I don't have comments on the cough drop situation, but I'd like to welcome
you to the newsgroup.  Lots of great people here!

Carol

Denise  burbled across the ether:

Probably sugar alcohols. It is a form of artificial sweetener (not a
sugar, not an alcohol, just a wierd chemical that tastes sweet) that
some people absorb just like sugar, but some don't.  If you don't, it's
quite possible to get bad gas and diarreah from eating too much sugar
alcohol.

Of course I have been sucking

How many?  Cuz I'm guessing you will be intimately familiar with the
walls of your bathroom very soon.

Are you sick?  If you don't have a cold I wouldn't take them as they
don't prevent anything at all.  If you are sick, I'd wait til you're
over the worst of the symptoms (because it's hard enough the first week
already without being sick too).  It's only a week or so.

I am

It's not a food.  It's supposedly medicine.  Nutrition labels are for
food.  They do list the ingredients on the back of the package, in the
order of how much is in it --largest to smallest amount.   Look for
isomalt (a blend of sorbitol and mannitol), or sorbitol or maltitol, or
xylitol, etc.  Those are sugar alcohols.  If it says sucralose on it,
that is splenda-- NOT a sugar alcohol but an artificial sweetener like
nutrasweet or saccharin.  Any other -ose is a real true blue sugar type
molecule.

Have you had any bad gas or diarrhea since you've been using them?  Every
sugar free cough drop or hard candy I've ever seen contains isomalt, which
is a kind of sugar alcohol, and is not _supposed_ to impact blood sugar
like real sugar does.  Every body is different though, and for me isomalt
gives me horrid stomach problems, even after just two of those cough drops.  
During my last bad cold I went ahead and used the regular cough drops, (my
cough was so violent that combined with diarrhea it would have been, um,
unpleasant) and I didn't gain any weight. However, I also didn't eat much
because I was so sick, lol.  If you really need them, then use them and
don't worry about the carbs.  If you can take an antihistamine instead,
that may be a better route.

Denise,

Many products labeled "Sugar Free" are full of starches as well as sugar
alchohols which affect many people like regular carbs.  You would do better
to avoid them until you've really gotten the hang of eating very few carbs
of any type.
.

-- Jenny  - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.2.
Cut the carbs to respond to my  email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit  http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm