Product: Spiru-tein Simply Natural Unsweetened Protein Powder

I tried two more flavors of this in the last couple of days, Peaches & Cream and Strawberry. Both had great flavor and texture. As with my other protein shakes, I mixed them in my imitation bullet blender with crushed ice and water to make 8 oz. Now, these are unsweetened so I add stevia to taste to the blender. Both of these have the same nutrition info. They are a little high in carbs at 5 g per serving so you will have to count it as a serving but if you want to get away from the usual vanilla and chocolate flavors, these both have pretty true fruit flavor.

Pros: flavor, unsweetened

Cons: counts as 1 carb serving

Cost: $1.19 for 1 serving envelope

S/C: 0/1

Product: Brownberry Carb Counting Multigrain Bread

I was in my local Sam's Club today and stumbled upon this low carb bread. If you are doing Jorge Cruise's Belly Fat Cure, you can have 2 slices of this for less than 20 g of carbs and 6 g of fiber. That means sandwiches with both sides instead of open face! For complete nutrition information click here. Now, I did notice that even though it's rated at 0 g sugar and has no high fructose corn syrup, it does have sucralose listed as the very last ingredient. I had a piece with my oatmeal for breakfast and it's certainly not my favorite. I think it lacks texture, even with all of the fiber. I would prefer it have some crunchy bits as one of my favorite breads, Arnold Bakery Natural Wheat bread. Of course it is loaded with carbs compared to this bread. The Natural Wheat is still doable with BFC. I'll review it separately. To check to see if Carb Counting bread is available near you, click on the title link above which will take you to the Brownberry web page where you can enter your zip code to check. Bottom line, I think I'd rather have one slice of the Natural Wheat than 2 slices of the Carb Counting. I will, however, use this to make sandwiches where it helps to have 2 pieces to hold stuff together.

Pros: low carb, high fiber

Cons: minute amount of sucralose

Cost: $5.66 for 2 loaves @ Sam's Club

S/C: 0/1 (for 1 or 2 slices)

Product: Vivagave Inulin

This is an organic soluble fiber product that can be added to food to increase your fiber. It comes in both plain and vanilla flavors. It also has prebiotic qualities and is low glycemic. Inulin also increases calcium and magnesium absorption. I added it to my oatmeal recipe, which should appear here soon. It is rated at 10 g carbs per Tbsp serving but when added to my oatmeal recipe it combines with the oatmeal to make each oatmeal serving a S/C of 0/2. A news release dated 2 Nov 2009 on the web says it is available nationwide at Whole Foods. We don't have a Whole Foods in Dayton, I got mine at Health Foods Unlimited, a great health foods grocery here. If you live nearby or are traveling through, it's worth a stop. I have gotten almost everything Jorge has referenced there.

Pros: high fiber, low glycemic, prebiotic

Cons: Carbs!

Cost: $10.19 for 7 oz. bag

S/C: 0/1

Product: Spiru-tein Simply Natural Chocolate Unsweetened Protein Powder

For nutrition info, click on the title above. This product is from Nature's Plus, same as the Keto slim protein powder. I mixed this as I did with the Keto, crushed ice and water to make about 10 oz. in my "bullet" blender. It is unsweetened and after tasting I added about 1/4 tsp of Sweetleaf Stevia. It was still not as sweet as the Keto shake and, unlike the Keto vanilla shake, seemed a bit watered down. Package directions called for 8 oz of liquid, same as Keto, but Keto tasted great and had a rich texture, even with the extra water. Next time I will stick to the 8 oz and see if that makes a difference. If you like it sweet, you will want to add more than the 1/4 tsp stevia. This product also had 5 g of carb so is right on the border of being one of your carbs for the day. This was much lower in protein than the Keto (23 to 14).

Pros: cost, unsweetened so you can add your choice, 1 g fiber

Cons: not as rich and flavorful as Keto vanilla, lower protein, higher carb grams

Cost: $1.19 for single serving envelope

S/C: 0/1

Product: Private Selection Sugar Free 100% Whole Wheat Bread

For those of you who live near a grocery run by Kroger's (including Ralph's, King Soopers, Smith's, Frys, Dillons, and others), look for their Private Selection brand in the bread dept. They have a Sugar Free 100% Whole Wheat that is really good. Pictured is the nutrition label. It is sweetened with maltitol which is first among the sweet ingredients on the label. It also has a small amount of raisin juice concentrate and sucralose. The sucralose is the next to last ingredient so I can't believe there could be very much.

Pro's: high fiber, good tasting, filling

Con's: may not be widely available, tiny bit of sucralose

Cost:

S/C: 0/1