Photo: Susie Mathis
Time to exercise! Which one of these 3 products would you choose?
Obviously this is an ultra-processed item. I do not know what it is exactly, I believe it is a fudge or muffin mix. Definitely not a diabetic friendly item even if you see 0 sugar on the package!
I will cut straight to the subject and I’ll give you my answer: I might choose the one in the middle. Why? Let’s analyze!
1st product:
Ingredients: there are 13 of them!
- “enriched bleached wheat flour” – what is that??? The grain is stripped away from all its nutrients, the it is bleached to become whiter and they add some vitamins so that the flour wont be exactly an empty carb!…
- hidden sugars: maltitol, polydextrose, maltodextrin, sucralose, acesulfame potassium
- artificial ingredients: enriched bleached wheat flour, maltitol, polydextrose, maltodextrin, sucralose, acesulfame potassium and artificial flavor
Nutrition facts: two columns, one for “as packaged”, totally useless as you will most likely eat the product prepared. But it is a trompe l’oeil! It does make you believe that the product is better.
Most likely you will have to add some butter to prepare the product. That’s why suddenly you have saturated fats and cholesterol on the second column.
Then you have the carbs: 24 / one serving is a quarter of your daily intake… Does it worth it? Questionable… 10 gr of sugar alcohols artificially created in a lab…
Finally you have some minerals and vitamins mentioned but again it is a trompe l’oeil! The quantities are really insignificant, they are just listed so it will trick your brain and make you believe it is a good choice to buy!
2nd product
9 ingredients only:
- same story with the flour
- hidden sugars: corn starch – already much shorter list
- artificial ingredients: artificial flavor
Nutrition facts: saturated fats and cholesterol are the same as the 1st product.
The only thing that changes is that we have to deal with real sugar not with polyols, aka sugar alcohols. We already know that our body has a tough time dealing with the sugar alcohols. Your microbiome doesn’t like them that’s why you can end up with a diarrhea if you eat a second muffin! While there are hacks to trick your blood sugar, I have no idea how to combat with all those artificially created ingredients. Your body might accept them for a few times but if you keep on feeding on those chemicals, do not wonder if one day you’ll have cancer! Or Chron disease! Or leaky bowels! Or any other digestive system issue!
3rd product
Ingredients: 22!!! Most of them obtained industrially by chemical processes!
- hidden sugars excluding all the flours: erythritol, allulose, resistant dextrin, modified tapioca starch, non fat dry milk, stevia sweetener, steviol glycosides, whole milk powder.
- potentially harmful items: xanthan gum
I don’t even have to go through the nutrition facts because after reading the first few ingredients, I would put the box back on the shelf! But if you compare the saturated fats, cholesterol and sodium intake, you’ll see a significant difference! As far as carbs are concerned, there is still a high amount of them even if there is coconut flour and lots of polyols to sweeten.
All the other sugars except probably allulose and stevia (? still being studied), they influence your BS. It’s been demonstrated that sweeteners will affect your appetite increasing your hunger thus you eat more than you would normally do…
All the ingredients that were reduced to powder, do influence your cholesterol and triglycerides.
Alternative: look up the recipe online. Use almond flour or coconut flour, mix it with chickpea flour or oats flour. Use a raw, unrefined sugar, bananas, acacia honey or a good quality of maple syrup or agave syrup to sweeten. You can always use 80%-90% dark chocolate if you want to. Use whole milk but not powder one.
And make sure you eat the product as a dessert, after a meal that was rich in fiber and poor in carbs. Don’t eat the product between meals or if you didn’t eat enough fibers previously.
Bottom line: always choose a product that has less ingredients, natural ones. Think about your grandma’s kitchen: if she wouldn’t recognize the ingredients, just leave it!
I wouldn’t have bought any of those products!