SmartSweets Caramels

I've been on an artificial dye free, lower sugar content kick and these come in handy for my sweet tooth. I love the taste of these. It is more expensive than some of my old options but the fact that they taste good with lower sugar content and are free of those artificial dyes make me feel better about the price. I also don't have to eat as much to satisfy my sweet cravings. The smaller bags end up lasting longer for me because of that. I really enjoy that they are so yummy and give me that sour + sweet craving that I am longing for without me having to resort to options that are higher in both calories and sugar. These are my favorite by the brand!

I am Keto since Feb 2019. I can say that you will stay in Ketosis as long as you figure these into your macros. Same thing with any other food-as long as you don't go over your net carbs each day, you are Keto. I say this, because I know. I have lost 80 lbs since February and have had some serious snack attacks with these Smart Sweets. But please, take warning and be thoughtful before you indulge in these. If you know you had an issue with sweets pre-keto, and you notice bags of "empties" in your wastebasket, you are going to have a big problem. These are not an unlimited item. The problems are not limited to extremely slow weight loss. I have binged on these on several occasions and there is severe (not moderate) gas that will accompany any binge. You WILL pay for it if you eat too many. Give yourself a 2 bag max and do it ONLY if your macros will permit it. This means, if you eat two bags of these, you may only have 14 net carbs for the rest of the day. These also can mess up your blood sugar if you are extremely resistant. If you have had T2 diabetes, please just don't even try them. It's not worth it. The good news is, they are 3-5 bucks for a tiny bag, so that financial incentive along with your Guideline might be just enough to keep you from overindulging. Me? Not so much. I am probably going to be making my own gummies henceforth. Because I want more than 12 in a sitting and they are fairly easy to make at home. For economy, I order 12 bags at a time. This is not good, because I can't have bags of these around. I will eat them all. My baby girl loves the fish ones, but these Peach ones are my sister's favorite. They are so good. The ones in the pink bag are my favorite. I am not a huge fan of the powder coating over these. But the peach flavor is intense and delicious. I gave these five stars because of the innovation behind these treats. I think it is wonderful that people care enough to produce something with less sugar. But, you must eat these with caution, and for me, I probably need to stop ordering them. I get a nasty email at work and go straight for the smart sweets. NOT GOOD. But, they are great if you have a militant little consumption monitor (ie, baby daughter) around that will hide them from you and keeps tabs on your food intake. In short, I love Keto because it doesn't require me to watch so much Because if you do Keto right you are rarely if ever very hungry. Thus, I will probably not be renewing my subscription. If the inventor of these comes up with a zero carb option, however, I will be back!

There is a bit of a sour taste, but it's not a bad taste. Just imagine sour cinnamon bears with a seriously spicy kick. I think they're fantastic, and I haven't been able to find any other cinnamon flavored candy without all the sugar and carbs.

