If you are a regular reader of food
packaging, you may have noticed a row under the “total carbohydrate” section of
some nutrition facts labels called “sugar alcohol” — and wondered what it
means.
اضافة اعلان
Despite what the name might imply, sugar alcohols
are neither sugars nor alcohols, said Imashi Fernando, a registered dietitian
nutritionist in Seattle. They are a type of carbohydrate that can be added to
foods and drinks to make them sweeter without adding the same amounts of
calories and carbs as regular sugar. They are not technically artificial
sweeteners, Fernando said.
Some sugar alcohols can be found in whole foods.
Pineapples,
olives, asparagus,
sweet potatoes, and carrots are natural sources
of mannitol; cereals, mushrooms, and some fruits and vegetables contain
xylitol; and various fruits such as apples, pears, blackberries, peaches, and
prunes contain sorbitol. But the sugar alcohols often present in packaged
products — including sugar-free candies, gums, chocolate, energy bars, cookies,
energy drinks, cough syrups, throat lozenges, and toothpastes — are
synthetically produced.
You can usually spot many sugar alcohols on
ingredients lists by the “-ol” at the ends of their names.
The upsides of sugar alcohols
The main draw of sugar alcohols is that they can sweeten foods and drinks
without adding many calories and carbohydrates, said Joanne Slavin, a professor
of food science and nutrition at the
University of Minnesota. Whereas regular
table sugar supplies about four calories per gram, Slavin said, sugar alcohols
provide much less than that — “anywhere from half a calorie to three calories
per gram”.
They also help
keep carbohydrate intake low because they are not completely absorbed through
digestion, Fernando said. If the nutrition label of a granola bar says it
contains five grams of sugar alcohols, for example, you will not necessarily
digest and absorb five grams of carbohydrates. Still, sugar alcohols are not
carb-free, Fernando said — as might be perceived by some, including those on
the keto diet, who count net carbs (or only the carbohydrates that their bodies
will digest and use). On average, she said, your body will absorb about a third
to half of the carbohydrates in sugar alcohols.
If you are
someone who needs to monitor
blood sugar levels — if you are diabetic, for example
— sugar alcohols can be an attractive substitute for sugar since they will not
spike your blood sugar or insulin levels as regular sugar would, Slavin said.
But beyond those benefits for blood sugar, there is not enough research on how,
or even if, sugar alcohols help diabetic people stay healthy.
Sugar alcohols
also do not cause cavities as regular sugar does, Slavin added. In fact, they
can even help prevent them by suppressing cavity-causing bacteria. Xylitol in
particular has been shown to be effective, and can be found in mouthwashes,
toothpastes, and sugar-free gums.
The downsides of sugar alcohols
Fewer calories and carbs are an appealing aspect of sugar alcohols,
Slavin said, but there are risks and benefits to consuming them. Many downsides
of sugar alcohols have to do with how they are processed in the gut.
Regular sugars
are broken down during digestion and then absorbed in the small intestine, said
William Chey, a gastroenterologist and professor of medicine at Michigan
Medicine. Sugar alcohols, on the other hand, are “very slowly and incompletely
broken down in the small intestine”, he said. The small portion that is broken
down gets absorbed as usual, he added — but the half to two-thirds of sugar
alcohols that remain unabsorbed move on to the large intestine where they feed
your gut bacteria. Bacteria consequently produce gases and short-chain fatty
acids, which pull water into your colon and create a laxative effect. Consuming
a lot of sugar alcohols, Chey said, can lead to flatulence, bloating, abdominal
pain, and diarrhea, especially if you have “underlying gastrointestinal
conditions like irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease”, he
added.
Studies have
found that in adults, consuming 20 to 30 grams of sorbitol per day can cause
abdominal pain; 100 grams of xylitol can cause diarrhea; and 20 grams or more
of mannitol can have a laxative effect. Your tolerance for sugar alcohols will
in part depend on how much you weigh: An average adult man who weighs 200
pounds, for instance, will start feeling laxative effects after consuming about
90 grams of erythritol or 2,300 grams of maltitol. One serving of Hershey’s
Zero Sugar Chocolate
Candy Bars has 16 grams of maltitol, and a pint of Halo
Top mint chip ice cream has 18 grams of erythritol.
Sugar alcohols
“are a very common cause for gastrointestinal symptoms,” Chey said. “It’s
literally something we see every day.”
In fact, the
low-FODMAP diet — which is designed to help people soothe digestive distress by
eliminating certain types of carbohydrates from their diets — specifically says
to avoid sugar alcohols.
If you
frequently have digestive issues, Chey said, look at the nutrition labels of
all the sweet things you consume, and if you spot sugar alcohols — which “are
pretty ubiquitous”, he said — try eliminating them from your diet. This can be
a powerful move to explain and relieve gastrointestinal distress.
The bottom line
For most people, eating foods with sugar alcohols will not be harmful
to your health, Fernando said. But every sugar alcohol is a little different,
Chey said, and so are the ensuing symptoms.
If you are just
trying to cut down on sugar and reduce your cravings, “sugar-free” foods with
sugar alcohols in them are not necessarily the answer, Fernando said, because
they will only reinforce your sweet eating habits and may further fuel future
cravings for sugar. To nip that craving in the bud, you must wean yourself off
processed sweet foods, she said.
On the other
hand, if you need a low-calorie alternative that will not spike your blood
sugar, Slavin said, sugar alcohols are good options. But if you are not
counting calories or watching your blood sugar, there are not many benefits to
consuming them. “It’s just a tool in the tool kit, and we shouldn’t overuse
them,” Slavin said, adding that, at the end of the day, whole foods are best.
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