Crystal Light - yeah or neah?

[Rae-Marie]

Ok, I love this stuff. Although I will not count it as my water intake, is it ok drink it...and a lot of it??
There is no sugar, or any carb (per serving).
My concern is the #2 ingredient - Maltodetrin. (corn starch)

Do you think there is a significant amount in the Crystal Light to matter>

[Elizellen]

Here on ADBB and on many other lowcarb support groups we try to discourage people from eating and drinking sweetened foods and drinks because if you can do so during induction it will help you to defeat that sugar monster that lurks inside many of us who need to lose weight.
Many of us found we can now manage without all the sweets and desserts we used to eat before Atkins!

However - we are allowed up to 3 servings of sweetener a day - preferrably one of the sweeteners recommended on the allowed foods list

sucralose (marketed as Splenda), saccharin, cyclamate and acesulfame-K

, so you need to first find out how many fluid ounces of the crystal light is counted as one serving.
I googled and found this info

Crystal Light® On the Go Lemonade Drink Mix F20-2209012-0100Crystal Light .17 oz packet Just add 20 oz water. Makes 2 1/2 servings. Sugar free. Ingredients: citric acid, potassium citrate, maltodextrin, aspartame (sweetener), magnesium oxide, contains less than 2% of natural flavor, lemon juice solids, acesulfame potassium (sweetener), artificial color, yellow 5 lake, BHT (preserves freshness) Phenylketonurics: contains phenylanine

Accordingly for this product 20 ounces=2 1/2 servings, so you could drink a packet's worth a day and be within the limits. However the sweeteners used are not all on the list!

Or the readymixed lemonade for example

Ingredients: WATER, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF NATURAL FLAVOR, POTASSIUM CITRATE, CITRIC ACID, MALIC ACID, GUM ARABIC, SUCRALOSE AND ACESULFAME POTASSIUM (SWEETENERS), SUCROSE ACETATE ISOBUTYRATE (SAIB), SOY LECITHIN, YELLOW 5, SODIUM BENZOATE, POTASSIUM SORBATE AND CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (PRESERVATIVES).

This does have Atkins-approved sweeteners (assuming that acesulfame potassium is the same as acesulfame-K : perhaps someone who knows can confirm that ) , but again it also states on the label

Serving Size 8fl oz

so you could drink up to 3 x 8 ounce glasses of this a day as long as you are not eating or drinking anything else with sweeteners in!
We are supposed to count one carb for every serving of sweetener no matter what the actual carb count says too!

So as long as you stick to these limits and drink your 3 x 8 ounce glasses AS WELL AS your water you can go ahead and use these soft drinks as part of your Atkins eating and still be on plan! some people go further and make sure that if they do drink other liquids than water they add the same amount of plain water to 'counteract' those other drinks

[meena-beena]

I have Wylers sugar free. I was drinking a small glass a day with my vitamin and even though it was sweetened with Splenda, it became too sweet for me to tolerate and I noticed after I drank it I wanted to eat something sweet and binge.

That's a no no and I banned it from my house. lol. Now I make it all water all the time and take my vitamin with my lunch.

[2big4mysize]

Great info on serving sizes there. the K in ACE-K stands for potassium so it is an acceptable sweetner Elizellen

[Elizellen]

Thanks 2big

[presidentholmes]

Computer says No