What Exactly Is Sugar Alcohol?

We, bodybuilders, and in fact anybody, who understands the importance of proper nutrition for the health, often avoid foods containing sugar. Some of them are sweetened with non-caloric sweeteners, some of them with sugar alcohols. We know about the sweeteners, but what are the sugar alcohols?

Sugar Alcohols (also named polyols) are hydrogenated carbohydrates, whose structure resembles that of alcohols. That’s where their name comes from.

The most common sugar alcohols are sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, erithritol and xylitol. They are almost as sweet as table sugar at half the calories. The reason is they are poorly absorbed in the intestines. That’s the main reason why in higher quantities (30gr and more) they can cause stomach discomfort, bloating and diarrhea. Exception is only the erithritol, which is absorbed in the intestines but is excreted unchanged.

Sugar alcohols are usually added to sugar free foods to mask the strong aftertaste of non-calorie sweeteners. If a food is sugar free but it’s sweetened with sugar alcohols, the sugar alcohols have to be listed in the nutrition facts label.

As a person who realizes the importance of moderating insulin levels, you should certainly avoid high glycemic carbohydrates as well as refined sugar.

If you have to use sweetener go with erithritol if the others cause you stomach discomfort. If you want to go absolutely calorie free go with the non-nutritive sweetener stevia.