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If you've ever had sugar free candies, you may have consumed sugar alcohols.
These are things like sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, xylitol, lactitol, and isomalt.
You'll find them in foods like cookies, hard candies, sugarless gum, and in jams and jellies.
Of interest to the bodybuilders, strength trainees, and athletes, is that you might also find them in large amounts in low carb protein bars.
Large amounts of these sugar alcohols may not be a good thing for you.
Stay tuned to find out why that is.
Let's get the obvious question out of the way.
No, there is no alcohol in sugar alcohols like in beer, liquor, or wine, which contain ethyl alcohol.
They are called sugar alcohols because their structure makes them a part of the alcohol family, but they will not intoxicate you.
The food products that these are used in will say that they are sugar free.
However, it is important to know that they are not actually calorie free.
They have become popular as alternative sweeteners because they are sweet and provide less energy than sugar,
although you may sometimes read that they provide the same amount of calories as sugar.
That is technically true, but since they are not completely or reliably processed and absorbed,
they tend to give about 1.25 less calories per gram than sugar.
They are also absorbed more slowly, so sometimes people with diabetes can handle a certain amount of them.
Even though sugar alcohols are absorbed more slowly and cause a lower glycemic response, they are metabolized by the body.
So, while zero calorie sweeteners like aspartame are sometimes called 'non-nutritive' sweeteners, these are called nutritive sweeteners.
They are found naturally, in small amounts, in some fruits and vegetables but they are produced commercially by hydrogenating saccharides.
Most of these saccharides are plant based, but one, called lactitol, is made from lactose, or milk sugar.
So, the advantages of sugar alcohols are that they provide less calories and a lowered glycemic response,
and so may be useful as a way to decrease calories, or for diabetics needing a sweet fix.
However, these advantages can be cancelled out by the fact that they can produce some fairly bad side effects in the gut, including gas, GI pain, and diarrhea and it can be a lot like taking a laxative.
In fact, these side effects are so common and so severe that both the U.S and Canada require warning labels describing this laxative effect.
Although we are usually warned that we should be wary of foods containing 50 grams or more of sugar alcohols, the side effects can happen in some people with as little as 10 grams.
However, their chief advantage may be that bacteria in the mouth cannot metabolize sugar alcohols as quickly.
Although they are fermentable, the process is much slower.
Some acid is produced, but it is produced in smaller amounts and at a slower pace.
This means that sugar alcohols do not promote cavities or 'dental carries.'
They are called noncariogenic, for this reason.
This makes them great for chewing gum, breath mints, or anything you keep in your mouth for a long time, and the FDA allows these products to say that they don't promote tooth decay.
The small amounts in chewing gum or breath mints are not likely to give many of use any problems,
and if you are prone to cavities, these sugar free gums and mints are probably a good alternative, and likely harmless to your health.
What should you expect on food labels in regards to the presence of sugar alcohols?
Well, as you probably know, the amount of sugars in a food must be declared on the nutrition facts panel, if the food contains more than 1 gram of sugar.
The sugar, of course, will be declared on the ingredients listing regardless, and recall that items in an ingredient listing are listed by weight.
So, if sugar comes early in the listing, there is more of it, and it it comes later, there is less of it by weight.
However, declaring the amount of sugar alcohols on the nutrition facts panel of a food product is done on a voluntary basis,
except that when a claim is made on the label or in labeling about sugar alcohol or sugars when sugar alcohols are present in the food.
In other words, if the front of the label says something about 'sugar free' and it uses sugar alcohols, then sugar alcohols must be announced on the nutrition facts panel.
For the purposes of labeling, the FDA defines sugar alcohols as a saccharide derivative in which a hydroxyl group replaces a ketone or aldehyde group, and is generally recognized as safe.
If the food does list the amount of sugar alcohols in the nutrition facts panel, and more than one type of sugar alcohol is present, then the sum of the amounts is listed, to the nearest gram.
However, if only one sugar alcohol is used, the manufacturer has the option to list that one sugar alcohol by name on the nutrition facts panel.
If the food contains less than one gram of sugar alcohols, then the statement 'Contains lless then 1 gram' or 'less than 1 gram' may be used instead.
And for less than 0.5 grams, the amount can be expressed as zero.
However, again, this is voluntary.
Therefore, if a food contains sugar alcohols you may not see it declared prominently in the nutrition facts panel.
You'll need to check the ingredients listing to be sure.
Last, as mentioned, the FDA requires a laxative warning on products containing more than 50 grams of sugar alcohols.
Now let's go over some of the individual sugar alcohols, starting with sorbitol.
Sorbitol is about half as sweet as sugar.
It provides around 2.6 calories per gram.
It's used in special dietary foods like diabetic control foods, and in candies and gums.
Mannitol is around .7 times as sweet as sugar.
And it has about 1.6 calories per gram.
It's used as a bulking agent, and in chewing gum, candies, and baked goods.
Maltitol is about .9 times as sweet as sugar.
It has about 2.1 calories per gram, and is used in candies, candy coatings, ice creams, and dairy products.
Xylitol has about the same sweetness as sugar and about 2.4 calories per gram.
It's used in chewing gum, candies, drug products, and oral health products like toothpaste and mouthwash.
Isomalt is half as sweet as sugar and gives about 2 calories per gram.
It's used in candies, chewing gum, frostings, ice cream, baked goods, beverages, and jams and jellies.
Lactitol is .4 times as sweet as sugar, and has about 2 calories per gram.
It's used in candies, chewing gum, frozen dairy desserts, frostings, baked goods, and jams and jellies.
Erythritol is a fairly new sugar alcohol and it's produced by a fermentation process.
This sugar alcohol boasts a lesser laxative effect.
It's used in bakery fillings, cakes, cookies, chewing gums, milk drinks, and many other products.