• New snacks aim to keep hunger pangs away

From The Nashua Telegraph (March 4, 2009).
By: Lynda Murray, RD

New snacks aim to keep hunger pangs away

Too busy to eat? Too hungry to think? Craving chocolate?

If any of these scenarios sound familiar to you, I have just the thing: Extend Snacks. These delicious snacks can help stabilize blood sugar for up to nine full hours. Extend helps eliminate the drops in blood sugar that occur between meals, triggering hunger.

Developed by a leading endocrinologist, Francine Kaufman, who specializes in diabetes, Extend products contain a patented combination of slow-burning carbohydrates, protein and fat, which breaks down gradually, providing you with a continuous source of energy. This avoids the roller-coaster ride that most meals provide, leaving you more satisfied, with a content feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Extend Snacks do just what the name suggests – extend the time between meals. Unlike other snacks, which can digest into blood sugar in a short two-hour time span, plummeting blood sugars to tablecloth chewing levels, they convert slowly and safely to help extend the time between meals for up to nine hours.

"Research shows that Extend Snacks can reduce the calories consumed at the next meal by 21 percent," says Kensie Turnbaugh, health-care program coordinator at Extend Snacks in St. Louis. "(Extend Snacks) digest slowly at a rate of about 2-3 grams of carbohydrate per hour for up to eight hours."

Turnbaugh consumes the products regularly and notes that she doesn't really experience hunger.

"I have a shake with milk for breakfast, a bar mid-morning (about three hours later) and bag of crisps late afternoon (about four hours after small lunch)," she said. "I'm not reaching for the next unhealthy snack to feel satisfied, like I normally would."

I have also witnessed this "arrest-your-appetite" miracle in action. I am an avid cross-country skier. Gliding across a snowscape on my skis is my favorite aerobic activity, burning up to 600 calories an hour. When I am out in that white winter wonderland, I need sustained fuel, and ExtendBars are my snack solution. I carry one in my pocket, can quickly eat one and continue with my day. I love that I am not hassled with symptoms of hunger such as fatigue, irritability, growling stomach or headache.

"Extend bars come in five different flavors," Turnbaugh says. "The peanut butter and chocolate is the favorite flavor. If you haven't tried it, you are in for a treat. In addition to the peanut butter chocolate delight, there is mixed berry, apple cinnamon, peanut and chocolate."

The bars are made from uncooked cornstarch, a low glycemic index carbohydrate. Each bar has only 150 calories, 3 grams of fat, no saturated or trans fat, 0 grams of sugar, 5-6 grams of fiber and 20 grams of carbohydrate. Amazingly, only 1 gram of the carbohydrate content has any short-term impact on blood sugar levels. They score 2 points on the Weight Watchers system.

Extend Snacks come in a variety of flavors and textures to please even the most sophisticated snacker. Aside from the delicious bars, there are shake mixes and crisps.

These crisps are bite-sized morsels that come in a variety of flavors such as Italian herb, cinnamon, honey barbecue, white cheddar and zesty ranch. Turnbaugh's favorite flavor? "Zesty ranch, hands down. I love something with a little zip."

Extend also makes shakes, which whip up in no time after you add milk or water. Available in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, they were originally developed to help people living with diabetes.

Extend Snacks can help you whittle your waist as you gain control over your hunger. They can also help you enjoy improved sleep if used before bedtime, by reducing disturbing nighttime blood sugar lows by up to 75 percent. Extend products are excellent for athletes, providing those fueling an active lifestyle with a sustained supply of energy for up to nine hours. Extend bars have helped some people with diabetes compete and successfully complete a marathon. If you need sustained energy to get through your own personal marathon of life, try the new Extend products. I think you will agree they can help you be your very own success story.

Here is a delicious recipe using the Extend vanilla shake. The vanilla is so versatile, unlimited options exist for adding fruit or peanut butter to create your own signature shake. The pumpkin pie is the favorite of Jonathan Lindberg, assistant marketing manager at Extend Snacks:

PUMPKIN PIE SHAKE: 1 packet vanilla ExtendShake1 cup skim milk1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spiceWhipped topping (optional)Follow the directions for a Vanilla ExtendShake.Add pumpkin pie spice as you mix your shake.Place your shake in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, or until cold.Top with sugar-free whipped topping.

Lynda Murray, MA, RD, LD, CSSD, lives in Burlington, Iowa. She can be reached at dietitianmagician@q.com. Items in this column are intended to be informational in nature only. It is not intended to diagnose or treat.

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