CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Those of you on a low carb diet may find this hard to swallow. Taking some very common medicines can push your daily carb intake through the roof. CNN's Christy Feig explains.</s>CHRISTY FEIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you think you're good at counting carbohydrates, don't forget those sneaking in from someplace you never expected -- the medicine cabinet.</s>DR. PAMELA PEEKE, NUTRITIONIST: Many medications, whether they're over the counter or prescription, have carbohydrates in them because they're used to bind some of the active ingredients.</s>FEIG: Dr. Pamela Peeke specializes in nutrition counseling and says side effects from the diet itself may actually be driving up the need for some of these medicines.</s>PEEKE: There's no bulk and fiber associated with the diet because they don't have fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Guess what happens? They become irregular. That's a very, very common problem with low carbohydrate diets.</s>FEIG: Some fiber therapies like Metamucil have one gram of carbohydrates for every two capsules. That can add up to three grams a day. Chewable calcium supplements like Viactive also add up fast, at four grams a chew. Liquid cold medicines such as Nyquil can have as many as 19 grams per serving, pushing you over the 20 carb a day limit most low carb diets encourage. (on camera): Drug manufacturers aren't required to list carbohydrates on medicine labels the way food makers are. But as a general rule, anything that is a sweet liquid or a tasty chewable probably has some carbs. (voice-over): The makers of the products say they believe their products are good sources of the nutrients provided and several of them offer low carb versions in capsules. In Washington, I'm Christy Feig.</s>COSTELLO: And coming up in our next hour, registered dietitian Lisa Drayer will join us with some nutritional information affecting kids' menus at some of the countries' most popular sit down chain restaurants. Yes, fast food restaurants -- will they be required to list the calorie count?
A Hidden Source of Carbohydrates