Sugar alcohols are a specific type of carbohydrate also know as “polyols”.
Sugar alcohols are naturally occurring in fruits and vegetables and often added to foods as a reduced-calorie alternative to sugar. Some common sugar alcohols you may see in food ingredient lists include:
- Maltitol (not keto)
- Sorbitol (not keto)
- Isomalt (not keto)
- Xylitol (keto but can kill dogs)
- Erythritol
It’s important to be aware that some sugar alcohols may cause some people to experience bloating, gas and diarrhoea, even when consumed in small amounts.
Sugar Alcohols & Glycemic Index
Interestingly, most sugar alcohols are not completely absorbed in the small intestine, so they do not raise blood sugar the same way as sucrose (table sugar). However, since they are partially absorbed, they may affect blood glucose levels to some degree.
This can be observed by looking at the Glycemic indexes of sugar alcohols compared to sugar. Glycemic index is a measure of the increase in blood glucose when a food is digested and absorbed. It is based on a numeric scale from zero to 100, where the Glycemic index of glucose (a type of sugar you get from foods and the form that your body uses for energy) is 100. The Glycemic index of sucrose (table sugar) is around 65, whereas the Glycemic indexes of the main sugar alcohols are between 0 and 45. Therefore, sugar alcohols may raise your blood glucose, although not as much as sugars like sucrose and glucose.
One specific type of sugar alcohol, Erythritol, is metabolised differently than other sugar alcohols. Erythritol is fully absorbed in the small intestine and excreted in the urine unchanged, so it does not affect blood glucose levels like other sugar alcohols.
Calories in Sugar Alcohols
Sugar alcohols provide fewer calories per gram compared to regular carbohydrates which is why they are used these days in “weight loss foods”
Sugar Alcohols, Erythritol, and the Ketogenic Diet.
So, are sugar alcohols allowed on the ketogenic diet? Technically, most sugar alcohols should be counted as regular carbohydrates and kept to a minimum and although they may affect blood glucose differently in different people, most sugar alcohols have the potential of raising blood sugar.
The exception to this rule is Erythritol, since it is metabolised differently and does not affect blood glucose. When reading a food label for carbohydrate content, Erythritol is the only sugar alcohol that can be deducted from total carbohydrate content. Sugar alcohol can only be deducted from the total carbohydrate amount if Erythritol is the only sugar alcohol used in a product. When other sugar alcohols are used in addition to Erythritol, the sugar alcohol content cannot be completely deducted.
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