High-fiber Foods And Blood Sugar - Quest Protein Bar Interview

Editor’s note - "High-fiber, low-net carb" products are often marketed as helpful for keeping blood sugars low. The idea that a consumer can subtract the "fiber" carbs from the "total carbs," to figure out "net carbs," seems logical on first glance. But like a growing number of health experts and citizen groups, the Boulder Very Low Carb Diabetes Support Group found that in real life, it doesn’t work that way. I belong to this group of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics who are working to stay healthy through diet over drugs. When we tested our blood sugars after eating a "low net carb" Quest Peanut Butter Protein Bar, the blood sugars of many members of the group rose roughly 50 points (Here’s the spreadsheet of our results). Quest responded by asking the group to test the whey protein alone, guessing that this might be the culprit that makes some blood sugars rise. Overall, in this group of citizen scientists, blood sugars actually went down slightly after drinking water mixed with the whey protein alone.



To discuss this puzzle, and "next steps," Quest Protein Bar‘s Ron Kane agreed to an interview. And here’s a written transcript, which is paraphased for clarity. RON KANE - I am one of the guys here at Quest that has been around since the very beginning, one of the founders. I tend to focus on everything from product development to marketing. Are you a nutrition expert? RON KANE - Nutrition’s one of those fields that, you have a lot of confidence when you don’t know much, and the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. You have to know a lot to call yourself an expert. So you’re not a nutritionist or a registered dietician or a clinical nutritionist. RON KANE - No. Not at all. I’m fascinated and I read extensively but I don’t have any certification. Well, Ron Kane, maybe you can help us figure out a mystery that has arisen in our very low carb, diabetes support group in Boulder Colorado.



What is it in your net carb, low-carb Quest Peanut Butter Protein Bars, what’s causing the blood sugars in our Diabetes Group to go up? RON KANE - It’s a weird puzzle alright. To figure it out, here’s some information about us - our main market really is people that are focused on physique competitions, people who are particular about what they eat, and we manufacture our own bar. We don’t use contract manufacturing. One of the reasons we do that is that, then, we know what’s in our bars. I think it’s been a couple of months since I heard how we shipped you guys in your diabetes support group some different products to check out and then you check how it affects your blood sugar. Blood sugar . . We have physicians who take their blood sugars very regularly or they have patients that do, Glyco Care Supplementchromium support and they share how our bars affect them with us. From all that, we’ve seen that Glyco Care blood sugar supplement sugar regulation seems like it’s one of those things that’s an art or science that’s very individual.



Some people have very strange reactions to all kinds of things. So I can’t say for sure what caused the blood sugar changes in your group that ate our protein bar. I haven’t seen the spreadsheet your group created about your results. But really the protein bar comes down to very few ingredients. You’ve got protein powders, similar resource site you’ve got nuts, in the form of crushed nuts or nut butters. You’ve got fibers, and there are a couple we’ve used. Inulin and isomalto-oligosaccharide, which is basically a string of non-digestible fibers, either as fructose molecules in inulin and glucos in isomalto-oligosaccharide. Is that non-digestible fiber like Jerusalem artichokes or something like that? RON KANE - Exactly. You can get it in leeks, you can get it in onions. It’s a naturally occurring plant fiber. It allows you to take your fiber up and well, different things have been said. I don’t know if you’re familiar with fructooligosaccharides, and Glyco Care Supplementinsulin sensitivity support a whole bunch of different plant fibers found in nature that are pretty interesting.