
"As soon as the food industry caught on to the value of fiber, they started adding processed industrialized ingredients to packaged foods to increase the total fiber count, but many of these ingredients can be gut irritants," says Miller. But with packaged foods, these added fibers and sugar alcohols are not something your body typically encounters (at least not in such high quantities), which can lead to its own set of issues. At least with a whole plant food like raspberries, you know that the low net carb number is a result of naturally high fiber content-which is awesome for your health for a number of reasons. insoluble) may be metabolized differently, and the source of the fiber in many packaged foods is highly processed and could still yield a blood sugar spike."Īnd while the net carb formula is likely flawed across the board, it's probably the least useful when it comes to packaged foods.

"In my 10-plus years of using the ketogenic diet for beneficial metabolic, hormonal, and neurological influences on the body, I have always stuck with total carbs because there are variances in our individual blood sugar responses to fibers, depending on the unique state of our gut bacteria and blood sugar metabolism," she says.

Miller feels quite strongly that focusing on only net carbs isn't an accurate measure of carb intake because the way each individual processes and metabolizes "non-impact" carbs like fiber is different.
