Review This Reviews!

Showing posts with label OREO cookies. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Delicious Sugar-Free Keto Cookies That OREO Fans Will Love

If you are following a sugar-free, low carb or ketogenic diet or just trying to cut down on sugar and empty carbs, either for overall health and wellness or for weight loss, there are certain comfort foods from childhood that you may crave but try to avoid in favor of healthier options.

Fortunately, there are now several brands of low carb chocolate sandwich cookies available to OREO lovers who want to eat healthier. Today, I'll be reviewing HighKey Sugar-Free Sandwich Cookies, which have the best clean ingredients for someone on a low carb, gluten-free, sugar-free or keto diet.

Gluten-Free HighKey Sugar-Free Sandwich Cookies 2 Net Carbs Per Serving!

My husband no longer misses his OREO cookies as much, now that I found these delicious low carb, gluten-free, sugar-free keto sandwich cookies for him.

Who Loves OREO Cookies?

Before we switched to a low carb way of eating for health reasons, one of my husband's favorite treats were OREO cookies. In fact, "Double Stuf" OREO cookies (filled with twice the amount of vanilla creme filling) and mint Oreos were extra-special treats for him. But two Double Stuf OREOs have not only 140 calories but also 21g of carbohydrates (my entire daily carb allowance when I was following a keto diet for weight loss!), including 13g of added sugars. Even two classic OREO cookies have 110 calories and 16g of carbs, including 9g of added sugars. So, both Double Stufs and classic OREO cookies were no longer an option as a sweet treat for both my husband and me.

So the answer to "Who Loves OREO Cookies?" is our taste buds and our emotions but, sadly, not our bodies or our health.

What's a Health-Conscious OREO Cookie Lover to Do?

In order for our low carb lifestyle to be sustainable, we look for alternatives to our favorite treats that support our health and nutrition goals or, in the case of treats, at least don't sabotage them. That's why I got so excited when I started seeing low carb and sugar-free cookies similar to my husband's beloved OREOs. Then I started reading the ingredients and nutrition labels...and I got less excited.

Thanks to the popularity of the keto diet, the term "keto" sells. Unfortunately, since there is no universally agreed-upon definition of a "keto diet" or a "keto" food (my post on Preparing to Succeed on the Keto Diet discusses this topic in more detail), marketers slap the "keto" label on anything that is low in net carbs, regardless of the quality or nutritional value of the ingredients. So, for those of us who are looking to make healthier food choices, it's up to us to educate ourselves about ingredients and nutrition and read packaged food labels carefully, and to experiment to find out which low-carb ingredients spike our insulin levels, cause gastric distress, etc., since each of us has a different metabolism and a different reaction to the same foods.

Three Low-Carb OREO Cookie Alternatives

I found three vanilla-filled chocolate sandwich cookies that looked similar to OREOs and claimed to be "keto" or "keto-friendly" and started reading and comparing the ingredients and nutrition labels. The three contenders were:

Here's how they compare vs. each other and vs. classic OREO cookies:

Chocolate Vanilla Sandwich Cookie Ingredients and Nutrition Comparison*
* Ingredients and nutrition data obtained from Amazon product pages on 01/30/23
	HighKey	Catalina Crunch	Rip Van LEOs	OREO
Serving: 2 cookies
Calories	60	90	100	110
Total Fat	4g	6g	6g	4.5g
Saturated Fat	1g	3g	3g	1.5g
Trans Fat	0g	0g	0g	0g
Cholesterol	0g	0g	0g	0g
Sodium	130mg	95mg	80mg	85mg
Total Carbohydrate	17g	12g	13g	16g
Dietary Fiber	7g	3g	6g	0g
Total Sugars	0g	2g	3g	9g
Added Sugars	0g	2g	2g	9g
Sugar Alcohols	4g	0g	0g	0g
Allulose	4g	2g	2g	0g
Net Carbs	2g	5g	5g	16g
Protein	<1g	4g	3g	<1g
Ingredients	Resistant Cassava Fiber, Erythritol, Allulose, White Rice Flour, RSPO Palm Oil, Non-GMO Canola Oil, Cocoa Powder (Processed with Alkali), Egg Whites, Natural Flavors, Sunflower Lecithin, Oligofructose, Baking Soda, Salt, Xanthan Gum, Psyllium Husk, Water, Stevia Extract, Monk Fruit Extract.	Palm Fruit Oil, Allulose, Pea Protein, Cane Sugar, Cassava Flour, Tapioca Flour, Inulin, Cocoa Powder, Cocoa Powder (Processed with Alkali), Xanthan Gum, Natural Flavor, Sunflower Lecithin, Baking Soda, Sea Salt, Stevia Extract.	Palm fruit oil, Vegetable fiber, sugar, milk protein, wheat flour, allulose, sugar cane fiber, cocoa processed with alkali, wheat starch, oat fiber, sea salt, baking soda, chocolate extract, sunflower lecithin, vanilla extract, stevia leaf extract.	Unbleached enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate {vitamin B1}, riboflavin {vitamin B2}, folic acid), sugar, palm and/or canola oil, cocoa (processed with alkali), high fructose corn syrup, leavening (baking soda and/or calcium phosphate), salt, soy lecithin, chocolate, artificial flavor. Contains: wheat, soy.

