SUGAR FREE BACON

[MAMZELLE]

I have a real dilemma suddenly and it's an important 'staple'. Shoprite has bacon with NO sugar and low salt, [and also just as a tip....the thickest, meatiest and best flavored bacon I've ever tasted], both are prominantly on the front label, sugar-0 under both listings on back too [including ingredients and 'nutrition facts'].

The first time I accidently stumbled upon it and didn't realize they even made sugar free bacon so have been using that ever since and buy about 7 to 10 lbs each shopping for the freezer but ran out. [BTW....it does NOT lose flavor when freezing, as they claim, so don't hesitate to freeze it if anyone's like me and overstocks in enormous quantities]

My neighbor who picked it up for me, said they were OUT of the sugar free/lowsalt so got me 3 regular instead just to tide me over and I always bought just regular bacon throughout prior years thinking there was no 'choice', but don't buy that now because I am more concerned since I know there IS sugar free bacon out there.

I can't find sugar free anywhere else to hold me over till shoprite gets more, I've called everywhere in the neighborhood.... and am stuck with this bacon containing sugar [sugar is 3rd on the ingredient list but it still says '0' on the upper 'nutrition facts' list.....the salt doesn't bother me as much because I never add salt to my food so this won't kill me temporarily as far as the salt goes].

I always assume that everyone [or most] use regular bacon because it's hard to find 'sugar free' so I'm wondering if I should be concerned about it with high sugar, for only the duration of three one lb. packages?

[What would you advise anyone 'without' testing blood sugar, in case your answer was going to suggest to do that. That wouldn't help me.
:-( Thanks so much.

[FreeIndeed]

I don't cook bacon hardly ever but eat it when I eat out.

I'm sure the bacon I get at Whataburger when I get their double cheeseburger with bacon, cheese and jalapenos on a platter is cured with sugar, but it has never caused me to stall. In fact when I do stall, Whataburger is one of the first places I head to get back on track.

And I even ask for an extra order of bacon and get four pieces instead of two.

We all know our mileage varies so I can only testify that it doesn't seem to hinder me.

[MAMZELLE]

Like you, I also ate regular bacon all my life even when strictly on atkins and never gave it a second thought because even Atkins didn't specify 'no sugar' in it, but now only because of my sugar condition, I'm being so extra careful with every little thing. Unfortunately, I can't find one without nitrates and HAVE tried so hard [cancerous] but have to be more concerned with sugar. it's like ......"pick your disease"! :-(

[inatic]

Try doing a search for Sugar Free Nitrate Free Bacon in Google..

HTH

[Atkins_Nutritionist]

Try a health food store or a store like whole foods.

[MAMZELLE]

Thank you, but my question wasn't where to 'find' it, but if it's okay to utilize the 3 lbs. of 'regular' bacon that I have till MY store restocks, since I don't have any at all other than those 3 pkgs that aren't sugar free. I am at present in a very residential area with no stores around and the phone calls I made to all the nearest ones don't have it and I unfortunately can't go running around looking for sugar free bacon. I am basically asking if people with high sugar have a problem in general with the amount of sugar contained in bacon if it isn't sugar free. [And as I also said at the end of my post, testing blood sugar after eating it is not an option for me..... nor a solution.]

There is nothing in the index of 'Diabetes Revolution' for Bacon, [though there are other foods listed there], and since you've referred to it as ''your book'' in one of your posts, I assumed you would have an opinion if regular bacon is allowed for those with high blood sugar.... who are not on any medication and trying to control it with only food. Is the amount of sugar generally used in bacon, significant. It does not specify that it's ''cured'' with it, only lists the word 'sugar' in the ingredients but says zero in the 'nutrition facts'. Thanks again so much.

[Catheryn]

MAM, did you try calling the manufacturer? I would imagine that only they would have the exact info for you.

[FreeIndeed]

I am borderline diabetic and I understand about not wanting to test your blood every five minutes. Those finger pricks HURT! At least that is one reason I would hate to find out that way in addition to the fact that that's like closing the barn door after the horse is out if it does cause a problem.

Have you tried posting this on the main board? I know there are a bunch of people there that test their blood sugar regularly - Debi from Ohio I think is one - maybe you could even pm her?

If you can't find the answer out on the main board though, when it doubt, throw it out or better yet give it to a friend who doesn't have sugar problems. Your health is more important than three pounds of bacon. Maybe someone would trade it to you for something that you know is okay to eat.

