I just don't trust the whole net carb thing. Is it just the sugar/carbs that supposedly impact your insulin lvls? or something....

I dont know, I try to stay away from low carb things that say net carbs on the front and then under Carbs its says like 20g or something..

Anyone know what Net carbs really are about? And if they truly work or should I just continue to look only at the carbs and sugar?

I only deduct fiber from the total carbs. Some deduct sugar alcohols as well.

for those of us that count them, net carbs are the total carb counts of any given food (or food for the day) minus the fiber grams. the idea is that since our bodies don't digest fiber, then they don't have an impact other than to keep things moving.

as far as sugar alcohols go, i don't subtract them because i know my body reacts to them, and the reaction is worse than if i was eating pure sugar. personally, i stay as far away from them as i can, no matter what the circumstances.

I use the same method as Kvon.

I don't get any bad reaction from sugar alcohols, which I interpret as meaning that my body digests them just as it would sugar. It's for this reason that I avoid sugar alcohols.

I've also heard they are bad..and that the whole 'net carb' thing is a bunch of malarkey

No, the whole net carb thing is real, at least for some of us. We deduct ONLY fiber, which is not digested.

Most people can't get away with deducting sugar alcohols, although they do seem to have a lower glycemic index than sugar, so do not cause as much trouble with insulin response, but I (and most others, I think) just deduct fiber and count the sugar alcohols.

Not so-even the American Diabetes Association states to deduct dietary fiber from the carbohydrate count if it has 5 grams or more of fiber.

http://www.diabetes.org/nutrition-a...pes-of-carb.jsp

I've lost over 100 lbs doing Atkins by counting net carbs. I only deduct the fiber from the total carb count.

In the Netherlands on all the productlabels there is the amount of fiber already deducted. We just count the carbs on the label.
To give an example for peanutbutter (from Calvé):
Nutrition per 100 gram (first number) and per serving (30gram, second number)
Protein 22 gr /6.6 gr
Carbs 9.9 gr /3.0 gr
of wich sugar 2.5 gr /0.7 gr
Fat 58 gr /17 gr
kinds of fat --- / ---
Fiber 5.9 gr /1.8 gr

and so on.

As you can see, the amount of carbs we count is just written on the label. We don't deduct the fibers. You can still see how much there are, but we don't speak of carbs/netcarbs, just carbs.

On the other had are the sugaralcohols: thats just the same where ever you go: For one person it doesn't bother them and another person will have the same effects as sugar.

Sorry! I was unclear! Yes..I deduct the Fiber too..I know that

I 'meant' that the whole sugar alcohol thing..many people can't deduct them.

My bad..I didn't specifically state!

*hangs head in shame*

Regarding sugar alcohols, most of them have a definite impact on blood sugar.

http://www.mendosa.com/netcarbs.htm

For fiber, Lyle Mcdonald's site has an article stating:

"Although there is ongoing debate in this area, a caloric value of 1.5-2 cal/gram for fiber is the currently accepted value."

To be on the safe side, you could perhaps subtract half the fiber in food from the carbohydrate (that way, you assume 2cal/gram is not digested).

http://bodyrecomposition.com/Articles/calnutfood.html

carb is a carb to me..............i find it just too much work

And when you subtract only half the fiber, be sure to increase your overall carbs. PP, PPLP and Atkins from 1992 forward all intend that you subtract out the fiber, and the recommended carb level in the books is based on the idea that you did subtract the fiber -- all of it, not half of it.

We have the same labelling in UK, wolflady, as many other countries outside the USA also do, so it is much simpler for us to count our carbs.