Glucoholic - Sugar Free Snacks

One of the most interesting sugar free snacks we’ve reviewed in a while is Sugar Free LifeSavers Sorbets. They come individually wrapped in cherry, raspberry, and strawberry flavors. The interesting part about these candies is that they are incredibly tart. So much so that we had difficulty telling the three flavors apart! We expected fruit flavors given the name of the product. However, the confusion over which flavor was which quickly gave way to disbelief at the amount of tart flavor these little guys provide. If you want that “fresh feeling” after a meal then we highly recommend picking up a bag and trying them out - they are not your usual after dinner mint.

Sugar Free LifeSavers Sorbets do qualify as a sugar free snack, but be careful to stay under the recommended serving size of 4 candies. They are sweetened with aspartame and 14 grams of sugar alcohol per serving. Overeating can lead to laxative effects. Normally we shy away from products sweetened with aspartame, but we’re glad we took a chance on this one. The powerful tartness covers up any bitterness that might have been noticed otherwise. Each serving contains 40 calories, and given the tart flavor we were pleasantly surprised to find 0 grams of sodium! Diabetics should manage portions and check blood sugars with all those sugar alcohols. The packaging lists the net carbs at 1 gram, but you’re more likely to see a net effect of about 8 grams of carbohydrate.

Sugar free cookies make up a fairly small portion of the cookie market. That’s why it’s always a pleasure to stumble upon a fine cookie like Joseph’s Sugar-Free Pecan Shortbread Cookies. This sugar-free version of a cookie classic is a crisp, great tasting snack. Though smaller than your garden variety packaged cookie, the one thing that’s not small is the taste.

We noticed several interesting things about the packaging of Joseph’s cookies. The bag is without the normal “tray of cookies”. Probably because the cookies are not large enough to stand up in trays, but The Glucoholic has always found these trays to be an annoyance when trying to reseal and store cookies, and a royal waste of plastic. The bag also tells the story of Joseph and his quest to create cookies that diabetics can eat. Almost hidden on the side of the bag are instructions for making the cookies more soft, which surprisingly enough reduces to “wrap it in wet paper towels and put it in the microwave for 15 seconds.” Of course we had to try this out. The process does not produce hot cookie sheet softness, but the cookies were softer than right out of the bag. Try it for yourself!

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Welcome to another installment of “Read Your Labels Carefully”. Murray Sugar Free Creme Cookies are sugar free, but definitely not low carb or low calorie. Diabetics and low carb or low calorie dieters should be wary of the significant amount of enriched flour in these cookies, especially since the serving size is three relatively small cookies.

To be fair to the Murray Cookie company, the cookies do not contain any sugar. They also taste very good. Let’s repeat that - they taste very good. So stop eating after three. It will be hard, but so is bypass surgery. Seriously, the slight lemon flavor of the crisp wafer combined with the sweet creme center make this an excellent cookie by any other measure. Kudos to Murray for using Splenda to sweeten these cookies.

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If you’re a mint fan then this review is going to make you very happy. Andes Sugar Free Creme De Menthe Thins are simply delightful. The mint is so powerful you almost forget that the the creme filling is between two chocolate planks. This is the kind of treat you feel like saving until you have some special occasion to celebrate with a fabulous meal and an after dinner coffee. The minty, fresh flavor easily lasts half an hour, and leaves you with that feeling that you got more than your money’s worth.

Serving size is six pieces of candy, which seems almost ridiculous. After tasting the mint our first reaction was “six of these things would be like accidentally swallowing a mouthful of your mint mouthwash.” This is powerful candy people. You would have to have some kind of mint or chocolate dependency problem to even consider trying to handle six of these things at one time. We highly recommend savoring just one at a time. Too much of a good thing can be a waste.

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After our recent Hershey’s Sugar Free Syrup review a few of our loyal readers mentioned that they really preferred hot fudge over chocolate syrup for ice cream treats. We came to the same realization after a short trip down memory lane that included virtual stops at Dairy Queen for Peanut Buster Parfaits and McDonald’s for Hot Fudge Sundaes. It’s just hard to beat that wonderful combination of ice cream and warm, thick, creamy, chocolaty fudge. Of course, we were a little afraid that finding anything close to sugar free hot fudge would be impossible. Thankfully we were wrong.

Enter Smucker’s Sugar Free Hot Fudge Topping. The instructions for heating could not be easier. They’re printed on the label and consist of removing the lid, microwaving, stirring, and refrigerating any remaining topping. Because of the 19 grams of sugar alcohol you will definitely want to keep your usage down to the recommended serving size of two tablespoons. There are 24 grams of carbohydrate in each serving, which include the sugar alcohols and 1 gram of fiber. This probably yields somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 grams of digestible carbohydrate for most people.

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