[MAMZELLE]

Thanks, freeIndeed, appreciate it.... just thought there are diabetics out there who eat bacon, and knowing how difficult it is to find sugar free in this particular food, and some others also possibly not being able to search every market in their city either, without both the energy, the resources .....nor time, and that someone out there would have at least an idea if using normal bacon is effecting them, or if THEY feel safe with it and if it's a minimal amount of sugar to not be concerned about .... or I assumed certainly a professional nutritionist with a diabetic book out on Atkins would know that general question about the amount of sugar used in bacon... again, one of Atkins very staples.

I've always just bought bacon all my life when on this diet [not at other times in-between] without these concerns and am sure many others still are, who are on Atkins where it's ALWAYS been a staple, even now still for we Atkins' veterans. Didn't seem like such a difficult question lol. [no, I don't throw food out including 3 lbs of bacon, and my neighbor is on Weight Watchers and doesn't eat bacon, so.... so much for that lol.... it's just in my freezer 'pending'. But the point is that now I have no bacon to use and thought maybe this wouldn't be so bad, since I am SURE diabetics must be using regular bacon out there somewhere.

I do 72 atkins, and eat as much bacon as I want as atkins himself to me I can do, which is why it's a pretty big staple for me when on induction and I depend on it since MY atkins policy and diet is completely restricted probably more than most others... even those who are also the original, from what I've been reading. By the way, [I have all the new meters, also including the 5 second One Touch and also the tiniest in the world: Freestyle 'flash' with 7 second timing and all the other NON-finger sticking ones, and latest ones down the line, Breeze, Elite, Contour, Accu, and more.... but a long story]. What do you do? Are you eating bacon, and which?]

Catheryn.... I called the Shoprite offices long ago about bacon without nitrates, they in turn called the manufacturer and got back to me about sodium nitrates being in this sugar free/low sodium that i always buy, but there's no reason to call them for this. They're just out of the product, and all I'm wondering is if it's safe to eat these until they restock. I feel it's probably more important for it not to have sugar than not to have nitrates which I've found even MORE impossible to find after calling all over about that too. Like I said, it's ''pick your disease".

Been back to many other sites like this reading also, where I usually pop over to often, and everyone is having this problem..... cancer or diabetes! CHOOSE! But now my dilemma is not having anything, not even sugar free right now.

[FreeIndeed]

Wow! Didn't know there were ways to test blood without sticking your finger OUCH!

Whenever, I am trying to do low fat and eating high carb (including complex carbohydrates), I am always borderline diabetic and test then and it makes me very nervous. It also makes me feel like crap.

Been on Atkins for so long now, my blood sugar is just fine.

I go for a physical in about a month, and my doctor who is not an Atkins fan AT ALL is concerned that I lost my weight doing Atkins and is expecting (almost hoping I think) my blood work to be a disaster. I'm looking forward to or hoping to pop his bubble.

(Don't have a whole lot of choice of Dr.'s in my plan that are in convenient locations so I guess it's my lot in life to try help to educate this guy).

Not sure about the cholesteral, but I know he'll find my blood sugar okay. I can tell by the way I feel.

I can tell my blood sugar is normal when I eat low carb so I don't bother to test.

Shoot, I would say only eat a few pieces of that bacon a day even though you are on the 72 plan that lets you eat as much bacon as you want. I doubt that would hurt you but if you eat a whole bunch at once, maybe all that sugar could add up.

Then when you get the sugar free bacon, eat as much bacon a day as you want of that.

[MAMZELLE]

Actually, funny thing is that I DID go down from 4 to only 2 slices of even the sugar free/low salt long ago after seeing talk on here about it, but not only 3x per week, every day if I felt like it, though sometimes I didn't..

Even after all the years I've believed in this, and never worried about the fat, and trusted it, all that bacon fat give me second thoughts but only in the deep recesses of my mind lol... but i'm sure everyone has those feelings after generations of 'no fat' philisophy rammed into our heads before us, though I never did follow that since finding atkins so early, so I escaped those theories but still, it was alll around me.

