Sugar Alcohol On Keto

While you may be familiar with the Keto diet and the low carb philosophy, you may not be familiar with sugar alcohols. Sugar alcohols are a certain type of carb. There are several sugar alcohols and that leaves many wondering whether or not sugar alcohols are fine for a low-carb Ketogenic diet. As always, we are here to walk you through what sugar alcohols are, what their carb content is, if they are suitable for a low-carb Keto diet, and what the effects are of them on your health. Finding out what food to eat on Keto and a carb free diet can be really tricky. Everything you eat has an impact on your blood, fat, and your body in general. Since the Keto diet is so wildly popular in 2018, we have found it necessary to walk you through every aspect of the diet including what foods and recipes you can or cannot eat on a Ketogenic diet.

Sugar Alcohol On Keto: About It

Sugar Alcohols are a type of carbohydrate that your body can use for fuel. Sugar alcohols include several different types of carbohydrates. Sugar alcohols are commonly used in foods as artificial sweeteners. This has people wondering if they are safe for our body and for Keto. We have done extensive research into each of these sugar alcohols and are ready to present the results. We’ll go over each sugar alcohol, what the carb content is, and if it is suitable for a low carb Keto diet.

Erythritol

Erythritol is the first of the sugar alcohols that we are going to examine. Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that is low in calories and acts as an artificial sweetener. It is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol that has no side effects and tastes pretty much exactly like real sugar. The difference is that this sugar alcohol has almost no calories. It’s no secret that we all love food with sugar, but it’s also not a secret that sugar isn’t the best thing for you to consume in large amounts on a consistent basis. This makes Erythritol an incredibly appealing sweetener that has a lot of the benefits of real sugar without a lot of the negatives that sugar has on your health and body.

Erythritol, like other sugar alcohols, is a great, naturally occurring sweetener used by many food producers to simulate real sugar without the health consequences. The sweetness of Erythritol and other sugar alcohols has a lot to do with the shape of them and how the receptors on your tongue react to that shape. While sweet like the other sugar alcohols, Erythritol is much lower in calorie content than all of them. Regular table sugar has 4 calories per gram while Xylitol (another sugar alcohol) has 2.4, and Erythritol has only .24 calories per gram. This is shockingly low calorie content while you still get that sweet sugar taste.

Glycerol

Glycerol does have a naturally sweet flavor like sugar, but it’s not as sweet as other sugar alcohols. Instead, Glycerol is used to add texture, not as a sweetener substitute for sugar. Glycerol has slightly more calories and carbs than some other sugar alcohols and isn’t as sweet, making it a less appealing option for your Keto diet.

Isomalt

Isomalt is one of the sugar alcohols and it is made primarily in beets. It’s about half the sweetness level of sugar and half the calorie content of sugar as well. This doesn’t make it a more efficient sweetener than regular sugar, but it’s often used in baking to add bulk to different things. It’s can be used as a sweetener but is usually mixed with other sweeteners to achieve a sweet taste like sugar but with lower calories.

Lactitol

Lactitol is like Isomalt in that is has half the sweetness and calories of regular sugar. It is often used as a low-calorie sweetener in some baked goods and can also be used as treatment of constipation due to its laxative effects.

Maltitol

Maltitol is used very often as a sweetener in sugar-free chocolates, candy, and ice cream. It’s just as sweet as regular sugar but has far fewer calories. It’s a very popular sugar alcohol and almost perfectly imitates sugar.

Mannitol

Mannitol is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol that can be found in fruits and vegetables. It has about half the calories of a regular sugar but also is half as sweet. Mannitol is used in a similar way to powdered sugar and is used to coat some candies and chewing gum.

Polydextrose

Polydextrose is not one of the pure sugar alcohols. It is created by combining sorbitol and dextrose. Polydextrose has a high fiber content and is only mildly sweet. Polydextrose is commonly used in baked goods to increase bulk and add some fiber into the nutrition.

Sorbitol

Sorbitol is naturally occurring in fruits such as apples and pears. It has about half the sweetness of regular sugar and about 2/3 the calories. It’s commonly used in gum, mouthwash, and toothpaste. It has a natural cooling effect in your mouth, which is why it is used in dental products.

Xylitol

Xylitol is one of the most popular sugar alcohols out there and it’s made of plant fiber. It is just about as sweet as regular sugar but only contains about 70% of the calories, which makes it a great option for an artificial sweetener and it’s also found in cosmetics and medicines.

Now that you have a brief overview of each of the most popular sugar alcohols, we can go into what the benefits are, if they are low carb, if they are good for your health, what foods you can eat with them, if they are friendly to your Keto diet, what impact they have on your blood and body, and if they are going to help you burn fat in 2018. You’ll also need all this information if you want to include sugar alcohols in your everyday recipes and diet.

