Anybody out there have a problem with sugar free candies?

Maltilol really affects some people negatively (me among them). I would look for stuff sweetened with erythritol or without sugar alcohols at all.

Such as Chocoperfection. Netrition (the link I gave for Chocoperfection) has a lot of low-carb products.

I had some sugar free candy once, and was in such pain afterward, it was almost excruciating. I was visiting a friend and the only way to escape the pain was to fall asleep on her couch. Then I got up, went home, went to the bathroom and felt better. Never again.

We used to cut heroin and cocaine with Maltitol back in the 70s. We called it baby laxative.

It is now used as a sugar substitute, which is why the warnings on labels using it in re warnings of a laxative effect.

We look for things sweetened with Stevia or revia. I would stay away from sucralose a.k.a. sweet and low.

I think pretty much all of the sugar alcohols used in those candies have a laxative effect. I’ve never had any problems with malitol and sorbitol, but I don’t think you can work up tolerances to it, you either are sensitive to it or are not.

Be careful with your label reading. If you’re looking for a “reduced” something, you’re going to find that they make up for it somehow. Fat free is carb loaded, and low carb tends to go high fat. If it’s low in both when it shouldn’t be then you probably are better off not eating it.

Personally I’ve gone the route of quality over quantity. I’d rather buy candies that are very high quality and even if they are high carb and just eat small amounts of it. Higher quality stuff often gets you better ingredients and especially in terms of chocolate will make you satisfied quicker with less. Gummies though are high carb no matter what you do to them, because it’s what they’re made out of that has the carbs.

My mother suffers from diverticulitis, and she gets terrible stomach aches from sugar substitutes.

@mtooner Sucralose is Splenda not Sweet N Low.

Ha ha ha ha. Mom bought a birthday cake for my sister that contained xylitol (another sugar alcohol), and the entire family had painful abdominal cramping and explosive diarrhea. The most mind boggling aspect is that my sister continued to eat the cake, even though it affected her, too.

All sorts of fake sugars kill me afterwards. I’ve learned to stay away from them all.

The only thing that doesn’t bother me at all is one Stevia in a cup of coffee. But then, coffee has been bugging lately too.

I once had a couple Demet’s sugar free turtles and didn’t have a problem, and they were very tasty, but as a rule I do not eat or drink anything with artificial sweetner. I couldn’t find on the website the ingredients for the turtles with the fake stuff, so I am not sure what they use.

Ingredients in Demet’s sugar-free turtles

Sucralose = Splenda

Interesting that I could not find the ingredients on the Demet’s website. They did have the ingredients for the regular sugar ones. Maybe the Splenda will be ok for the OP.

I don’t eat sugar free things often but I do drink a diet pepsi a couple times a week and did recently buy a sugar free nut brittle with Mailitol. No issues here, but, Stevia is a really great sugar substitute that is natural. I used to grow Stevia and chew on the leaves.

Sugar-free gummy bears – those are the ones that cause explosive diarrhea according to Amazon reviews, right? I’ve never had a bad reaction to artificial sweeteners, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever eaten anything with Mailitol in it. I do know a few people that feel like crap if they eat or drink anything with Splenda or Stevia in it. Aside from an occasional cup of coffee, I don’t regularly use artificial sweeteners. Or even regular sugar. I use brown sugar in my daily oatmeal.

Can I ask why you’re trying to cut carbs out of your diet?

While I am in remission from Adrenal Cancer (actually Pheochromocytoma) I can’t exercise because my pulse and BP go too high and put be in danger of stroke or tia. I am trying to cut carbs some to maybe decrease my weight gain. As an old farm boy, I am used to putting in a full days work and can’t any more. So I a putting on pounds with no way to work them off.

The amazon reviews on Haribo sugar free gummy bears are…unreal.

Read this, you’ll laugh, and never touch the things again.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelrusch/haribo-gummy-bear-reviews-on-amazon-are-the-most-insane-thin

@majorrich Carbs are not the enemy. You can cut down to 0g of carbs per day and still gain weight, easy. I know I could. Hellooooo bacon. It’s calories in vs. calories out. That’s it. Calculate your TDEE (the number of calories your body naturally burns throughout the day just by you living your life), subtract a percentage from it, and eat that many calories. Simple. As for the percentage, it depends on how much you have to lose – 20% is the maximum deficit you should be eating at. I eat at TDEE – 10%, which is about 1810 calories per day when averaged over the week for me, because I’m within 5 lbs of my goal and I’m still losing weight. I don’t limit carbs at all. Though, I did to Atkins once. Most miserable 4 months of my life.

People try to make weight loss way more complicated than it is. You don’t have to cut an entire food group out of your diet in order to lose weight. Weight loss isn’t easy, but it is simple.

I am so sedintary I’ve become sedimentary. The tumor(s) aren’t growing any more, but they can’t or couldn’t last time I got into trouble. I break a sweat just thinking about exercising.

@majorrich I didn’t say anything about exercise. Your body naturally burns calories all day. All you have to do to burn calories is be alive. And you don’t have to exercise to lose weight.

Ohhh. That’s a good thing. I’ve really stepped up my water consumption and have been reducing portion sizes. If I can stop the gaining, perhaps I can start losing.