Quote:
Originally Posted by MissSea
I too loved the article, JerseyGyrl ... the reports were fabulous too. Question though: in your opinion, if I'm experiencing the laxative effect, does that mean the sugar alcohols are just passing through, rather than breaking down and affecting my blood sugar? I'm confused because I thought it seemed to say it was one or the other.
Thanks for your thoughts in advance!
MissSea
It's a reasonable theory, and a common one, but I don't know if there's been any research proving or disproving it (if anyone knows of such research, and can give a link or a tip as to where or when it was done, that would be great).
Although even if it's true, I'm not sure how much it helps, because many of the sugar alcohols are known to be partially digested. That means instead of 4 calories per gram, you may be able to digest anwhere from 0-4. Diarrhea may tell you that you can't digest all 4 calories per gram, but it probably won't tell you how many calories you could digest. You could be absorbing none of the sugar alcohol calories, or 3/4 of them and still get diarrhea.
It's just another matter of trial and error (if you want to experiment). Two ways to experiment would be to assume zero and see if your weight is affected by the assumption. Or you could buy a blood sugar monitor and test it after eating (you might ask your doctor or a diabetic educatior when and how to test, essentially what to look for).