Plate of HighKey Suger-Free Sandwich Cookies

This plate of HighKey Sugar-Free Sandwich Cookies makes my husband miss his OREO cookies much less, now that we follow a more health conscious, low carb but still delicious approach to eating.

Why I Chose HighKey Sugar-Free Sandwich Cookies

Here are a few of the reasons I decided to order HighKey keto sandwich cookies as a healthier alternative to OREO cookies.

Only 2g of Net Carbs

As you can see, the HighKey Sugar-Free Sandwich Cookies have only 2g of net carbs, compared to 5g each for the Catalina Crunch Keto Friendly Chocolate Vanilla Sandwich Cookies and Rip Van LEOs Sandwich Creme Cookies.

Lower in Calories

Two of the HighKey Sugar-Free Sandwich Cookies have 60 calories, compared to 90 calories for two Catalina Crunch keto sandwich cookies and 100 for the Rip Van LEOs.

No Added Sugars, Gluten-Free

The HighKey sandwich cookies use low glycemic sweeteners that don't spike blood glucose. Other than the white rice flour, which is gluten-free but can spike blood sugar levels, the ingredients are surprisingly clean for this type of low carb sweet treat.

By contrast, cane sugar is the fourth ingredient in the Catalina Crunch sandwich cookies. Since cane sugar spikes insulin and is something my husband and I try to avoid completely, that pretty much knocks these out of contention for us.

Similarly, the Rip Van LEOs sandwich cookies contain not only (cane) sugar but also wheat flour, neither of which ingredients are considered keto-friendly, although people who follow a "dirty keto" diet may not be bothered by this.

Not a Perfect OREOs Dupe, But a Good, Healthier Option

HighKey Sugar-Free Sandwich Cookies taste good, especially to those of us who have kicked our food addiction to cane sugar and wheat flour. However, they are by no means an exact dupe of classic, sugar-laden OREO cookies.

The chocolate cookies are harder and don't soften as readily when dipped in regular or dairy-free milk. They are also more brittle and the filling is firmer, so you can't twist to separate the two chocolate cookies and lick off the creme filling, a favorite part of the experience of eating classic OREO cookies.

For us, and probably for many people who must eat gluten-free or sugar-free, the trade-offs are well worth it.

Healthier Packaged Foods With Clean Ingredients Cost More Than Their Conventional Counterparts

I compared the Amazon prices on January 30, 2023for classic OREO cookies, HighKey Sugar-Free Sandwich Cookies, Catalina Crunch Keto Friendly Chocolate Vanilla Sandwich Cookies and Rip Van LEOs Sandwich Creme Cookies (Cookies & Creme flavor). Here are the price comparisons per package and per cookie.

Chocolate Vanilla Sandwich Cookie Amazon Price Comparison*
* Prices on Amazon on 01/30/23
	HighKey	Catalina Crunch	Rip Van LEOs	OREO
Quantity	3 packs (4.27 oz packs), 10 cookies each = 30 cookies	2 pack (6.8 oz boxes), 16 cookies each = 32 cookies	2 pack (6.77oz), 16 cookies each = 32 cookies	60 Snack Packs (2 Cookies Per Pack) = 120 cookies
Item Price	$17.99	$17.63	$14.39	$29.40
Price per Cookie	$0.60	$0.55	$0.45	$0.25

My Recommended Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free Alternative to OREO Cookies

If you or someone you know is on a sugar-free, gluten-free, low carb or ketogenic diet, these keto friendly HighKey Sugar-Free Sandwich cookies would make a great gift or something to keep on hand for when they visit. They're a sweet treat both kids and adults will appreciate!