So even the sugar free, low salt bacon I lowered and if I felt like another slice or two just as a snack, I did have it later [so simple throwing into the microwave for 3, 4 minutes and no mess] but not often did I feel like it again later in the day, and I always cook my eggs in the grease. It was 'lazy' food, or like a quick fix when not really hungry for a meal, nor really anything else. Always considered a treat, like a couple of spoonfuls of ice cream used to be so far back that I can't even remember. :-(

It's my incentive to even EAT eggs, which are so boring to me even with all the seasonings, sweetner, and sr cream sonetimes, cheese, making them really taste so good, but and too much trouble when I get up in the morning to fuss with by putting all those OTHER things in, in addition to that and I never feel like eggs LATER in the day when there's so many better things to eat..... except sometimes egg SALAD but rarely that either... usually tuna instead, once in a while putting a couple of hard boiled eggs in with the tuna.

You said you know your BS is low by how you feel. I know the signs of hi and low BS but would like to hear how YOU feel when knowing it's low. I have a chart that's still on the fridge for my mother, put there by the nurses for the aides that Was there when I came here, and I still left it up [well hidden under a pretty screen that hangs down over it] .

But someone on here said to me about another food or vitamin, that I can tell if it's raising my sugar by "- - - " and she said three things, which I already knew, but one of them was "JITTERY" if sugar was high, and to me when I feel that high energy, I always thought that was a GOOD sign, and that it's NORMAL sugar level, nice and low...... thought sluggish and barely able to move is HIGH sugar effects. [Though I can tell the difference between my 'normal'' weaknesses and sluggishness that would be from high sugar. Hard to explain and everything is so subtle with me. Only the weakness and dizzy spells are more drastic, nothing else really happens, I'm pretty much the same every day and never deviate from very strict down to the bone original Atkins. I feel better if having carbs, though. I was dizzy for WEEKS till adding the Dreamfields pasta and though it didn't effect my sugar & keto stix, I guess the 5 extra carbs were enough to take away the dizzyness. Now it comes back occasionally that I took a break from the pasta for over a month before going back to it]

Ahhhhhhh Here, I just got it off the fridge. I kinda knew and never had to look at it and it IS ''nervousness" for LOW sugar, it says, as she referred to as 'jittery'... not high, so I remembered correctly, what do you say, how do you feel, or any others out there [I never feel the 'high' sugar signs except for my 'natural' low energy except after my decaf, which makes me very hyper mentally and feeling better physically too, and gets me going and brightens my mood].

I never get the high signs on the list... only the low. Often irritable but have a lot of pressures now, never get headaches, nor sweat but the nervousness and am often getting fainting spells, I call it dizzy spells even after I DO eat, so I don't understand that, and it's what I worry about.

Can diabetics have low sugar, or OFTEN, when NOT TAKING INSULIN and expecially after HAVING EATEN? My mother always went dangerously low, but BECAUSE of the insulin, and the nurses and myself always had a running battle with her doctor because it wasn't his philosophy to adjust doses and he was her doctor SOOOO many years before I came here that I didn't want to start from scratch at that point when she was near the end anyway, with also her cancer and alzheimer's, but I DID finally get him to lower it ONCE because I was constantly saving her life from it dropping low so much! [and is why I HATE Doctors, they often KILL ya].

[One had my father taking pills for his 'NERVES" when he constantly got hicupps. That went on for six months while his CANCER was growing up his asophicus from his stomach, and HE was taking pills for his NERVES!!!!!! Don't even ask. So of course he's dead and has been for a long timd.]

But I am surprised at my frequent dizziness. The only signs of 'hi' sugar is that I always feel weak, but that's all my life, other than that, I have mostly the LOW signs along with the weakness, none of the high EVER but ALWAYS the weakness, which may be other things, but can't imagine what. Often just walking to another room exhausts me sooo much that I have to come right back to sit down. That's why I can't even do my own BIG BULK, time consuming shopping or those type 'errands' of running around too long, or standing too long. I can do everything else, out to dinner, things that don't require too much walking or standing for LONG periods of time, like large volume supermarket shopping does, but 'short' stops are ok, running in and out of a car to get something in a store, things like that are ok, though in Manhattan we don't keep cars so someone would always be driving me or we have to take cabs. I am often short of breath, and my back bothers me too, but that's a whole other story and I don't think sugar related. NEVER was a high 'physical' energy person since I was even born and as a kid.... but being a Gemini [to an EXTREME degree lol] always hyper mentally.......>

SIGNS OF TOO LOW SUGAR
headache
faintness
NERVOUSNESS
irritability
sweating

SIGNS OF TOO HIGH SUGAR
confusion
eating too much
weakness
nausea
vomiting
frequent urination
fruity breath .....[my note: hard to tell that when in keytosis, though I never really have that, nor that kind of taste in my mouth, and am always in ketosis]

[i know there are typos galore up there but just awoke, too groggy to now look for them again while here to just edit/add more text, the heck with it lol..... need my decaf to wake up which I haven't had yet].

