We all know what M&Ms are. They are chocolate ovals covered with a thin layer of hard candy. They are tasty, but full of sugar. D-Lectable has a low carb version of these.

They of course do not have a M&M on them. They are about the same size, maybe a little larger and flatter. They come in a bright assortment of colors - orange, red, blue, yellow, light green, white. No browns here :).

The package is $6 for a 3oz container, which is about double the size of a regular M&Ms package. On the other hand you usually pay maybe $1 for a pack of M&Ms depending on what machine you get them out of, so these are pricier. I guess you have to ask yourself just how much you are craving an M&Ms style treat.

So, how do they taste? They taste pretty much like M&Ms - that is, the chocolate itself is bland and rather mild, and the outside candy shell doesn't taset like much except "crunchy something". M&Ms were never really known for their high quality chocolate component. They are known because they're easy to eat, they don't melt in your hands, and they're relatively cheap. You don't really get the cheap factor here.

It's amazing how powerful and well know the M&Ms conglomerate is in modern times. It's hard to think back to 1945, when the candy launched, in part, as a way to get chocolate to the WWII troops in a way that could survive the hardships of war. The whole candy coating was a stroke of brilliance. It kept the chocolate inside, but yummy.

Back in the early 80s, there were no red M&Ms because of scares about the red food dye. My girl scout troop did a float in a local parade to "bring back the red M&M". That's how much we all cared about this little candy! Interestingly, some people thought we were trying to promote communism :) All we were interested in were more chocolate candies.

If this D-lectable chocolate is so pricey, what do you get for it? A serving is 25g, or about 1/3rd the package. For this, there is .7g of fiber, and 1.6g of carbs that affect you. There are 15.8g of sugar alcohols - maltitol, to be exact. Now, if you're sensitive to sugar alcohols, this means you should eat only a few of these :) However, we ate them in fair quanitities and didn't run into any trouble.

There's only 20mg sodium, 0g cholesterol, and 0g trans fat. So really when you eat these you are getting primarily sugar-free candy with lots of sugar alcohols.

With the price being a bit high, and only finding these on the d-lectable website, I'm not sure that I would get these in quantity. However, if you want a special treat for someone's birthday or party, this is a good way to add a fun treat that won't affect anyone's blood sugar or waistline.

NOTE: Apparently as of August 2007 the price is now $2 for a 4oz bag.

D-Lectable.com website


Lisa Shea's Library of Low Carb Books