Glucoholic - Sugar Free Snacks

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!