As for the argument re: Atkins Nutritionals and net carbs, as has been said the net carbs concept was created under Dr. Atkins and was originally used to describe carbohydrate sources that gave no energy and therefore did not affect blood sugar, such as fiber.

However it was soon changed to include carbs that did contain energy which can affect blood sugar, but were modified to be absorbed slowly. Personally I think the net carb concept is a little misleading when applied to sugar alcohols, because I do feel sugar alcohols affect blood sugar. Maybe not as much as real carbs, but to say a candy bar which contains 20 sugar alcohols is actually 0 carbs is just simply misleading. I personally can lose while eating these products in moderation, but some people seem to have problems with them.

Strictly applying the net carbs concept to sugar alcohols was irresponsible of Atkins Nutritionals, imo. What they should have done was count 4 grams of sugar alcohols as 1 real carb, or figure out a system like that which really works.

Lets face it, by saying a candy bar has 1 net carb people are going to think they can eat them every day and they will not lose weight. At the very least what they should do is put a warning on the bars which say they are to be eaten sparingly...