This product tries to lead you to believe it is better for you than sugar. This is misleading if not outright false. What good does it do to remove almost all sugar only to replace it with something that masquerades as being good for you, but is no better than, and probably worse than regular sugar? There was a report by Thanh Vo, MSc, in March 21, 2019 entitled "Tapioca Fiber or Soluble Corn Fiber: Which one is worse than sugar?" in which Prebiotic Tapioca Fiber was identified as none other than than the known culprit IMO: Isomaltooligosaccharide. As you may note from above, this compound is a saccharide, and saccharides are sugars! Do you wonder why these products taste so sweet, and you don't taste the stevia? IMO is a SUGAR FIBER, not a true dietary fiber! It is listed as a SWEETENER. One can find it listed in the 'All Sweetener List' at the Sugar-Sweetener-Guide which can be found online. The article by Thanh notes that in n 2013, Quest Nutrition came under litigation for representing IMO as dietary fiber on the nutrional labels for their bars. They ended up removing IMO from their products. Equating prebiotic tapioca fiber with IMO is uncovered by looking at the labeling of other products. An example given in the article is Primal Kitchen's Macadamia Sea Salt bars which list isomaltooligosaccharides (from Tapioca) (IMO) as the first ingredient on their website. However, the package label lists "Prebiotic Tapioca Fiber" in its place. But it is not listed as a carbohydrate or a sugar as this substance seems to fall through the cracks of current labeling requirements. They go on to show another label where "Prebiotic Tapioca Fiber" is directly identified as "IMO from Non GMO Tapioca starch" on the same label. What is notable, according to the article, is that IMO is NOT included in the current Final FDA Guidelines for Dietary Fiber. This would appear to indicate that this is not a true dietary fiber, and Tapioca Fiber is simply another name for IMO. However it seems that, for a few more years yet while the FDA allows further submissions in dietary fibers, companies can do what this company is doing. I look for that to change. The evidence presented in the article goes on to show that IMO (tapioca fiber) is actually worse than table sugar. Recent studies have shown IMO to generate blood sugar levels similar to glucose and dextrose. These have a glycemic index of 100! For a comparison of the glycemic index of various sugars: Table 1: GI of sugars Maltose GI= 105 Glucose/dextrose GI=100 Rice syrup GI=98 Sucrose GI=65 Lactose GI=46 Fructose GI=19 As you can see, IMO has one of highest as its glycemic index as it is similar to that of glucose/dextrose. It's higher than regular table sugar. In this article they described running two tests to specifically see how a SmartSweet product impacted blood sugar starting from fasting. In one they ate a package of gummie bears. In the other they drank sugar water containg 28 grams pure sugar, and compared the results on fasting blood sugar. The results were virtually identical. Both spiked blood sugar into the160's within an hour, and took over 2 hours to return to normal. Imagine now the effect on a diabetic, and how this would kick someone on a ketogenic diet out of ketosis. Tapioca fiber has also been listed as: Prebiotic Tapioca Fiber Soluble Tapioca Fiber Prebiotic Fiber from Tapioca Starch Prebiotic Soluble Fiber from Tapioca Non-GMO Tapioca Fiber Organic Tapioca Fiber Prebiotic Soluble Fiber from Cassava So buyer beware. This product appears to be is no better than sugar. You can find people on YouTube showing what it does to their blood glucose levels as well. That this product suggests it is better for you than sugar is greatly misleading if not outright false. I feel I have been greatly deceived.

I’m a candy addict, I’ve loved all sweets since I was a kid. I eat a little candy almost every evening, and I was trying to replace that with these Smart Sweets. Here’s my review for the flavors I’ve had so far: Watermelons: The texture is kinda odd and the flavor seems chemically, even moreso than actual candy. The price certainly does not entice me to give these ones another try. Swedish Fish: I actually liked these! They stick to your teeth reeeeally badly so don’t eat if you have teeth issues, but they are very flavorful and sweet. Fruity Gummy Bears: Not good. Not sweet at all, no flavor. Rubbery, feel like I’m chewing on a non-food item. I’ll never get these again. Sour Blast Buddies: My all-time favorite! I’ve ordered about 5-6 boxes of these over the last few months, I actually really like them. They’re really sour, which helps me not over-indulge on them because my cheeks can’t handle more than one pack per night lol. Best flavor in my opinion!

The Sour Blast Buddies flavor IS THE BEST! If you like sour patch kids, this is definitely the healthier snack to try! It is a little pricey, but they do contain fiber and are more filling/satisfying than the pure sugar stuff like sour patch kids. You'd think buying the box of this flavor (or any other) would be the cheapest way to buy them, but on Amazon Fresh (when part of a grocery order) they are the cheapest. Because of the high cost I did try a competing product by Shameless Snacks which is much cheaper (can be half the cost). Shameless Snacks makes a fruitier, like much more "fruit-forward" version that maybe feels/tastes healthier because the blast of fruit flavor overtakes the sweetness, which many may prefer over the sugary/sour hit of SmartSweets' counterpart, but both only contain 3g of sugar per serving. The Shameless one has much more fiber, which can be a pro or con depending on your needs and tolerance, but for sure it makes it much more filling so that combined with the reduced cost makes the Shameless brand the higher value choice. If stuck on an island and I could only choose one, I'd go with SmartSweets though because it tastes/hits like sour patch kids and I actually CRAVE them, versus Shameless, which I don't crave at all.

Great texture, small gummy bear size cinnamon bears (unlike the regular cinnamon bears). While I wanted to LOVE these since finding anything chewy/gummy in sugar free form is difficult.... I was disappointment in the lack of cinnamon flavor. There was subtle cinnamon taste, but weirdly, it was also almost fruity as well. Interesting combination of flavors, spent quite a bit of money on these. :(

love that i can enjoy a treat without feeling guilty!