Trader Joe’s issues urgent warning over new gummy candy’s surprisingly ‘odd’ side effect
Trader Joe’s has built a reputation for stocking its shelves with products that feel like hidden gems — the kind of finds that make loyal shoppers feel like they’re in on something.
Its newest candy, the Sweet and Sour Gummy Worms, checked every box at first glance: fruity, fun and marketed with “0g sugar per serving” right on the front of the bag.
But a growing wave of shoppers are now warning others that those Trader Joe’s gummies come with a side effect the front of the package conveniently leaves out.
The candy is loaded with fiber — 14 grams per serving, to be exact, and 70 grams if you eat the whole bag. For context, the average adult should be getting somewhere between 25 and 38 grams of fiber per day, according to OSF HealthCare.
Finish a full bag of these in one sitting and you’ve nearly tripled that.
What’s actually in Trader Joe’s fiber gummies?
The high fiber content isn’t an accident. According to Dr. Wendi LeBrett, MD, a gastroenterologist known online as @socalgastrodoc, the gummy worms get their fiber from three main sources: resistant tapioca dextrin fiber, corn maltodextrin and pectin.
She explained in a TikTok video that all three are fermentable fibers, meaning the bacteria in your gut break them down during digestion, producing gas, bloating and in larger amounts, diarrhea.
On top of that, the candy contains erythritol, a sugar alcohol, and allulose, an alternative sweetener. Both have their own laxative effects on the body, compounding what the fiber is already doing.
The result? Shoppers who ate a full bag — or even close to one — quickly found themselves in uncomfortable territory. Reddit threads filled up with warnings almost overnight.
One person described enduring a full day of digestive distress. Another wrote a dramatic dispatch “from atop a porcelain throne,” cautioning fellow shoppers against eating the whole bag at once.
“I would not recommend casually bringing these to the movies because it would be very easy to mindlessly eat the whole bag and accidentally consume enough fiber for the next 2.5 business days,” someone wrote on Instagram.
Some Trader Joe’s employees have even started warning customers at the register, and at least one store posted a sign near the display: “70g of fiber per bag! Please enjoy in multiple sittings.”
So who’s actually at risk?
Not everyone who tries these Trader Joe’s gummy worms will end up sprinting to the bathroom. Dr. Karan Rajan, a UK-based NHS surgeon, put it plainly on Instagram: the people most likely to feel the effects are those who aren’t already eating much fiber to begin with.
“They are the people who are eating 10-15 grams of fiber a day or less,” he said in the video. “And now they’ve suddenly dropped a 14-gram fiber bomb into a gut that has no idea what’s about to happen.”
That’s a larger group than you might expect. A 2021 study presented at Nutrition 2021 Live Online found that only 5% of men and 9% of women in the US are hitting the recommended daily fiber intake. So statistically speaking, most people reaching for this high-fiber candy are starting from a low baseline.
Dr. LeBrett adds that most digestive systems can handle about five additional grams of fiber on top of their usual daily intake before symptoms kick in. One serving of these gummies already triples that threshold on its own.
The candy isn’t dangerous, and for people who already eat a fiber-rich diet, one serving is unlikely to cause any issues. But for the average shopper grabbing this off the shelf because it said “zero sugar,” eating high-fiber candy could be a rude awakening.
The short version: Trader Joe’s gummy candy is a genuinely fun find, but it’s one that demands a closer look at the nutrition label before you dig in.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
