 Some food companies will replace sugar with many different types of sugar replacers. Today, I am going to enlighten you on the alcohol sugar replacers and why they might not make you feel so good. These appear on the food label as: mannitol sorbitol xylitol maltitol isomalt lactitol Where might you find these? Many products that state "low sugar" contain one or more of these. In addition, these sweeteners appear often in sugar free gum, protein bars, protein powders, sugar free candy, cookies, many, many products. Basically, they are all over the place in foods that we like a sweet taste for. These products offer fewer calories than sugar. Why BEWARE? Because the alcohol sugars can have a laxative effect, yes you heard right. They can cause mild gastrointestinal upset- diarrhea, stomach ache. You may notice on the label "excess consumption may have a laxative effect". A little bit might not bother you, but some people are more sensitive to these sugar replacers than others. Also, some people can tolerate these in small amounts, some cannot. In general if the product is "Low Sugar" or "Sugar Free" it probably contains these. A good rule of thumb to remember if you see the -ol at the end it is probably one of the above mentioned alcohol sugars. Feel free to post any questions or comments you might have! |
