry Grape Juice showed up there was very little competition for Ocean Spray Light Cran-Grape Juice. We found that Northland has done a fantastic job of producing a cranberry grape juice that is up to the competition. Northland’s version of this low carb juice is slightly less flavorful than Ocean Spray’s, but we’re pretty sure you will be tempted to make the trade off when you find out that Northland Light Cranberry Grape Juice has 70 fewer milligrams of sodium than its competitor! Knowing this makes the Northland product taste all that much better. If you like to watch your sodium, this low carb juice might just be what the doctor ordered.

Each eight ounce serving of Northland Light Cranberry Grape Juice is sweetened with sugar, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium. Each serving contains 40 calories, 5mg of sodium, 6 grams of digestible carbohydrate, and 3 grams of fiber. The 5 grams of sugar would probably bother us if the other stats weren’t so stellar. Each serving also contains ten percent of the recommended daily intake of Vitamins A and E.

PhillySwirl Sugar Free Vanilla Cream Stix

Glucoholic — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:28:18 +0000

It is so good to see so many sugar free snacks showing up on the grocery store shelves these days. This time of year we are particularly interested in the frozen variety, and today’s review wins a blue ribbon in that category. PhillySwirl Sugar Free Vanilla Cream Stix are fantastic! We could stop there and feel totally comfortable with the review; but truthfully, we just can’t stop talking about these things. Each box of these wonderful frozen treats contains three flavors of vanilla cream swirled goodness. More on that in a moment. We found these sugar free snacks to be most readily available at Sam’s Club. They usually cost less than seven dollars for a box of thirty. That’s less than a quarter for each snack people. And well worth it if you ask us.

Nutritionally these snacks are a home run as well. Serving size is one frozen snack. Each serving contains only 14 calories, 7mg of sodium, and 3 grams of sugar alcohol. They are sweetened with Splenda and acesulfame potassium. With these kinds of numbers the only danger to your health will be from eating half the box and ending up in the rest room all afternoon. Seriously, we can’t remember a taste-to-nutrition ratio this good in all our previous sugar free snack reviews.

Let’s take a closer look at the three flavors.

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Diet Snapple Lime Green Tea

Glucoholic — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:13:12 +0000

We’ve had some interesting experiences with green tea in the past. We were beginning to think that we would never find a sugar free green tea we were really happy with. But then we found Diet Snapple Lime Green Tea. They say that sometimes the smallest things make the difference, and who would have known that a little lime could make so much difference? Diet Snapple Lime Green Tea is a wonderful blend of green tea, lime flavor, and sweetness. As you lift the bottle for the first sip your nose detects the aroma of green tea leaves and your past experiences tell you to prepare for disappointment. But then the fresh lime flavor just explodes, and you are left with a sweet aftertaste. If you, like us, are a little afraid of green teas, then we highly recommend you give this tea a taste.

Diet Snapple Lime Green Tea is a sugar free drink sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame potassium. Each eight ounce serving contains zero calories, zero fat, and only 10mg of sodium, and only one gram of carbohydrate. If you are looking for a healthy sugar free drink that tastes pretty good, you can’t do much better than this one.