Quest bars - too good to be true?

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 one 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 ones I get when 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.

HB

Sorry to hear you are struggling with yet another food alternative, must be frustrating to be unable to figure out what you can really eat and not  have a BS crash...Just wanted to send a

Wow, really.  I guess I need to look into it. 
Could it be the Sea Salt that you could be reacting too?

unfortuntely no.  I use a lot of salt. And if you mean the SA - I eat bars in the natural line - it is not them either.  They supposedly use Erythritol - and I use that all the time - in baking, I also drink Sobe  water and witamin Zero water (they both use Erythritol). No problem.

What was interesting - is that my BS jumped from 100 to 200 in 15-20 min after I ate the bar.   And nothing else - but the bar.  After that I could not measure anymore - I ran out of the strips - but my heart was beating after and 1 hr later - I got soo.. hungry.  

Last few months I have been trying to follow a really low carb diet - but I gained 5-7 lbs.  If the quest bars are affecting my BS - that means they have more than just a few "net carbs".   
I can eat a cookie and my BS will jump only 30-40 points. I can have 1/3 of milk chocolate with less of BS jump. 

If you have glucometer - check your BS after eating one of those.  Maybe it is just me - but some other people on RNY forum report dumping on even less - like 1/2 bar.. or 1/3...

In the past - when I felt nausea - I thought I ate too fast. Now I know that most likely my BS was getting up... Just when I thought I can have a cake and eat it too... no way.

Wow, really. 

I'll test myself tomorrow however I never had a problem with the dumping and I've been eatting the quest bars for a couple of months now mid-morning only as a snack.

wow... this make sense to me... the fiber they use is most likely highly processes and it is already predigested - broken down or my body is digesting that and my body is probably seeing that as fructose and or glucose ... 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.

Hala,
Have you tried contacting them? Couldnt hurt.

I need more strips as well, but you've got me curious.  

My RH seems to come in spurts. Its not constant as I can look at something and can tell Im going to react to it. Dump, yes. I can usually tell something is going to be too rich for me. Sometimes I feel that my sugar spikes from something it shouldnt.

Sorry its affecting you this way.

I did. Waiting for an answer.
BTW: I got some responses from people on RNY board - XP - some are coming and telling they dump on 1/3 or 1/2 of the bar.  No wonder I gained weight.

I just read this message when you posted it. I ran errands today (I do dog rescue) and knew I would be out of the house. In the Florida mid day heat, I ate a cinnamon roll quest bar for lunch. 30 minutes (or less) later I got the rapid heartbeat, the sweats, full on dumping. And I was hot, which is the worst. I only have 2 of these bars left. I will never eat them again...Hala, can you explain why we gain weight from dumping or RH? Thank you! And thank you for the post

Dumping but specially RH - reactive hypoglycemia - may casue the person to gain weight by 2 methods:

1. you get very hungry - so you need to eat.  and then eat again
2. the RH is caused by a rapid sugar blood iincrease that may casue (specially for RNY person) rapid insulin - and too much insulin proeduction by pancrase. The insulin job is to put the sugar away very fast - some in storage - some into fat cells (gain weight) and insulin also prevents the fat to be release from the fat cells (so if you have high insulin level in the blood - your body will burn sugar but if the sugar drops -- the exess insul prevents the body from burning  fat for energy - and as a result yo blood sugar drops - and you need to eat or pass out from very low BS.- happened to me)

Insulin takes the sugar froim your blood and delivers to the cells. if - when normal cell do not need it - it takes the sugar and stores as fat. We need insulin to gain fat.

You getting insulin. One way to lower the sugar is to put is somewhere. Fat cells it is. But - high sugar in you blood will hurt you much more...


http://www.dailystrength.org/health_blogs/squevedo/article/i nsulin-weight-gain

check this:

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/ds/4532272/Insulin-and-wei ght-gain/