sugar alcohol?

dawnmarie1227
dawnmarie1227 Posts: 4 Member
in Food and Nutrition
What exactly is sugar alcohol? I just ate something that had 36 carbs but after I noticed that it only had 6 grams of net carbs and 25g sugar alcohol and 1g of fiber. what do I count/not count? Im a bit confused.

Replies

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    it's a large molecule ( also known as polyols ) that is not fully digested hence some products subtract it from carbohydrates when calculating net carbs.

    Whether this is fair depends in part which sugar alcohol it is. Xylitol and erythritol are hardly absorbed at all but maltitol syrup is about 50% absorbed.

    Unless you're low carbing use the carbohydrates number. If you're restricting carbs then I would probably enter it as about 18g of net carbs unless it's one of the really low GI polyols.
  • skullshank
    skullshank Posts: 4,323 Member
    ^ that sounds like a great scientific answer.

    all i know is i ate a bag of 'sugar free peanut butter cups' that contained this sugar alcohol.
    i had crazy poo the next day. that was fun.
  • Jmchao
    Jmchao Posts: 27 Member
    ^ that sounds like a great scientific answer.

    all i know is i ate a bag of 'sugar free peanut butter cups' that contained this sugar alcohol.
    i had crazy poo the next day. that was fun.

    ^^this! Be warned...sugar alcohols can cause some craziness with the intestines! Be prepared for some uncomfortable gas and some "crazy poo"!

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