Creating recipe but sugar alcohol is messing up my carbs!

Gidg

How do I prevent sugar alcohol from impacting my carbs in recipes? I see in my profile that I can include sugar alcohols in net carbs but even when I unchecked it, it didn't make a difference in my recipe??? Do I need to edit my recipe to get it to reflect? Or does that choice make no difference?

Karen_Cronometer

@Gidg

If you uncheck the box, the sugar alcohols should be subtracted from Net Carbs in your diary. This will not remove the sugar alcohols listed in your recipes, but when you add it the recipe to your diary the sugar alcohols should not increase your net carbs value.

Best,

Gidg

Awesome! Thanks. I am just getting familiar with this app and so far I am so very impressed! I spent a lot of yesterday recreating the recipes I had on Spark People (at least 50 of them, ugh!)

Gidg

I just edited a food that I added by scanning the upc code. (Edited a copy, then deleted the original) The change I made was to add the sugar alcohol. But when I added it to my diaryt it did not reflect the net carbs??? Did I do something wrong?

Gidg

Also, it is not working on recipes either. I created one, added to my diary and expected to see the net carbs increase but it didn't. The carbs were the total carbs less fiber but not less sugar alcohol! AND the system will not let me edit the recipe macros to manually add the sugar alcohol to the fiber! UGH. Very Frustrating!

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Gidg,

Did you remember to save the custom food after you edited it? This is an easy step to miss, but might explain why they didn't register the sugar alcohols that you added in your copy - I've done this myself! When you select the food in your food diary to see the nutrients in your targets below, can you see sugar alcohols listed there? We may be able to help you better if you send an email to support@cronometer.com

You cannot edit the nutrients in a recipe because they are calculated automatically from the ingredients you enter. You can edit individual nutrients in custom foods.

Gidg

Yes I saved it. And yes, when I added the recipe to my diary it did not subtract the sugar alcohol in the nutrients below.

comanchesue

I've had the same problem. Even the Atkins products where the sugar alcohols are included in values, cronometer refuses to deduct them from the net carb count. Luckily I rarely use the products (sugar alcohols) so I just make a mental note.

Gidg

Hi Comanchesue,

If you are a premium member, you can edit the food you custom added. What I have done is add the Sugar Alcohol to the fiber. Boom, done. I never have to think about it again. The problem with recipes is you can't edit the macros because it's based on the ingredients you added.

I sent a request to the support line. What's interesting is I put a recipe on there and when I tested it out by adding it to my diary, Cron did not deduct the sugar alcohols. When I went back several hours later and tried again, it did! Weird.

Aaron

Hi folks -- are you editing the items on the web version, iOS app, or Android app? We'll see if we can reproduce this and file a bug on any/all of the platforms, but more details to help us narrow it down would be appreciated.

Gidg

I can't edit in android (foods anyway), only in desktop. And you can only scan foods in the phone app so it's weird. I noticed another one today. I scanned a food and it didn't even record the Erythritol as sugar alcohol. It didn't record it as anything. I was able to edit it in the web version though.

Thanks!

Hilary

Hi @Gidg,
It sounds like this is a specific food issue.
You can report an issue with your food by right clicking on the food entry in your diary to select "view/edit selected food". Then select the settings icon in the top right corner, and select "report an issue". In the app version, tap "More details" and select the "!" icon in the top right corner.
Submitting your issues helps us maintain an accurate and complete database. Thanks for your diligence in making sure our food entries are accurate!

Gidg

Thank you Hilary, and I have reported a number of "mistakes." However, this is an obvious issue with the software not deducting the sugar alcohols from carbs and not presenting a true net carb number. I have been in touch with the support line and they are looking into it. I do have a way around this if need be. I can always edit the food with sugar alcohols to add thenm to the fiber but I would prefer not to. I would prefer the software actually act as advertised.

Hilary

Hi @Gidg,
I understand your frustration with this. Cronometer does take into account sugar alcohols when they are listed in the food entry.
As you have found, Sugar alcohols are not always listed in the food item, in which case, Cronometer will not subtract them as there is no value listed to subtract. This is a case of an incomplete or wrong food entry and this is where we look to our users for help in reporting missing or mistaken information. We gather our information from various sources so this does happen from time to time; we are working hard to curate these entries to ensure a complete and accurate database.
In general we recommend using food entries sourced from the NCCDB or the USDA when logging foods, as they have complete nutrient profiles; this is not always possible with pre-packaged, brand-name foods. In your case, it seems you are encountering this problem frequently when entering brand-name foods containing Sugar Alcohols that are not always listed either on the label or in the food entry. The food data is not always available or complete, and we rely on our users to submit issues to us for review in order to make our database the most complete and accurate as possible.

Gidg

Hi Hilary. I do appreciate that we need to provide a heads up when something is wrong, but what I encountered was a scanned UPC in which the sugar alcohol was listed on the label but did not make it to the data that was scanned. That's just one example.

My experiences and the examples I provided to support were evidence that the software did not subtract the sugar alcohols from the net carbs even though it was listed and could be seen when viewing the food product in the web based app.

Marie_Eve_Cronometer

Hi @Gidg ,

We've contacted you through e-mail