Low Carb RN blogger Kelley Pounds, a Registered Nurse and Certified Diabetes Educator, wanted to find out what the effect of eating a full-sized ChocoPerfection bar was on blood glucose levels. So she ate one from a fasting state, and tested her levels five times over the following two hours. The results surprised her -- Mary Jo's ChocoPerfection had "zero glycemic impact."
OEN visited with ChocoPerfection's Mary Jo for more of the backstory:
Meryl Ann Butler: Mary Jo, thanks for visiting with us! Your amazing chocolate was recommended to me by positive music artist and fellow chocoholic, Greg Tamblyn. It's so delicious, and no yucky aftertaste like other sugarfree chocolate. Can you share with us why your chocolate is different, and what inspired you to develop it?
Mary Jo Kringas: Thanks, Meryl Ann! Yes, the main sweetener in ChocoPerfection is chicory root fiber, a prebiotic fiber that helps with normalizing sugar levels and planting good bacteria in the colon and intestines. It tastes good and does not raise blood sugar.
Back in 2000, I weighed over 300 pounds and I could just not find a way to lose weight. My naturopath told me I had a "raging candida yeast infection" that caused me to crave sugar. He put me on a low carb diet and I lost 6 pounds in one week... but, I could not live without chocolate. The sugar free chocolate on the market was made with maltitol, which completely stopped my weight loss. I found out about using chicory root fiber as a sweetener and developed ChocoPerfection using this sweetener. I lost 75 pounds the first year and 130 pounds within 3 years by eating about 100g to 150g of ChocoPerfection every day as part of a low carb eating plan.
MAB: Music to my ears! Can you explain a little about the problems with maltitol, and other sugar alcohol sweeteners? I have never been able to tolerate them, they give me a tummy ache. And I seem to be allergic to stevia, i get bad gut reactions from it. When i researched stevia, I discovered it was related to the ragweed family (which I have known allergic reactions to). So finding sugar substitutes has always been a problem for me. And I understand some of them still raise blood sugar, right? And why do they stop weight loss?
MJ: Maltitol is the most common artificial sweetener used in sugar free products. Although maltitol is classified as "sugar free," it actually has a glycemic index of 35-50 and raises blood sugar levels significantly. This will stop weight loss because when blood sugar spikes due to eating high glycemic foods or artificial sweeteners, insulin is produced. Insulin is known as the "fat-building and fat storage" hormone. It is much easier to lose and maintain weight loss by eating very low glycemic index foods so as not to produce insulin. Not all sugar alcohols have a high glycemic index like maltitol. Xylitol and erythritol, are both derived from fermented yeast and have a glycemic index of zero.
MAB: This is very informative, thank you so much. And thanks for visiting with us, Mary Jo!
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