Sugar Alcohol on Keto: Good and Bad

When you eat sugar alcohols, there are both good effects and bad effects on your body, health, blood, and ability to burn fat. That’s why you should understand these effects before you start including sugar alcohols into your Keto diet and any recipes that you might want to try them out in. Understanding the pros and cons and benefits of sugar alcohols is vital to determining if you should be consuming them on a regular basis. We’ll go down the list of the most common sugar alcohols and determine what effects they each will have on your health, body, and Keto diet.

Erythritol

Good:

- It has a low laxative effect that is much lower than the other sugar alcohols in our list
- It doesn’t have a bad effect on your dental health and can in fact sometimes help to prevent tooth decay
- It doesn’t have a bad effect on your blood sugar or insulin levels

Bad:

- It can sometimes cause an upset stomach, hives, or nausea when eaten in excessively large amounts
- It has a cooling effect when eaten that can also be interpreted as minty (this can also be a benefit depending on if you enjoy it)

Xylitol

Good:

- It does affect your blood sugar levels, but has only a low effect
- Can prevent cavities and is overall good for your dental health
- Could help increase bone density and prevent eventual osteoporosis
- Can sometimes help with skin appearance, but studies are early on
- Can help your gut bacteria

Bad:

- Xylitol has a heavy laxative effect
- Can kill dogs if consumed—highly toxic to dogs

Sorbitol

Good:

- Has no effect on your blood sugar levels
- Does not damage your dental health at all

Bad:

- Is known to cause bloating and gas at times
- Has a very powerful laxative effect and is known to cause diarrhea
- Has a cooling, minty effect in the mouth when consumed—this can interfere with the taste of the foods you are trying to eat

Polydextrose

Good:

- Great for colon health, similar to vegetable fiber
- Slows down blood sugar reaction to carb intake
- Does not negatively affect your dental health

Bad:

- Has a bad laxative effect if eaten in excess

Mannitol

Good:

- Has a low glycaemic index so it has a very low effect on your blood sugar
- Great option for diabetics
- Consumption will not cause any tooth decay
- It is also useful for various health and medical purposes like the treatment of renal failure, cystic fibrosis, head trauma, and a medically purposed laxative for children

Bad:

- Not suitable as a sweetener since it has just as many calories when used proportionally to the sweetness
- People are commonly allergic to this sugar alcohol and it can have severe side effects
- Consuming it in excess can cause diarrhea, cramps, and nausea

Maltitol

Good:

- It has no negative effects on your dental health or teeth
- Is great as a sugar substitute in recipes since it behaves in many of the same ways

Bad:

- Has been known to raise blood sugar levels
- Can sometimes cause mild digestive problems—gas and bloating, for example

Lactitol

Good:

- Has no negative effects on your dental health
- Helps it increase the number of good bacteria located in your gut

Bad:

- Has a significant laxative effect when eaten in large amounts
- Can cause digestive issues like diarrhea, cramps, bloating

Isomalt

Good:

- Little or low effect on blood sugar levels
- Not bad for your dental health

Bad:

- Can cause problems in your gastrointestinal tract when consumed in excess

Glycerol

Good:

- It is water soluble
- No bad effects on your dental health
- A low effect on your blood sugar levels

Bad:

- It is not suitable as a sweetener to be used regularly in your diet or recipes since it is less sweet than sugar but also has more calories
- Can cause a slight change in blood sugar levels if you consume a lot

As you can see, the various sugar alcohols can have varying degrees and severities of effects on your body, health, blood, and ability to burn fat. You should become accustomed to each of these sugar alcohols and how they can be included in a Keto diet, recipes, or a low-carb journey.

Can You Have Sugar Alcohols On A Keto Diet?

The answer to this question depends on which sugar alcohols you want to include in your Keto diet. Some have side effects that make it not worth it to include them in a regular Keto diet, while others serve as great alternatives to sugar and can be used to sweeten up a dish or your favorite recipes. This is all going to depend on which of the sugar alcohols you are looking at. There are a few sugar alcohols that are great for Keto while there are even more that can have bad side effects and could endanger your ketosis, even.

For the Keto diet, we definitely recommend Erythritol as one of the best sugar alcohols to use while on the Keto diet or any other diet, for that matter. When consumed, Erythritol is then completely excreted during urination. It has little to low effect on blood sugar and has less calories than sugar while being almost just as sweet as regular sugar. It also doesn’t have bad effects on intestinal systems. Because of all this, it is the most highly recommended of the sugar alcohols to include on a low carb Keto diet. You can use it as a sugar substitute in your Keto desserts and recipes!

