Twelve Black Code Monkeys

An article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on what should be counted as a carb and creating legal definitions for food manufacturers to put on labels:

http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/0104/18carbs.html

The article is a good one and hopefully there will be some good guidelines to come out of the FDA in February. The debate the article focuses on is whether or not fiber and sugar alcohols should be counted in the overall count of carbs. Many low-carb plans discount these because they have little or no effect on insulin levels. High insulin is the culprit that low-carb pins on obesity and health issues. You may see the term “net carbs” or “effective carbs” on some food labels. This is an equation by witch carbs from fiber and sugar alcohols are removed from the total carb count. Unfortunately, the article makes no distinction between fiber and sugar alcohols. Fiber, at least insoluble fiber, really shouldn’t be counted as far as total carbs because it is not metabolized, it simply passes through your system without effecting insulin or contributing to calories at all. Sugar alcohols, on the other hand, have varying effects. Depending on the individual and the particular sugar alcohol involved, sometimes there can be just as much of an increase in insulin as there was from a carb of sugar, sometimes there is none. There is just no way of telling, or at least no way that anyone has yet to determine. Therefor, in my opinion, “net carbs” should only subtract fiber. Perhaps a seperate “contains x grams of sugar alcohols” might be useful as those might be considered at least somewhat less impactful than regular carbs, but a lot people have gastrointestinal distress from some sugar alcohols, so it might be part hook and part warning!