I just read about Lightfull's Satiety Smoothies. I'm pretty sure I've seen them before in our grocery store, but I've never really looked at them before. They come in four flavors, all of which are 11 oz, made from entirely natural ingredients, are 100 calories, have 6g fiber and 6g protein, and sound delicious!
Two of the flavors are fruit-oriented, so they're made with fruit puree. I figure that makes them pretty unfriendly to SBD.
The other two (chocolate and cafe latte) are sweetened with a mix of erythritol, stevia, and "crystalized cane sugar." They're made with nonfat yogurt, which provides some of the "sugar" grams in the nut'l info. The total for the smoothie is 10g of sugar. I'm not sure how many grams of sugar are in plain yogurt. Do you think this would be worth trying? Here's the nut'l infoon the cafe latte one.
The review I read said that these really fill you up and are totally delicious. They seem very portable as well, and I love the thought of getting all that protein and fiber. I make my own smoothies most of the time, but it would be nice to have one premade that's easy to grab and go.
I happen to have a tub of fat-free plain yogurt in the fridge (Stonyfield Farm) and it has 15g of sugars listed (18g total carbs with 3g dietary fiber). The ingredients are: cultured pasteurized organiz nonfat milk, inulin, pectin, vitamin D3. Serving size is 1 cup (227g).
O.K. Laurie-
After a little Google research here's what I found:
"Cane juice comes from sugar cane. If you evaporate or crystallize it, you remove the water and end up with--you guessed it--sugar."
Also when I first googled crystalized cane sugar I got several recipes. One was for Valentine's Day shortbread cookies (not SBD friendly) and an Australian candy company that uses this in their many varieties of Toffee (also not SBD friendly). Hope this helps.
Yeah, I knew that the cane juice was just sugar. It's not any better than plain ole' sugar in terms of our blood sugar levels, but it is better than high fructose corn syrup and nasty things like that. Yikes! However, you're totally right in the thought that sugar=not SBD-safe.
However, we do eat things that have low amounts of sugar yet are approved for the WOE, like Cool Whip (which is just sugar and fat), dressings (with up to 3g sugar), and even mini chocolate chips in Phase 1 (it's in one of the ricotta recipes). So I've gotten the impression that if something has sugar, but it's a very small amount (like the dressing), or the amount of it you eat is very small (like Cool Whip), it shouldn't be a problem. Maybe the latter is because of glycemic load?
Anyways, I'm assuming that the manufacturer wouldn't feel compelled to add erythritol and stevia if the sugar were enough to sweeten it alone. I'm thinking that they used a mix of the three (erythritol, sugar, and stevia) to sweeten the smoothie. The big question is, how much sugar? Is it enough to cause cravings?
Thanks, Kara, for looking up the yogurt! So a cup is 8oz of yogurt. The majority of this drink is yogurt and it's 11 oz. If 8oz of plain yogurt has 15g of sugar, then it would make sense to think that the majority of the 10g of sugar in these smoothies may mostly be SBD-safe lactose in the yogurt. That would be GREAT!
I think I'll try one and see...if I can find them locally. If not, I'll have to decide if it's worth ordering $25 worth from Amazon...
Laurie, I don't see why if you try them and they don't set off cravings for you that they wouldn't be a problem. It's probably one of those individual things, like I can't eat Triscuits. Nothing wrong with them...whole wheat flour, no hydrogenated oils...but one single cracker turns me into a cravomonster!
I tried one back in December, and it did seem to set off cravings. I had another one in the fridge and figured I'd finish it off and was surprised when that one didn't cause any cravings.
I tried a couple more and had no problems, even when I drank one on a fairly empty stomach after working out! I have avoided the fruit flavors as they have fruit puree and I think they might set off cravings. (If anyone tries them, I'd love to know what you think!) So, I've had only the Chocolate Sensation and Cafe Latte flavors. They are really yummy, definitely filling, and super-easy to take with you.
Of course, like anything, how this affects you is a personal issue. (Kara, I loved the term "cravomonster" above!!! ) But I, for one, would love to hear about your experiences with these products!
My only additional thought is why avoid the fruit puree? Fruit is a good carb. Fruit puree can be a very helpful and healthful ingredient. It can be used in place of butter or oils in baking. As long as there are not added sugars in the fruit puree. Fruit puree should be just the fruit.
I do think each person must figure out what are triggers for cravings for them. I know that fruit does not make me crave carbs or any other foods.
Good question! SkinnyDog, my reasoning with the fruit puree is that, generally, it's a concentrated form of fruit juice with very little fiber. The fiber in fruit helps the sugar to be released more slowly into your system. In a puree form, it'd be fairly similar to juice, I would think--with a lot less fiber--and therefore more likely to cause spikes in blood sugar than the fruit itself. At least, that was my thought--especially since, in this case, the fruit puree is combined with sugar too.
What do you all think? Is fruit puree more like SF jam (not the kind sweetened with fruit juice) or more like fruit juice in terms of what it would do to our blood sugar?
I moved the posts regarding sugar, desserts, and such, to a thread of its own--seemed like we were going off topic, plus it would be great to have more input on the topic from others who didn't realize we were discussing it here. You'll find the new thread here. Thanks!