Food Freedom Friday Edition 372 - Sugar Alcohols

In the last few years, sugar alcohols have risen in popularity due to the health concerns around the consumption of sugar. Low-sugar recipes and store-bought food items now call for and include xylitol, sorbitol, and other sugar alcohols as replacements for conventional sugar given they provide the same sweet taste without the high-calorie content and supposedly without the same glycemic response. However, given the use of sugar alcohols is still relatively new, it does require asking whether sugar alcohols are healthy.

Sugar alcohols like xylitol, erythritol, and sorbitol are heavily marketed to the overweight and diabetic populations and recently as a low-carbohydrate substitute for those following a keto diet, but over time, their use can lead to worse problems and compromised immunity by creating imbalances in the gut

The growing diabetes epidemic has spawned a whole new industry of alternative sweeteners known as sugar alcohols. Consumers typically view them favorably because they are not artificially derived or chemically manufactured like aspartame or sucralose. These products with low glycemic indexes are aggressively marketed to the overweight and those with insulin problems as ideal sugar substitutes

The narrative is that these sweeteners are natural as they are derived from plant-based sources. These chemicals, also known as polyols, are interestingly comprised of neither sugar nor alcohol. The most familiar of these are xylitol, erythritol, mannitol, and sorbitol.

The glycemic index (GI) is the value assigned to a specific food that indicates its effect on blood sugar. The number ranges between 0 and 100, with 100 representing the effect of pure glucose. While the glycemic index of any food can be easily reduced by consuming traditional fats at the same time, for those with blood sugar issues, this is not always enough to prevent problems with insulin.

The glycemic index (GI) of many common sugar alcohols and sweeteners on the market are:

Stevia 0
Erythritol 0
Yacon 1
Mannitol 2
Lactitol 6
Xylitol 13
Sorbitol 9
Isomalt 9
Agave 15-30
Date Syrup and Sugar 20
Brown Rice Syrup 25
Coconut Sugar/Coconut Nectar 30
Maltitol 36-53
Raw Honey 35-58
Sucanat 43
Organic Sugar 47
Maple Syrup (Grade A or B) 54
Blackstrap Molasses 54
Evaporated Cane Juice 55
Raw Sugar (Turbinado) 65
Corn Syrup 75
White Sugar 80
High Fructose Corn Syrup 87
Glucose 100

Note: A higher GI value correlates with a higher blood sugar spike when that particular sweetener is consumed.  The sweeteners in bold are sugar alcohols.

Sugar alcohols contain fewer calories than real sugar (sucrose) and natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup. They also have lower glycemic indexes. The sweetness of these chemicals ranges from half as sweet as sugar to equally as sweet.

The low-calorie count and glycemic index combined with the fact that they often (but not always) do not spike blood sugar in the same way as natural sweeteners make the sugar alcohols a marketing dream for food manufacturers. It is also highly attractive and enticing product for many consumers!

Making Sugar Alcohols

The manufacturing process of popular sugar alcohols is as follows:

·       Erythritol is derived from corn sugar which is most often from genetically modified (GMO) corn.

·       Sorbitol, a slow metabolizing sugar alcohol, can be made from fruits, (GMO) corn, and seaweed, but commercially, the source is dextrose (glucose) produced from gluten-free cornstarch, likely of GMO origin.

·       Xylitol is a carbohydrate found naturally in the birch tree. Safer alternatives are manufactured and concentrated from birch wood waste. However, most xylitol on the market is derived from GMO corn.

·       Mannitol is manufactured via sugar hydrogenation. This process rearranges the fructose molecule, usually from (GMO) corn, to the sugar mannose.

It is important to understand that in order to get them into the state in which they are able to be consumed or added to foods all sugar alcohols are highly refined. This is true even if the source is natural and a non-GMO source like the birch tree.

Digestibility Of Sugar Alcohols

The most prominent problem with sugar alcohols and gut health is that they are, for the most part, indigestible. This is the reason why they are so low calorie in the first place! Indigestibility is not necessarily a problem when the source is a whole food including the resistant starch found in plantains or potatoes.

When the indigestible source is a manufactured, highly refined and processed food (like erythritol, sorbitol, mannitol or xylitol) that the body would not naturally encounter in that state or quantity if simply consuming whole foods, this can begin to both create and contribute to gut imbalance.

