XP - Quest bars - to good to be true? For me - they are...

I have been eating the quest bars. I react to splenda so I got the al natural. They are supposed to have only 1 gr of sugar and 5 gr of SA - as in Erythritol. I use that all the time. 25 gr of carbs but 17 are supposed to be just fiber. And 20 gr of proteins....

well - I think this is complete fabrication... I ate one bar yesterday and I dumped. I was driving yesterday and I got hungry so I ate one quest bar. Got nauseated. 20 min later I dumped... and not from fat. I can tolerate more fat than that. Then I crushed - my BS crushed. I got nauseated before after I ate of those... but always blamed that on eating too fast. This time I was not.

So today I decided to eat one and to measure my BS every 15 min. And... my sugar got from 100 before the bar to 200, 15 min after I ate it. And I think it is still going up. And now I have the so familiar "shakes" - the one I get if I had something too high in simple carbs - sugars... After that - I will get so familiar sugar lows...


I think there is something really wrong with the bars - not sure what – but they affect my blood sugar much more that there are supposed to based on the numbers. .I know I will not be having these bars... sorry - they do affect my BS way too much.


If you eat them regulary - please check your blood sugar level. Mine results got to be way to scary to ignore.

 Are you saying you think Quest is not being honest about the content of its bars?

If so, I'd say I think that's unlikely. BUT I do know that sometimes our bodies react to combinations of things whereas it does not react to those things alone. That happens to me all the time, especially with regards to my blood sugar.

But if you think there is something about the bars ingredients that they aren't saying, I'd encourage you to contact them!

I did. Waiting for an answer. And plan to send the bar for testing. Need to find a place.

As you know - I was a strong advocate for the bars. But the yesterday dumping and today very rapid blood sugar raise - it is not normal for low sugar protein bar.   My BS does not raise that much after I eat a cookie  (I know - I tested) or even milk chocolate.

wow... this make sense to me... the fiber they use is most likely highly processes and my body is probably seeing that as type of fructose... that would explain my BS issue and dumping...

 

"Fiber

Fiber is the most straightforward. The idea of subtracting fiber from the total carbohydrate when figuring out the carb count of a food came from the authors of the Protein Power books over 10 years ago, and it makes good sense. By definition, fiber isn't digested in the small intestine and so isn't broken down into glucose and absorbed into the blood.

This is true for any natural fiber that is eaten as part of a plant. But what about manufactured ingredients that have the chemical structure of fiber? I think the jury is still out on some of these ingredients. When I see "oligofructose syrup" I have to wonder if this ingredient acts the same way in the body as oligofructose which naturally occurs in a plant, even though these molecules can be regarded as fiber in most ways."

If that is the case - the Quest bars for me have not 1 gr of sugar and 4 gr of carbs but: 1+17 + 3= 22 gr of sugar and my body process them as such. No wonder I was dumping on it. And got RH after...

Definition: Oligofructose is an oligosaccharide - a type of sugar molecule with several branches. Oligosaccharides are, for the most part, not digested in the small intestine, therefore they add very little to blood glucose. However, they are broken down via fermentation in the colon (large intestine) where they can contribute to the health of the colon (for this reason, they are sometimes called prebiotics).

Oligofructose is 30-50% is sweet as sucrose (table sugar). It also behaves similarly to sugar in some food products. It occurs naturally in some plants. Most of the oligofructose used as an ingredient is either extracted from chicory root or is synthetically manufactured. It is included both in "Total Carbohydrates" and "Fiber" on food labels in the U.S.

My endocrinologist wants me to avoid anything with 25 grams of carbs, no matter if some of those are fiber grams. He says that the body "sees" the carbs, even if it doesn't absorb the fiber carbs, and so I will have issues with my blood sugar crashing if I eat anything with too much carbs. I couldn't eat the bar you describe because I would have my blood sugar crashing. It wouldn't make me dump, not enough sugar, but the sugar alcohols would have me miserable in a flash anyway.

Like Nik said, I doubt that the label is misleading, but they do have the same processing fluctuations of all manufacturing plants.... the label is an AVERAGE not the literal reality of the bar you hold in your hand. It could be you got a batch that had slightly more of some ingredient or other. This is not misleading on the part of the manufacturer, it is simply the necessary process by which they create lables and they mass-manufacture things. I'm sure they do random testing, as all such facilities do, to make sure that there is nothing going wrong with their process.

It's an important warning for ANYONE who has issues with blood sugar to test their blood sugar when consuming anything that is in what I woudl call the "danger zone"... I've been off nearly all carbs for a while except the most complex of carbs, and not-so-surprisingly my blood sugar issues have ironed out.

hey - the SA is Erythritol - not the others. I use that in backing and have no problem. 

I am puzzled.  I had other bars that have the fiber or even more sugar - and my body didn't react to that.

If the fiber is affecting my BS the way it does - then these are really useless for me. They as well may have all the sugar in them.
In reality - it is not the sugar per se- but how the sugar is being absorbed by my body - and how much insulin that will generate.
If a bar - that is advertised as very low net carb - therefore not affecting the blood sugar or insulin - is taking my BS to a crashing point - then there is something wrong with the claim the company puts up.
Fiber - is not suppose to affect blood sugar - it is no suppose to be digested or absorb - or if it is - very slowly.  Not like that.  

 I just did a quick scan of Quest's site. They don't make any claims on what their bars should or should not do for your blood sugar, unless I missed it. To me it looks like they are primarily marketing to folks who would ordinarily buy organic products. 

Correct me if I'm wrong or missing something!

"Quest bars have the best nutritional profile of any protein bar on the market bar none. We've got 20g of protein, 2-6g Active Carbs and no junk! Most importantly, our bars taste better than any other bar. We're so confident that you'll agree that we let people order a single bar to try without having to commit to buying an entire box."

Q: Why do your bars have so few carbs?
A: As most people know, if you want to stay healthy, lose fat or build LEAN, fat-free muscle, you must control your carb intake. That's why we've worked so hard to create bars with so few grams of available carbohydrates (almost all of Quest Bar's carbs come from inert fiber which helps keep you full but doesn't skyrocket your insulin levels.)

on home page.

Ah...I did miss it. 

Well I look forward to seeing what results you get from your query.