Tamarah Jo's Journal, 30 December 2015

I have tried the Quest bar, I like the Atkins bar much better. My cousin who is a truck driver swears by the Quest bar, a nutrionist reccomended them. 

Quest bars are touted for their low Net Carb content, around 4gms per bar. This is great, but how do they get the sweetness? Sugar Alcohols. Sugar Alcohols provide sweetness, without the blood sugar rise, and have zero fructose, meaning that they are harmless to the liver. So what's the downside?... Sugar Alcohols can lead to Diarrhea and bloating (in some people)....each person tolerates them differently. Xylitol is beneficial for humans anti-oral bacteria, but poisonous to dogs. Overall it's a better bar if you need a portable snack, just look for the type of sweetener used, as some do contain artificial sweeteners.  

Erythritol which doesn't bother me to much in small doses . There is also Stevia . the other thing I see and am not sure of is a "soluble Corn Fiber" ? doesn't sound good . Thanks all  

I try to avoid anything processed, the less processed food the better. Switch to some locally produced beef jerky if you're looking for a snack. There's a meat market up the road that makes their own jerky. It's a bit pricey, but they don't use anything but smoke as a preservative, tough as leather, but mellows out after a bit of gnawing. A handful of almonds is a great hunger killer, too. Look into making some fat bombs, there's a ton of recipes online and they travel well.  

Quest bars are full of preservatives, chemicals, and refined/processed low-quality junk labeled "healthy." Eat more "real" food and stay away from powders, shakes, bars, fake sugars, and sugar alcohols. It's better to completely go without anything sweet than to lie to your brain and eat fake sugars falsely stimulating the rewards centers of your brain in order to pacify your addiction to carbs. People who are addicted to the flavor of fructose will always make an excuse to eat anything that resembles fructose, especially sugar alcohols, which mimics the flavor of fructose. The problem with fructose, although being low-glycemic, is that fructose turns directly into VLDL (very low density lipoprotein) cholesterol. Low-glycemic because it bypasses insulin response, unlike glucose. Fructose turns into cholesterol, glucose turns into glycogen. Do not mistake the two sugars, they're both not one in the same. Although both sugars exists naturally in fresh fruit, only one of the two sugars have purpose inside the human body. Fructose has no purpose in the human body, which is why it turns directly into fat. The only reason it's okay to eat fruit is because the fiber, water, and vitamins and nutrients nullifies the toxicity of fructose. Even then, I wouldn't go overboard with fruit as well. We all know what happened to Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple, a fruitarian vegan who died of pancreatic cancer. Eating fruit didn't save him from cancer, it actually made it worse because fructose is a poison. Consuming pure fructose extract by itself is also a bad idea. Crystallized table sugar is more of a drug than a food and consists of both glucose and fructose bonded together called sucrose. Anything that's been stripped from the plant and refined in pure form is no longer food, it's now a drug. Always remember that. I'll have you know that fructose and alcohol breaks down similarly in the liver so the same people who have gout from alcohol, also get gout from eating high-fructose foods. The metabolism of both fructose or alcohol yields the same byproduct of uric acid, which, if you don't know already, is the underlying cause of gout. People call it gout, I call it fructose poisoning. I don't trust fake sugars either, like aspartame, which was discovered in a lab when scientists were trying to make pesticides. 

Naturally made grassfed beef jerky marinated in sugar-free teriyaki sauce, black pepper, and is a more nutritious on-the-go low-carb food than that quest bar junk-food. You can make a giant batch of your own grassfed beef jerky in a dehydrator, ziplock bag them, and take it with you on your travels where you can't have fresh food. So yes, you can have both a "portable" and "real" food. You just have to be more creative. 

I had a feeling they were poison and I was being sucked into a marketing ploy . I usually do always eat real food,, I have Fat bombs in my fridge right now ,, just asking about the bars and was hoping there might be a company out there that told the truth and possibly made a worthy true LC product .. but none of them do . Thanks for the comments . 

