Houston . . . We have a Problem!: Sugar Free Ring Pops

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Sugar Free Ring Pops - A Review and Giveaway

10:24 PM

It's a Review and a Giveaway! And no you are not seeing DOUBLE! My lovely friend, Hallie over at The Princess and the Pump is doing a review and giveaway too. She's a little more on the ball than I am and got her post done before me so I got to take a little sneak peak at her review. I could pretty much cut and paste her post over here ---- GREAT MINDS think alike.

Like Hallie I was asked to review the new Sugar Free Ring Pops and how can anyone with 3 kids and super fond memories of Ring Pops say no to that?

They came in a bag (see above picture) with 3 individually wrapped Ring Pops --- Strawberry, Blue Raspberry and Watermelon.

3 Ring Pops --- 3 Kids. Golden! My girls love Ring Pops period. I didn't tell them that they were sugar free and they didn't even notice or make comment about anything other than how yummy they were. They loved playing princess dress up just like I did as a little girl.

I did have some hesitations with giving one to Nate --- although, they are made with Splenda^® and marketed as 'Diabetic Friendly' each pop has 13g of carbs. The regular Ring Pops have 14g of carbs so I'm giving Nate a little less insulin for the sugar free but also dealing with the unknown effects of sugar alcohol. The sugar alcohol content in the Sugar Free Ring Pop is 13g which in my opinion is extremely high for such a small treat. I went ahead and let him enjoy the Ring Pop and really didn't see any difference with his blood sugar BUT we were swimming all day and he was running low so as it turns out I didn't even cover the Ring Pop or the brownie he ate with any insulin. He loved having the Ring Pop and he found the 'ring' part of the pop quite entertaining!

Although the bag is marked 0 sugar Carbs and 0 Impact Carbs. Just in case I needed to bolus for the Sugar Free Ring Pop I did look up the following information from the American Diabetes Association:

Sugar alcohols are one type of reduced-calorie sweetener. You can find them in ice creams, cookies, puddings, candies, and chewing gum that is labeled as “sugar-free” or “no sugar added”. On average, sugar alcohols provide about half the calories of sugar and other carbohydrates.

Examples of sugar alcohol are:

Erythritol
hydrogenated starch hydrolysates
isomalt
lactitol
maltitol
mannitol
sorbitol
xylitol

Even though they are called sugar alcohols, they do not contain alcohol.

Tips for Carb Counting and Sugar Alcohols

The effect that sugar alcohols have on your blood glucose can vary so it is difficult to know how sugar alcohols will affect your blood glucose levels every time. Because there is less of an effect from sugar alcohols than either sugar or starch, you can use the following tips to estimate how much carbohydrate from a serving to count in your meal plan for foods that contain MORE than 5 grams of sugar alcohols.

If a food has more than 5 grams of sugar alcohols:

subtract ½ the grams of sugar alcohol from the amount of total carbohydrate
Count the remaining grams of carbohydrate in your meal plan

Example:

Portion: 1 bar
Total carbohydrate 15 grams, with 6 grams of sugar alcohol
One bar counts as 12 grams carbohydrate (15 – 3 = 12)

Another concern I have is Sugar alcohols can have a laxative effect or other gastric symptoms in some people, especially in children. That could be a HUGE problem at our house. Sophie is completely out of remission right now so it's hard to say if it had any adverse effect on her but it didn't seem to bother the other two as far as I could tell. ;)

The Sugar Free Ring Pops have 1/2 the calories of the regular version (30 vs. 60) so if you are watching calories that is a plus!

You can find Sugar Free Ring Pops at Walmart and BJ's stores nationwide. Sugar Free Ring Pops are also available at Amazon.com and ShopTopps.com. You can also "like" Sugar Free Ring Pops on Facebook!

Bottom line ---- my 3 kiddos loved the Sugar Free Ring Pops so much that they wanted to share some with you!

To enter ----

Please tell us --- would you be more likely to give your children the Sugar Free version or the Original Ring Pop? And if you give the Sugar Free how do you bolus for sugar alcohol?
Please leave your name with the comment
Sorry!!! US Residents only.

There's no right or wrong answer ---- it's just for fun and the winner will be picked at random. Please leave your comment by midnight on July 5th and I will post the winner on the 6th. If you decide not to give your child the sugar free version you can still enter and eat them yourself. Yumm-o!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

8 comments:

Lora said...

I don't stress over sugar alcohol, but I tend to give the regular stuff. For us, 1 carb is not going to make a difference. I do the same with cookies. The SF ones are way more expensive and have just as many carbs. Thats just me :)

I was told a carb is a carb so I bolus as such.
BUT I can even eat those on my Adkins diet... send them my way sista!

July 3, 2011 at 10:38 PM

Misty said...

I've always been nervous about sugar alcohol because our diabetes educator told me to be! Thank you for the great info on sugar alcohols. I will still be cautious but understand a little more about them now. And I agree with Lora, when the carbon count is so close I'd probably go for the regular stuff.

July 3, 2011 at 10:55 PM

Amy said...

Yeah, not so crazy about sugar alcohols. Reminds me of Olestra. Remember all those potato chip companies who remade their products touting them 'healthy' so people ate the whole bag and then spent the next 12 hours in the bathroom. huh.

13g verses 14g will not sell the product to me. Nice try Ring Pops but I'll pass. Pass gas if I eat them!!! Oh I am f-u-n-n-y tonight ;)

Thanks for the review, Laura. Now, go squeeze Nate's cheeks for me

July 3, 2011 at 11:00 PM

Hallie Addington said...

Thanks for the linky love!! GREAT info about sugar alcohols! Thanks for sharing! :)

July 4, 2011 at 9:24 AM

Alexis Nicole said...

We don't do sugar alchohls either. Boys and I don't do well with splenda or nutraaweet. Regular ones for us too :)

Hope the company changes their nutrition info cause fo sho ain't 0 carbs. Awesome review.

July 4, 2011 at 2:19 PM

Tracy1918 said...

Love this post! Very informative!

I'm not sure what I think about sugar alcohols. One time we tried something that had them and Matthew had serious tummy cramping.

But recently, I noticed that something he usually eats (SF ice cream bars) have them and he does fine.

What's up with that?!

July 4, 2011 at 5:49 PM

Denise said...

Yay! I was bummed that I missed Hallie's giveaway....
I would more likely give Bryce an original ring pop....I am not a fan of sugar free stuff esp. since it is so hard to bolus for. If we do SF, we were told to subtract 1/2 the carbs of sugar alcohols like your post says.

July 5, 2011 at 11:58 AM

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May 3, 2013 at 1:02 AM