We can also recommend Xylitol, albeit with a little hesitation. Xylitol has a sweetness that is close to that of sugar and affects blood sugar levels far less than regular sugar. Of the sugar alcohols, this is the one that we recommend second most, right behind Erythritol. Xylitol can help with dental and tooth health, increases good gut bacteria, and can also help to increase collagen production. The flip side of Xylitol is that is has been known to cause gastric problems from time to time. Because of this, you should use it very sparingly and only for small desserts or to sweeten your tea. You should take very great care to not expose it to your dog or leave it within reach of your dogs because it is very toxic and can even kill the animal.

We don’t recommend that you use Maltitol, because it can cause large spikes in your blood sugar levels which makes it not suitable for a low carb diet like the Keto diet. Among the other sugar alcohols that we wouldn’t recommend as sugar substitutes are sorbitol, lactitol, glycerol, and isomalt. You should consider these as they have a considerable effect on your blood sugar and health and are not great options for a low carb or carb free lifestyle. They won’t help your body burn fat through Keto and you shouldn’t look to include these in your everyday meals or recipes.

So, to recap, you can have some sugar alcohols on a Keto diet, but you should make sure that you know which sugar alcohols are suitable for consumption on a low carb diet and which ones are not. You should look to include those that offer near the same sweetness but far fewer calories and a low effect on blood sugar. The best sugar alcohol for this would definitely be Erythritol as it has no effect on your blood sugar and health. You can use this in food, desserts, and other recipes to sweeten something up with you need something that is low calorie and just as sweet as sugar. You should stay away from any sugar alcohols that are not low in calories, are bad for your dental health, don’t fit with a Keto diet, or affect your blood sugar levels heavily.

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Does Sugar Alcohols Count As Carbs?

All this information about sugar alcohols is great, but as a Keto dieter, you want to know if you can fit these sugar alcohols into your Keto diet plan. If they do fit into your Keto diet plan, you also want to know how they count against you as carbs, since the goal of the Keto diet is to drastically reduce the amount of carbs that you eat. The calculation for sugar alcohols carb content is rather simple. If on the nutrition label you see that there are 15g of sugar alcohols, you simply divide that number by 2 to see your carb intake from that sugar alcohol. So, the amount of carbs that you would count against your carb limit for the day from 15g of sugar alcohols would be 7.5g of carbs.

You should always check the nutrition facts of the foods and recipes that you eat to make sure that eating it won’t mess with your carb limit for the day and endanger your health or your Keto diet. Because the calculation is so simple, it should be no problem at all once you know how many carbs you can eat for the day!

Can Sugar Alcohols Kick You Out Of Ketosis?

As with our answer about which sugar alcohols you can eat on a Keto diet, it will vary based on which sugar alcohols you are wanting to include in your food, diet, or recipes.

Ketosis is a process that takes place in your body when you don’t eat a lot of foods that have a high carb content. Since carbs are your body’s main source of energy, it needs to turn to something else to get some energy. This is one of the main benefits of a carb free or low carb diet. Instead of the easy-to-burn carbs, your body turns to fat to burn. This can promote weight loss in your body and have numerous other health effects.

One of the health effects of ketosis is that it will produce ketones, which can also be used for energy and has several health benefits, specifically in the treatment of neurological disorders. A Ketogenic diet plan is a known effective treatment for epilepsy in children and is used quite commonly by the Mayo clinic and other hospitals that specialize in this sort of treatment. Ketones also have a long-lasting positive effect on your brain health and function. It can help prevent brain decay and help you focus on tasks and increase your brain capacity.

However, all these great benefits of ketosis cannot be achieved without eating a low-carb diet and making sure that your body is getting the right balance of Macronutrients in your daily diet. Since you are going to be taking close stock of each and every nutrient that enters your body while on a Keto diet, even the smallest discrepancy or body change can throw you out of ketosis and you will lose the fat burning qualities of being in ketosis. Sugar alcohols are definitely a factor here and if you consume them the wrong way, you can get kicked out of ketosis.

If you consume sugar alcohols in foods or recipes that have a heavy effect on your blood sugar and you consume a lot of these alcohols, you can consider yourself to be in danger of being kicked out of ketosis. This is bad and you can lose a lot of progress.

However, if you consume the right sugar alcohols that we recommended that don’t affect your blood sugar as much and that also have a low carb content (this can be seen on nutritional labels), you can stay in ketosis and also benefit from the numerous health benefits (and taste) of these awesome sugar alcohols. As with all things in Keto, it’s just about finding the right balance for you and enjoying things in moderation. If you can’t find the right balance and frequently consume sugar alcohols that are high in blood sugar and affect your body in a negative way, you are sure to get kicked out of ketosis.

So, be sure to enjoy these sugar alcohols in the right way and enjoy the awesome benefits of them!