Has anyone tested the theory that xylitol does not raise BG?
Interesting theory…but it is wrong. It’s a sugar, and as such will affect BG. It doesn’t metabolize as quickly as glucose or sucrose, however.
My family (2 with T2 & 1 with T1) uses xylitol. I don’t care for the taste in drinks but I do bake with it a lot. My daughter is T1 & uses it in some drinks. She doesn’t bolus for it. The few times I’ve used it in drinks, I’ve seen no difference in BG. I think it’s probably a YDMV thing.
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This isn’t right, chemically speaking. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol, and is closer to a fiber (it’s in fact produced from xylose, a fiber) than to a sugar. It has negligible effect on blood sugar (GI of 7), although it is detectable.
Some of the polyols can indeed raise blood sugar (as they are converted to glucose at various rates), and some (maltitol) are similar to glucose or fructose. Xylitol and Erythritol don’t happen to be polyols that convert rapidly (or completely) to glucose after digestion: the conversion rate is less than 7%.
You can look this stuff up in organic chemistry books, or check out the wikipedia article, which is pretty good.
All that being said, I’m not suggesting xylitol is good or bad for diabetics: that’s a personal choice, and plenty of people have good reasons to make the choices they do. Personally, I use erythritol as a sugar-substitute: it has a non-zero but negligible effect on my BG (I’ve not managed to eat enough to raise my BG after an hour). Xylitol is poisonous to dogs, so it doesn’t work in our household.
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For me, Erythritol is the one sugar alcohol that generally does not raise BG.
If find that other sugar alcohols, like Xylitol and Maltitol, increase my BG in an unpredictable way over a long period of time. I still eat some of these sweeteners, but have been cutting back lately.
Any of those fake sugars are bad for you. I’ve seen diabetic nutritionists suggest these fake chemical sweeteners, diet sodas etc. What are they thinking? The only sweetener I’ll use is Green Leaf Stevia, a natural product. If the stevia has been messed with other chemicals…Splenda, aspartame etc. I avoid it.
Jane
Erythritol and xylitol are also both “natural sweeteners.” Erythritol is one of the reasons why pears taste so sweet even though they don’t have as much fructose as one might think. I won’t get into the “natural fallacy,” but there is no reason to think that erythritol or xylitol are any more “unnatural” than any other processed food.
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I’ve never talked myself into trying it, as it has a Carb content, and in my experience, all carbs raise blood glucose. However, the web content says it does not.
Another thing about xylitol is that there’s evidence using xylitol-sweetened gum/candy can help prevent tooth decay. I think it’s because the bacteria that cause the decay try to eat the xylitol, can’t, and die? Regardless, that’s kind of cool, and why it’s particularly common in gum/mints.
My personal experience is that sorbitol does raise blood sugars substantially and causes GI distress (it’s also naturally occurring and the reason prunes have a laxative effect), unfairly giving sugar alcohols a bad name. I was as a result super skeptical about erythritol, but my tests show that it only raises my blood sugar slightly and in a much easier to manage with insulin way (especially since many of the products made with it also contain a lot of fiber and protein, so I find I don’t need to prebolus, but just take a little insulin right after eating, and that works). I’ve also had no GI effects from it. I only have ever consumed xylitol in very small amounts in gum/mints etc, so harder to tell with that, but seems to be similar.
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what are some brand names for erythritol?
Swerve is the most popular. There are some others. I like Swerve myself. Another common Erythritol-Stevia blend is Pyure, which I don’t care for personally (has that “Stevia taste” that I can’t stand).
Lakanto uses erythritol with monk fruit (some people don’t like it).
Now Foods has pure erythritol (slightly less sweet than sucrose by weight).
Anthony’s also has pure erythritol.
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Caution - never feed anything containing xylitol to a dog. It is more toxic to them than chocolate.
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I use erythritol and stevia and haven’t noticed much impact on blood sugar. I’ve even used stevia brands that have other carbohydrates in them, and don’t notice an effect, maybe because I use such a small amount. Also, my blood sugar is prone to random rises and drops, so it’s possible there was a small effect and I simply couldn’t catch it.
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