 Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Sugar MD, the ultimate diabetes channel. Today we are talking about sugar-free foods. Are they really sugar-free? Can you trust them? What do you need to look for? We're gonna talk all about that today. This is Dr. Ahmed Ergin. I am an endocrinologist, a diabetes specialist, and a diabetes educator. Let's get started guys. Before we jump into this guys, remember to give a thumbs up. Remember to give a like to this video and share if you like it. We will really like that too. Okay, so let's get started. Now basically sugar-free can be a scam, just like any other thing. You have to know what you're looking for. So I'm gonna tell you sugar-free can sometimes be good, but sometimes it's a deception. So here's how they do it. So when you look at the nutrition label, I hope you already know by now if you have watched our previous videos, which is already almost 150 or more right now. But if you didn't know already, I'll explain to you briefly that the label, the product label, the nutrition label that you're looking at, you have to look for total carbohydrates. Why? As we discussed in my ultimate diabetes book in detail, we talk about total carbohydrates and how they get converted into sugar. So those sugars are the carbohydrates turned into sugar, the glucose and the glucose is absorbed in your intestines. So pretty much every carbohydrate goes and becomes sugar, minus, minus the fibers. So you also have to look for a fiber content. At least look for three to four grams of fiber in anything you buy to make sure these fibers somewhat offset the effect of carbohydrates and slow the absorption of the carbohydrates. So you may see a label that says sugar-free or sugar less than zero grams, but you may have up to 50 grams of carbohydrates per serving. You have to be very careful, especially when it comes to cereals and grains. There are a lot of diabetics out there who will tell me that they are eating sugar-fury cereal and they don't understand why their blood sugar is going up to 300 after they eat that. I'm like, hey, how many carbohydrates do you have in that sugar-free cereal? They're like, I don't know. Well, you should know. You should know how much total carbohydrates you're getting from that because that again gets converted to sugar, like we talked. Another thing that you have to really pay attention is that they replace a lot of sugar with sugar alcohols. They generally end with the O-L. So any ingredient that ends with O-L more than likely is a sugar alcohol. Now, sugar alcohols are not necessarily carbohydrate-free either. So they actually can increase your blood sugar, but also they are hard to digest. So you may have a lot of indigestion after eating those goodies that taste good when you're eating, but then a couple hours later, you may find yourself in the bathroom screaming. Well, that's not necessarily the great world, right? The greatest world. So think about that as well. And also remember to do the math, guys. So, you know, nobody wants to count your carbs, but think about this. Even if you have zero grams of sugar and then there is, say, 15 grams of carbs, you're like, eh, you know, that's not bad, really 15 grams. But then in your brain, if you think that, oh, yeah, that's sugar-free, it's all right, you know, and then you end up eating five of them. Now, how much carbohydrates did you have now? 75 grams of carbohydrate-free, you just ingested. Because you thought it's not a big deal, there's no sugar in there. But as we talked, all these little carbohydrates that come in the package will turn into sugar. The bottom line, sugar-free food is not a free food, guys. So you can enjoy sugar-free food, sugar-free products if they are low in carbohydrates and high in fiber. And the rule of thumb, if you're having as a snack less than 15-20 grams of carbs, is the rule. And if you're having as a whole meal, I don't think if there's any whole meal that is sugar-free, but the bottom line is you want to keep your carbohydrates to as low as possible and increase the fiber as much as possible. That's going to give you the best results. And then there are ways to base tasting. So if I'm going to have really something sweet, I rather have a real sweet maybe, you know, once in a blue moon, once a week, every other week, rather than, you know, trying to deceive myself with sugar-free food pretty much every day. So I hope that helps, guys. We'll see you in the next video. Before we go, remember to give a thumbs up and remember to check out our website at sugarmds.com.