By Jefferson Bryant

As a diabetic who absolutely loves candy, I can attest to the awful selection of sugar free candies that are out there. Most of them taste like chemicals or give the runs (yes, it is a thing).

So when I had the opportunity to try SmartSweets, I was skeptical. Of course, I tried them, because again, as a diabetic, it is really hard to find good candy treats that won’t spike my blood sugar.

These things are awesome. They have regular (fruity) and sour gummy bears, and they taste like actual gummy bears, really good ones.

Like any conscientious diabetic, the first thing I did was flip to the back over and look at the nutritional info. One bag is the serving size, and there are a lot of bears in one bag. 90 calories, not bad. Scroll down to carbs. Dang it, 33 carbs. That usually means sugar or sugar alcohols, which are what give sugar free candy that chemical taste. Oh well.

Not so fast, there homeboy. Not only is an entire bag only 3 grams of sugar, but the rest of the carbs in the bag are not sugar alcohols, it is fiber. YES! Candy that is delicious and healthy. If you don’t realize it, fiber is the anti-sugar. Every gram of fiber counts off a gram of sugar, so 28 grams of fiber. There are some free carbs in there, that are not sugar and not fiber 2 or 3, depending on whether the bag is sour or fruity.

The gummies leave your mouth feeling fresh and airy, not heavy and gross like a lot of sugar-free candies do. The main ingredient is prebiotic soluble tapioca fiber, in other words, it is the best food for the bacteria in your gut, so it is literally healthy candy. HEALTHY CANDY!!!!

If you have a sweet tooth and are diabetic (so, all of us), or just want to eat less sugar, give SmartSweets a shot, they are pretty good.

Disclosure: The writer received samples of this product in return for an honest review. The opinions expressed belong to the writer based on his experience.