UPDATE:
We recently discovered that Tapioca Fiber (aka IMO) is HIGHLY glycemic (closer to sugar and dextrose) and no longer recommend the below Eat Smart Sweet gummies for a keto or diabetic diet (they use over 20g per serving) . Please read more about this fiber on our latest post here.
Currently, we haven’t found a keto friendly gummy bear that doesn’t use maltitol or tapioca fiber.
In our never-ending quest for the best low carb candy, we have discovered a great option for keto friendly gummy bears!
There are a bunch of sugar-free gummy bear varieties out there, but basically, every single product we could find was sweetened with maltitol.
What’s maltitol, you ask?
It’s a sugar alcohol that is widely used as a sugar alternative. Maltitol is about as sweet as sugar but does not spike your blood glucose levels as much as real sugar does.
Another thing that maltitol is good at? It’s great at attracting water. And when you’ve eaten a lot of maltitol, that water gets sucked into your digestive system. And that, my friends, is why if you aren’t careful, you can experience a “power wash” of your intestines. Not very pleasant.
The solution? Luckily we found some keto and low carb gummy bears that solve these issues.
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Our Keto Friendly Gummy Bears Top Pick:
SmartSweets Gummy Bears
- Four awesome flavors:
- Fruity (aka Normal Gummy Bears)
- 5g Net Carb per bag
- Taste like the gummy bears you’re used to. Really, the flavor is spot-on.
- Sour Blast Buddies (aka Sour Patch Kids)
- 7g net carb per bag
- Best keto Sour gummies! Great flavor variety. Very much like sour patch kids.
- Seriously Sour (aka Sour gummies)
- 7g net carb per bag
- Less sour but still delicious. Not as much flavor variety like Sour Blast Buddies.
- Sweet Fish (aka Swedish Fish)
- 7g net carb per bag
- All one berry flavor. Tastes similar but texture is a little softer compared to real Swedish Fish but we’ll take it! Still an awesome alternative!
- Fruity (aka Normal Gummy Bears)
- These are sweetened with chicory root fiber and stevia leaf extract— NO SUGAR ALCOHOLS!
- Chicory Root Fiber, also known as inulin has a glycemic index of 0, meaning it won’t raise your blood glucose levels.
- Stevia is a Paleo-friendly sweetener that also has zero glycemic impact.
- Compare these glycemic indices to 36 for maltitol and 100 for pure sugar. You get to ditch the sugar alcohols and also lower the net effective glycemic impact to 0!
- Note there are 3g of sugar per bag. Where does this come from?
- It appears as though the sugar is from the fruit and vegetable juices that are used to naturally color the gummies.
- We think that’s a great compromise over having artificial coloring you find in most gummy bears (especially if you’re feeding this your to kids). Would you rather eat fruit and vegetable juice or FD&C Red #40?
We think these keto friendly gummy bears are the best option you have. Kid-friendly, tasty, great texture and packaged in bags that are great for moderation. (And also a great addition to our favorite keto movie snacks!)
By the way, in the gallery below, that’s a whole bag emptied into our serving plate.
Adventurous?
Do you like to gamble with your intestines? Do you like to live on the edge? There are these Albanese Sugar Free Gummy Bears that you can try. We haven’t tried these, but they are the most popular sugar free gummy bears we have seen, according to reviews. Again, these gummies contain maltitol, but there is absolutely no sugar. When we say they contain maltitol, we are talking 18g of maltitol per 8 piece serving!
Remember though that maltitol does impact your blood glucose level at a rate of about one-third that of sugar.
Have fun and don’t say we didn’t warn you!
Sweet tooth?
Since you’re searching for keto friendly gummy bears, you’re probably into sweets! Check out some of our other posts with keto friendly sweets!
Thanh Vo, MSc
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Sonja & Thanh: foodies at heart, globetrotters and avid discoverers of keto, low carb and organic products. Based out of Austin, Texas, we scour the world for food options that fit our healthy, active lifestyles.
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