feeling out of touch carb count vs. sugar

[kittysf]

when i'm shopping and looking at everything i might consider ingesting, i look at the total carbs then the dietary fiber. all is well. however i get confused about ingredients. if i see that a particular item has lets say 4 total carbs, 2g of dietary fiber, i interpret that as 2 total net carbs. o.k. fine. but back to the ingredients, if there is sugar or flour would that be a safe choice .... like should i get that or is it strictly no sugar???

help, this is seriously got be in a mind bender.

[blue4lemon]

some items have sugar, like mayonaise, and mayo is fine on LC diets. it is a negligible amount, and it has all that fat which counteracts the sugar. but, say, for example, the altoids citrus sour candies. eating a few of these is only going to cost you about 2 or 3 carbs. not bad, right? of course! they are almost 100% sugar, and they are going to cause serious, detrimental cravings. it is better to spend those 2 or 3 carbs on some egg salad, or broccoli. in short, all carbs are not created equal, but you are free to experiment.

[LilaCotton]

If you can find products with no sugar, then that's great. But like Blue4lemon said, if the sugar is in a tiny amount it shouldn't be a problem. I try to take into consideration all the ingredients in the food. For example, one of my salad dressings has 2 carbs per tablespoon with sugar listed as an ingredient. However, it also has cheese which would count for a little of those carbs, so to me it's a decent choice.

Also, keep in mind that in some products you will see 'sugars' listed on the label. This may or may not be natural sugars that would be in the foods already. If you check the ingredients (like on a can of pasta sauce), and it has no sugar added, but has 3 grams of 'sugars' those sugars are from the tomato itself, not an additive.

[cheez whiz]

Please do yourself a favorite.....sugar sets off those bad cravings. I don't know about you but I had my if I ate those things it cause me to want more and more. Just say away from sugar unless its in mayo.

[kittysf]

i'm still a little torn about this.

if the carb count is reasonable but listed as an ingredient is sugar, then its safe?

[I mean it!]

Kitty, I once read if an ingredient is listed in the first 5 ingredients, then it makes up half of the product. I am not sure how true this was, does anyone else know? Anyway I think if you see sugar (or anything with an "ose" at the end, i.e. dextrose) towards the end of the list of ingredients, and the carbs are low, it should be safe. The exception is "sucralose" which is Splenda. Also beware of high fructose corn syrup, it shows up in the strangest foods , hehe.