What “with receipts” actually means
Written and maintained by Shawni Abraham. Every claim below is one you should be able to hold us to on any individual review.
What we record off every panel
A Sugar Rebel review starts with a physical package or a legible photograph of one, not a retailer description. We record the following, and we publish which of them we have:
- Serving size
- Every other number on the panel is meaningless without it, and serving sizes on sugar-free candy are frequently smaller than the portion people actually eat.
- Total carbohydrate
- The line a 'zero sugar' claim never covers. This is usually where the surprise lives.
- Total sugars and added sugars
- Two separate lines. A product can carry sugars from an ingredient while declaring no added sugars.
- Sugar alcohol grams
- The single biggest driver of the digestive complaints people arrive at this site with.
- Dietary fiber and fiber type
- Soluble corn fiber, chicory root, and resistant starch are not interchangeable for tolerance.
- Every sweetener in the ingredient list
- Not just the one on the front of the bag. Blends are the norm, and the second sweetener is often the one that matters.
- Package version
- Net weight, pack count, and formula revision, so you can tell whether the bag in your hand is the bag we read.
- Date of the label read
- A review without a date is a claim you cannot check.
- Source link or label photograph
- So the panel we read is inspectable, not just asserted.
When a field is missing, the review says so. We would rather show a gap than fill it with a number we did not read.
The four scores
Every candy review carries four independent scores out of 100. We deliberately do not blend them into a single overall rating, because one number reads as “is this safe for me”, and that is a question this site is not qualified to answer. These are shopping assessments.
| Score | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Label clarity | How honestly the front of the package represents what the nutrition panel actually says. |
| Sweetener profile | Which sweeteners are used, whether they are named plainly, and the tradeoffs that come with them. |
| Digestive risk (lower is better) | Sugar-alcohol load, fiber type, and how easy the serving size makes it to overshoot. Lower is gentler. |
| Candy quality | Taste, texture, value, and whether it satisfies the craving it is standing in for. |
A high candy-quality score is not a recommendation to eat something, and a low digestive-risk score is not a promise that a product will agree with you. Tolerance is individual.
How we separate fact from opinion
Reviews mix five different kinds of statement, and we label which is which:
- Product-label fact. Copied off a specific nutrition panel on a recorded date. Presented as a number with no interpretation attached.
- Published evidence. Drawn from regulators, peer-reviewed research, or manufacturer documentation, cited inline so you can go read the source.
- Personal experience. Shawni's own response to a product. Always attributed to her by name and never generalised into a claim about how a food will affect you.
- Editorial opinion. Our judgment about taste, value, or whether a label is honest. Clearly opinion, and the part you are free to disagree with.
- Medical claim. We do not make them. No product on this site is described as safe for a condition, suitable for a treatment plan, or as having a specific effect on your glucose.
For educational articles that touch on glucose, diabetes, insulin, or treatment, we additionally publish the author, the publication and last-updated dates, citations to primary or authoritative sources, and an explicit statement of scope and limitations. See our editorial policy and medical disclaimer.
Formulas change, so reviews expire
Manufacturers reformulate without announcing it, and a sugar-free candy can change sweetener systems between production runs. Each review therefore shows the package version we read and the date we read it.
Once a verification passes six months, the review displays a stale-evidence notice telling you to check the current panel yourself. That notice stays up until someone re-reads a current package and updates the date. If you find a discrepancy between what we published and the bag in your hand, email [email protected] and we will correct it.
Where the money comes from
We earn an affiliate commission when you buy through our Amazon links. That commission does not affect a score, remove a watch-out, or move a product onto the shelf. No brand pays for a review, previews a review, or approves one before publication. Products that fail the label read stay published with their failure intact.
What we do not do
- We do not lab-test products. These are label reads and hands-on impressions, not assays.
- We do not publish star ratings or aggregate review markup we cannot evidence.
- We do not tell anyone what to eat, and we do not describe a food as safe for a condition.
- We do not republish retailer prices, because they go stale within hours.