[FreeIndeed]

Sorry it took me so long to answer. Where I work, they get upset if I get on the internet for anything personal so I can only answer posts on weekends.

You just listed the signs of blood sugar being off. One way I know my blood sugar is upset is if I literally pass out and in one case banged my head on a cupboard. Talk about dizzy!

The ways you listed all apply. You put the perfect list up. Certainly when my blood sugar is too high, I have an insatiable appetite and there isn't enough food in the universe to make me feel full.

Since what goes up, must come down, after the high blood sugar, there is the inevitable low blood sugar which causes me to get dizzy for one thing and in one case I literally fainted and banged my head against a cupboard.

Your list really says it all, but when I am on low carb, I get so sensitive to too many carbs if I cheat too much that I can literally just feel what I call "a bit uncomfortable" right after eating.

I am a big believer in "the zone" although there is no way the ratio that Barry Sears uses apply to me and why I'm an Atkins girl because he lets each of us design the level of carbs that works for each of us individually. There is no other way because mileage does vary and we are all individuals.

But anyway on this plan sooner or later, I just gravitate to "my zone" where I feel good and healthy and do not feel uncomfortable at all much less bang my head on a cupboard after fainting.

[MAMZELLE]

Hi, didn't have time to respond when i read above, then forgot to come back, with so many other boards! Sorry lol Wow, that's dangerous, and it's the very thing I'm always afraid of though I don't feel it coming that close.... just 'mildly' dizzy which is scary enough.

I've always wondered if it COULD be high BS because I didn't think without insulin it could get dangerously low like my mother always did WITH insulin.... so the 'high' bs possibility scared me.

Of course when eating some more carbs.... vegs, salad, and ALWAYS eating cheese..... I feel better. I don't really understand the dizziness but happening a little less now, only once in a while.

I remember the biggest impact was when I was steadily at the same mild dizziness level for about 3 weeks, and when first testing the Dreamfirlds pasta, that all changed, and I also felt better in other ways, it ended that dizzy phase..... but I worry that if i'm eating enough carbs to make that much of a difference, maybe it's enough to affect my sugar level and that's what I worry about.

The stix stayed sugar negative with the pasta, and the sill in keytosis, but with so much water, and vitamin C, which effects the stix' readings... now wondering if my sugar WAS high from it and just not showing on the stix.

But the dreamfields was only 5 extra carbs per day, plus the extra couple from the low carb red sauce [and the alfredo wasn't even THAT much] so I don't know what to think. An amount of carbs that could make me feel that much better and take away my dizziness, I wonder what it's also doing to my sugar, but I still eat the vegs, and got back to the salad that I stopped but it's kinda partially stalling weight loss or maybe it's not that which is doing it. But don't let yourself get that low. I don't anymore.

Sometimes I even got dizzy when just lounging in bed, not even standing.... that really got me very worried. Be careful! That's not what those cubbards are FOR lol Never thought sugar has to drop BELOW normal after being high. Just thought it went back to normal.

Does it always mean that it was HIGH first, before it gets so low to cause dizziness? Should I assume that the dizziness is from it dropping after having been too HIGH? Don't know how it could be, because I am SOOOOO strict with food, that I can't imagine it getting high. I always eat the same and never deviate.... only with vegs and salad..... some days I have them and some not. But that wouldn't make the bs go higher...... just lower on those days without the 'greens', which I try not to do anymore.

[Atkins_Nutritionist]

I agree with Catheryn, call the manufacturer.

Everyone responds differently to different foods. Do you know what your blood sugar is on a regular basis? Can you test your blood sugar before and after eating the bacon?

In general, if you do not eat more than 2 strips, it should not be too detrimental to your blood sugar.

Also, your dizziness may be caused by low blood sugar are you taking medications?

Have you tried keeping a journal to determine specifically when it happens? This way you can eat a snack 30 minutes before this usually happens.

[MAMZELLE]

Hi, If you mean to call the manufacturer about the amount of sugar in the bacon, firstly Shoprite IS the manufacturer, it's their store brand, (which surprises me because it's such premium quality and the meatiest, thickest 'regular' bacon, I've ever had, and amazingly so moderately priced.... everyone should RUN, don't walk.... to get it, if they can. It SAYS "SUGAR FREE" on front [along with low sodium] and sugar-0 in nutrition facts and also NONE, nor any other form of sugar listed in 'ingredients' either!).