The creator of the Bulletproof Diet, Dave Asprey, carries a stick of Kerrygold butter in a soap container with him on his travels of long flights where he can't have fresh food. 

I don't go that far, if they have nuts..I'll have nuts, if not, I'll just go without. 

Nuts are okay if you aren't allergic them. The reason some people are allergic to nuts is because nuts contain anti-nutrients and phytic acids, which in extreme allergic reactions, can be fatal. If you can eat nuts without dying, go for it, but for true ketoers, stick with grassfed butter, extra virgin olive oil or MCT oil, and dried meat. You can dry veggies and take them with you, but I don't think they'd be as tasty as beef jerky and butter. 

If you're Native American, try looking into Pemmican, an ancient Native American beef or buffalo jerky mixed with tallow (beef or buffalo fat). I think they sell it online in batches, very nutrient dense and tasty. Some of them have bits of cranberries for flavor. 

Here's grassfed Bison Pemmican selling on Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Epic-Natural-Grass-Bison-Cranberry/dp/B00ET7LPK4/ref=pd_sim_325_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=51HZlK7ToaL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=03BFP340PPRME9VP1PNR Contains 12 grams of fat, 11 grams of protein, and 10 grams of carbs. This makes the macros of this bar keto-perfect: 55% fat / 22% protein / 20% carbs Compared to a similarly priced Quest bar touted to be "low carb." http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DLDH1N2/ref=s9_al_bw_g121_i1 9 grams of fat, 21 grams of carbs (3g net), 21g protein. The macros turns out: 42% fat, 44% protein, 6.3% carbs Remember that the rule of the Keto diet is high fat, not high protein. The keto diet isn't an Atkins diet. Staying in Ketosis is like keeping the pH balance of your blood near neutral as much as possible. Eat too much protein and you knock yourself out of ketosis and have to start all over again. Also, meat takes longer to digest and break down, thus is low glycemic. Whey protein isn't low glycemic, which btw, acts exactly like carbs and spikes insulin heavily when it hits the blood stream. You can see the study here about whey protein and insulin response: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/69.full "Effect of whey on blood glucose and insulin responses to composite breakfast and lunch meals in type 2 diabetic subjects."  

Whey protein spikes insulin as heavily as carbs do, so whey protein is a high glycemic index food. "Whey proteins have insulinotropic effects and reduce the postprandial glycemia in healthy subjects. The mechanism is not known, but insulinogenic amino acids and the incretin hormones seem to be involved." "It can be concluded that the addition of whey to meals with rapidly digested and absorbed carbohydrates stimulates insulin release and reduces postprandial blood glucose excursion after a lunch meal consisting of mashed potatoes and meatballs in type 2 diabetic subjects."~http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/69.full 

If you can't kill it, pick it, shell it, get it from milking something, or procure it through minimal processing, it's best avoided. 

This. ^ Oh, if you can stomach it and cultural difference doesn't bother you, I hear fried grasshoppers, caterpillars, and tarantula are nutritious and high in fiber. 

I'm eating silk worms stirfried in eggs, onion, and butter as we speak. 

I have found EPIC bars to be amazing. The uncured Bacon bar, and several other options have 0 sugars, and 0-5carbs each. I take them with me on hikes/snowboarding for the protein boost, and they taste great. They are basically Meat bars lol. epicbar.com 

lol,, oh boy I did open up a can of worms hahaha literally !!! 

@rpcvm17 - I got Epic Bars in my stocking for Christmas! Glad someone else got some too. // @Tamarah Jo - I would suggest Epic Bars as well. The two that I got were 0 and 1 carbs respectively, I'll post some pics up.  

Thanks Frosty,, I have seen those somewhere not sure where . I will most likely stick to what I am doing . The quest bars will be around for awhile but they are there if I ever get caught empty handed . I did eat some awesome sardines yesterday they were more expensive then the ones I usually buy,, and now I know why. they were nice little tender fish morsels skin on with bone in EVO . and I cannot recall the name ,, but I did log them if anyone is interested in a yummy sardine snack/meal .