If alcohol affects trig levels would sugar alcohol found in sugar free products - High Cholesterol Message Board

KrFr · 07-24-2004, 06:37 PM

have the same effect? I have been reading Dr. Ron Goor's book "EATERS CHOICE" and it does not seem to cover this. I have been going sugar free since I got a high triglyceride reading and it hit me while reading this book. If the sugar alcohol found in sugar free products has the same effect as alcohol then my deprivation has been for nothing.

Does anyone have any info on this? TIA

ARIZONA73 · 07-24-2004, 09:42 PM

Are you talking about sucralose? Although sucralose is derived from sugar, it is 600 times sweeter, and is absorbed into your body only in limited amounts. So I wouldn't worry about it affecting your triglycerides.

zip2play · 07-25-2004, 05:27 AM

The sugar alcohols (malitol, sorbitol, lalctitol, erythritol and others are only slightly digested by humans (but the colonic bacteria just LOVE the stuff- and cause us cramps and runs.) I truly hate these things, ESPECIALLY MALTITOL, which gives me a headache AS I EAT IT and THEN causes the cramps. It's the most common of these "foods" in fake chocolates and "no sugar added" chocolate ice cream.

They go from available 1 to 3 calories/gram instead of the normal 7 for fully absorbed ethyl alcohol.

To the extent of their caloric impact, I would GUESS that they react very much like ethyl alcohol, but a net less effect than a gram of the REAL STUFF (pass the Beefeater!

)
Erythritol is in a class of it's own with only .2 calories per gram and thus probably has NO effect on triglycerides...or weight! It's not nearly so common as the others.

KrFr · 07-25-2004, 12:09 PM

Thanks to both of you for the info. I am using Splenda the most which I think is Sucralose. But on the food labels of some products with Splenda as the advertised sweetner it shows "Sugar alcohol". I will be going back to the Dr. for another reading in the next month or so and if I need to avoid Splenda I will but it will make my plan just that much harder to stick to. I am going to keep using it until I know I have to give up something else though as I dearly enjoy a monring cup of coffee and a iced tea or cola sweetened with it.

zip2play · 07-26-2004, 03:19 AM

KareFree,
They are very different things. The food label listing for the "sugar alcohols" has nothing to do with the sucralose (Splenda) in the product which is a chlorinated sucrose...not an alcohol. Since sucralose not a food, nor does it have any calories at all, it is not listed in the nutrition chart.