Bickford Flavors -- Propylene Glycol

[Guest guest]

Propylene glycol is commonly used as an inactive ingredient in

medicines, especially IV infused meds and children's syrups. Almost

all cough syrups and many lozenges contain PG. It is recognized as

safe, excepting if one is " sensitive " to it. Fancy language for

saying that it is o.k. for most people but if you try it and it

bothers you, don't use it anymore.

Propylene Glycol is not directly metabloized into glucose. The

intermediate product of PG metabolism is lactate (lactic acid).

Lactate is then broken down into pyruvate, carbon dioxide, and

water. There is a way that lactate can be converted to glucose by

gluconeogenesis, but this would not be a typical thing. One example

would be a marathon runner who didn't " load carbs " prior to a race

and ran out of glucose and glycogen to burn for energy during a run.

Lactic acid from muscle could be " converted " (different than

metabolized) through several steps into glucose. I don't know for

sure, but it might be remotely possible for a person who is ketotic,

as our kids are, who is " starving " for glucose AND not getting enough

calories (fat, protein) to put this pathway into use to form glucose.

However, we are talking about a very small amount of PG when we use

flavoring, a few drops. Even if that conversion were to occur, we

would be talking minute amounts by the time those drops of PG were

turned into glucose. It would be more likely for a ketotic child to

break down actual muscle tissue (again this would only happen in the

severe absence of calories from fat/protein) to form glucose for

energy.

I'm pretty sure that Hopkins recommends Bickford as do many other

good keto dieticians, including ours. We have used them with no

problems. Flavorings containing alcohol and/or corn syrup would

present more of a potential problem than PG as far as maintaining

ketosis goes. Even these amounts are relatively small, so it's

possible that some kids could be o.k. with alcohol based flavorings

while others wouldn't.

If you are unsure, definitely check with your dietician. I know we

had a discussion in the Doose group a while back about vanilla...

some recommended natural only, some artificial only, no alcohol,

alcohol o.k. .... and all seemed to be doing well with what they

were using.

I wouldn't give up on Bickford yet, unless you've experienced a

problem with your own child that you think is related. If you

haven't actually tried them, maybe try just one drop then work up

slowly. Keep records of any changes you see. Don't add anything

else that is new while doing the " trial " . That way you can know with

more certainly whether the flavoring is the problem.

Just my two cents... in hopes that it might help

Cammie

[Guest guest]

Thanks, Cammie,

Are you using the regular or oil based Bickford.... does the oil based also

have PG? Just wondering if it would be safer to try the oil based version...

thanks,

[Guest guest]

,

We use regular Bickford flavors. That's what our dietician suggested

so I wasn't even aware that they had the oil based flavors at first.

I've thought of trying them if I order more, though. I don't know if

the oil based flavors also contain PG. My thought would be that the

oil based flavors wouldn't pose any problem. One of my friends who

makes a lot of homemade candy told me that oil based flavors are

better for foods with a higher fat content because they mix better

and the flavors are more pronounced. So, I wonder if the reverse is

true if you were going to use oil based in a more " watery " mixture,

if they would not work as well?? I'm thinking they would go well

with keto cream drinks, though.

Since we've been weaning, we haven't been using as much of the

flavorings. However, since colder weather and " hot chocolate " are

here, I'm betting we will increase again.

Cammie

> Thanks, Cammie,

>

> Are you using the regular or oil based Bickford.... does the oil

based also

> have PG? Just wondering if it would be safer to try the oil based

version...

>

> thanks,