Manufactured foods such as sugar alcohols can cause problems even for healthy people of normal weight with well-functioning digestive tracts. They do this by triggering gastric distress, bloating and diarrhea. For those who suffer from any sort of gut disorder or autoimmune disease, sugar alcohols and processed foods containing them should most especially be avoided. However, the negative effects of sugar alcohols seem to be both person by person dependent and dose dependent. For example, maltitol and sorbitol tend to produce more negative side effects than erythritol.

Disruption Of The Gut Lining

Sugar alcohols have the potential to disrupt the functioning of the lining of the gut. Ironically, this is the same part of the gut tissue that is already compromised in those suffering from diabetes and other autoimmune disorders.

The body’s inability to effectively break down sugar alcohols causes them to arrive for the most part intact when they reach the intestines. At that point, a process called “passive diffusion” takes place: The sugar alcohol that was consumed draws water into the bowels resulting in only partial breakdown. The unmetabolized portion begins to rot, creating the perfect environment for undesirable bacteria and pathogens to feed, grow, reproduce and thrive.

An imbalanced intestinal environment where pathogens and other undesirable microbes have a favorable place to exist is exactly the set of conditions that eventually compromise the gut lining, damage the critical enterocytes that line the gut wall, and can trigger the development of autoimmune disease symptoms.

And, while it is true that sugar alcohols do not feed pathogenic yeasts in the way regular sugar does, the undesirable fermentation of undigested sugar alcohols has the potential to exacerbate yeast problems.

Sugar Alcohols & Gut Healing

The popular sugar alcohols like xylitol, erythritol, mannitol and sorbitol are incredibly detrimental to gut health. This is particularly true when used in larger quantities and over extended periods of time. This is why gut healing protocols such as SCD, Autoimmune Paleo, Carnivore and the bone broth diet do not allow them.

There is not enough information to confirm many sugar alcohols’ safety in pregnant and breastfeeding women, so they should not use it for medicinal purposes. Although some animal studies have shown tumor growth resulting from high doses of xylitol over long periods, more research is needed.

It is also important to note that while these refined, highly processed sweeteners have received GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), no rigorous, long-term studies have been performed. If you’re looking to restore or maintain gut health, it is highly recommended to avoid all types of refined food products

If you doubt that the sugar alcohols you are consuming are harmful to intestinal flora, observe how you feel a few hours or the next day after eating them.

While you might be one of the fortunate consumers who do not feel bloated or get diarrhea, consider that these alternative sweeteners typically cause flatulence problems at the very least. This is a sign of a negative unbalancing agent present in the gut.

Sugar Alcohols Hidden In Artificial Sweeteners

While sugar alcohols can be a health danger in and of themselves, the threat grows when they are combined with artificial sweeteners like aspartame or sucralose. Sadly, this is exactly what food manufacturers frequently do!

Sugar alcohols like erythritol are frequently combined with other low-calorie or artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame-K, neotame, saccharin, or as in the case of some “vitamin” enhanced waters, crystalline fructose.

Crystalline fructose is just another name for corn syrup, which is nearly always of genetically modified origin and the same cheap sweetener used in soda.

Further Concerns

The reality is, although sugar alcohols do have some benefits, the cons outweigh the pros. Overall, sugar alcohols are certainly safer than artificial sweeteners, but that is not unlimited permission to use them in excess. At this point, there is very little evidence demonstrating the long-term health impacts of sugar alcohols and, in reality, they are a form of processed food. In limited amounts and used from time to time, sugar alcohols are probably not too harmful, but it is best to avoid using them in excess. With this understanding, if you are someone who suffers from digestive issues or impaired gut health, I would strongly recommend avoiding them altogether. For most people, it is best to sweeten food naturally with whole-food-based sweeteners including honey, maple syrup, or organic cane sugar, and simply consume them in moderate amounts.

Avoid falling for the lure of sugar alcohols. While it may seem like a good idea in the short term to wean yourself off sugar, the long-term risks to gut health and the potential for autoimmune disease by unbalancing the gut environment and damage to the gut wall may not be worth it.

The best idea is finding a more sustainable way to address that sweet tooth head-on and fix the source of the problem in a manner that will truly enhance health as opposed to implementing a band-aid approach.