Long before they ran out of the sugar free, I had called the Shoprite chain's offices way back when checking on Nitrates and if they had any versions without it, and of course they didn't, [no one else does either, I've checked everywhere around here] but that was long before they ran out of the Sugar free/low salt so I never had to ask about sugar content then... and I couldn't talk directly to the producers of the product, Shoprite's office called them FOR me and got back to me. I wouldn't really rely on what they'd say about the sugar bacon's sugar content anyway so just to have called again for the sugar would have been a whole rigermarole to go through, callbacks, explinations, etc. I
had had enough calling all over the world looking for no-nitrates already, and to other stores for no sugar when shoprite ran out of it, so I'd had enough :-(

They got the sugar free/low sodium back in before the weekend, and although they do not take 'phone orders', [you have to be IN the store shopping then pay for it and then they will deliver home for you with NO exceptions] I first dealt with the "Dairy'' Manager, whom I arranged to have call me the moment the new stock DID arrive.

When he called I told him to put aside 10 pkgs, and that day I then spoke to the store's HEAD general manager and got him to have the 10 lbs., that the dairy mgr. was holding for me.... immediately delivered to my door lol. I was very persuasive and by the time I got through with him, I had him believing that there actually COULD be such a thing as a ''bacon emergency'', and he honored it. LOL Ain't life grand.

I also tipped the head of the delivery dept [they function independantly within the store] an extra $12 bucks when he got here, in case it ever happens again lol.... So now I've made 3 few friends... the dairy manager, the owner of Shoprite's in-house delivery service [who was the one who brought it] and the Store Manager..... to insure my never
being without it again. On this diet, some things ARE important to make it 'livable' because I keep such tight food restrictions on myself, therefore everything that I DO allow myself is equally important.

Anything can be accomplished in life. That is NOT their policy and with NO exceptions, but when wanting something badly enough there are no restrictions in life EVER, I've learned and function by, which is why how to achieve and acquire things is in my signature below. lol But I didn't have to use THAT extreme method below... for the bacon lol.

So now I have 13 lbs of bacon in my freezer..... maybe someday I'll deftost a sugar pkg along with the usual sugar free package, and eat one of the sugar with the non sugar [equaling 2 strips each time] and it will get used up very gradually. I don't think one strip would hurt me but don't want to take the chance of even that at this stage yet. In
my experience, bacon freezes beautifully, and indefinitely, and as I've said above..... it does NOT lose it's flavor when frozen. Right now, my bigger problems are Vitamin C [mega-doses] and E [the question of gamma or alpha], as are in my other thread ["VITAMIN C OVERDOSES......"], which hasn't been responded to yet by anutritionist.

No, I'm not taking ANY medications, which is why my dizziness / low blood sugar [?] surprised me and I was suspicious if it maybe being 'high' sugar that was making me constantly dizzy but I wasn't eating anything that could from HIGH sugar. I follow atkins at the lowest carbs with only the exception of a handful of broccolli or spinach once a day and very rarely some salad and only instead of veg [not purposely, just works out that way], which I wasn't even eating during the weeks of more constant dizziness so there couldn't have been high sugar.

Never got dizzy on Atkins before through the decades and used to do 0-10 carbs back then! So why should I get dizzy now with MORE carbs than that... sometimes not quite 20, probably, but certainly not as low as 10 with the cheese, veggies, cream cheese and occasionally a few pork rinds in my homemade clear chicken soup, and sometimes 3 or 4
macodamias or walnuts and no more [sometimes I even chew them and spit out].

I AM getting carbs in those little 'sneaky', but very careful ways lol, and my 4 or even 5 oz of chedder and/or swiss certainly makes up the rest.... I think most days I AM getting 20, [and between 2-3 liters of water]. If it's under 20 carbs sometimes..... then very little under. I'm ALWAYS nibbling throughout the day & night instead of actual full
meals. My only MEAL is at night with meat or chicken and a fistful of spinach or broccoli.... or tuna with celery & mayo if not at other hours, and an avacado here and there. Shouldn't be getting dizzy.

No, I've never kept a journal since I was first starting this in my early teens, and have always done it the same way and never got dizzy, but now I have high sugar, so that probably has something to do with it, though I don't know how or what. I've even been dizzy AFTER i eat during those times, which is what puzzles me the most. On those days, it just lasts all day/night and used to FOR days, weeks, but very slight. Thanks