Sugar Alcohols & Digestive Discomfort

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00][music] >> Sugar alcohols are a category of sweeteners.

[00:00:12]They are carbohydrates that are naturally present in some foods including berries, other fruits, and vegetables.

[00:00:21]And they can also be produced.

[00:00:23]To clarify, they are neither sugar nor alcohol. The term sugar alcohol refers only to their chemical structure.

[00:00:33]Why are they used? Sugar alcohols provide a sweet taste but with fewer calories per gram than sugars.

[00:00:42]On average, sugar alcohols only provide two calories per gram where sugars provide four calories per gram.

[00:00:51]So sugar alcohols provide roughly half the calories on a gram per gram basis.

[00:00:57]I say roughly half because different sugar alcohols provide different amounts of calories. Some have less than two calories per gram and some have more.

[00:01:07]Because they have less calories than sugars, they can be beneficial for those trying to manage their weight.

[00:01:14]Besides adding sweetness to a food, sugar alcohols can also add texture, bulk, they can help food stay moist, prevent browning when heated, and add a cooling sensation.

[00:01:29]Another benefit of sugar alcohols is unlike sugars, they don't promote cavities because they aren't converted to acid by the oral bacteria that produce cavities.

[00:01:41]All of this sounds great, right? They have less calories than sugars.

[00:01:45]They texture, bulk, help food stay moist, they don't promote cavities.

[00:01:51]So what are the downsides?

[00:01:54]And that leads us to the point of this video.

[00:01:57]Because they aren't fully absorbed and are fermented by bacteria in the large intestine, when consumed in excess, sugar alcohols can cause digestive discomfort. Gas, bloating, diarrhea, etc. Excess is individual, so it just depends on how much you can tolerate.

[00:02:19]If you've been dealing with a lot of digestive discomfort and you're consuming a lot of foods with added sugar alcohols, this may be why, at least partially.

[00:02:30]How do you know if a food contains sugar alcohols?

[00:02:35]The first way is looking at the nutrition facts label on the package and looking under total carbohydrate.

[00:02:42]The number of grams of sugar alcohols per serving may be listed there but not always.

[00:02:50]The name of a specific sugar alcohol may be listed instead as shown here if only one type of sugar alcohol is added to the food. But again, not always.

[00:03:03]If you don't see a sugar alcohol section or the name of any specific sugar alcohols under total carbohydrate, look for the names of sugar alcohols in the ingredients list on the food package.

[00:03:18]Here is a list of sugar alcohols.

[00:03:21]Feel free to pause the video to read or take a picture of the slide for future reference.

[00:03:28]A quick relevant side note.

[00:03:31]When it comes to the ingredients list on a food package, ingredients are listed in decreasing order by weight.

[00:03:39]The closer an ingredient is to the beginning of the list, the more of that ingredient is in the food.

[00:03:47]Common foods with sugar alcohols include sugar-free and reduced sugar products, protein bars and similar foods, protein pastries, protein sweet rolls, etc. Baked goods such as cakes, cookies, and pies, chewing gum, desserts such as ice cream, other frozen desserts, and puddings, flavored jam and jelly spreads, ready-to-use frostings, and sweets such as hard and soft candies.

[00:04:19]So the big takeaway and point of this video is if you've been dealing with a lot of digestive discomfort, review your diet and if your sugar alcohol intake is pretty high, try reducing it to see if that helps.

[00:04:35]If your tolerance for sugar alcohols is lower, also try eating foods that contain sugar alcohols with other foods versus on an empty stomach to see if that helps.

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