sugar alcohols

[OTCbooty]

AKA mannitol, sorbitol, maltitol, lactitol, and so on....

I wanted to cheat on my diet a little so I bought a little thing of Healthy Choice "ice cream" that was fat free, sugar free (used maltitol, mannitol instead to sweeten)....and had a 1/4 cup of the stuff....it did some very, very bad things to my colon. The label reads that excess consumption will have a laxative effect but this was only half the listed serving size.



Does anyone know anything about the properties of these? They replace sugars in about a million different foods largely geared toward Diabetics and seem like a good deal for those situations where you can afford a little cheating but don't want the insulin spike. It was my understanding that they are low glycemic but I have heard differently from other people???? Not that I want to eat them if they're going to affect me like that....

 

[diamonddiceclay]

ANYTHING THAT CONTAINS SUGAR ALCOHOL IS BAD FOR PEOPLE TRYING TO CUT BECAUSE THE SUGAR ALCOHOL CAUSES AN INSULIN SPIKE-THIS IS EVEN WORSE THAN A PRODUCT THAT HAS HIGH CARBS BUT NO SUGAR ALCOHOL

 

[MR. BMJ]

Sugar alcohols are absorbed slowly and incompletely from the intestine by passive diffusion. Because of the incomplete absorption, they produce a LOW GLYCEMIC RESPONSE. Also, the excessive load that is incompletely absorbed will also cause diarrhea .

Both sorbitol and mannitol must warn about their laxative effects on the label. Typically, problems will occur with most people when they ingest more than:
50 grams of Sorbitol
and,
20 grams of mannitol.

Since mannitol is only ~50-70% as sweet as sucrose (regular table sugar), then maltitol was probably thrown in as a way to sweeten up the product since it is ~90% as sweet as sucrose.

Mannitol has a total calorie count of 1.6 calories/gram and,

maltitol has around 3 kcal/gram.

MR. BMJ

 

[DrSuperSaint]

<b>OTCbooty</b>, I too have had those ill reactions to sugar alcohols, you're not alone.

 

[OTCbooty]

Spatt

Okay, I don't usually use sweeteners, and I don't want to get you started, but what is Stevia and why is it superior? I don't think I really have any use for it, but I'm curious to know what it is.

Does anyone make nonfat ice cream sweetened with it? Let me answer that....No, of course they don't. Nothing that tastes good is allowed to be entirely without negatives.
Darn it, I just wanted some fake ice cream