I notice when they take the sugar out of something, they have sugar alcohols. What are the sugar alcohols and are they bad for you?
I see it in ice cream, the sugar free puddings, snacks etc. Should they be avoided?

Sugar alcohols are a kind of molecule that has some characteristics of a sugar molecule and some characteristics of an alcohol, with a sweet taste. They do have some calories, but not as many as sugars (sucrose has 4 calories per gram, and the sugar alcohols range from .2-3 calories per gram, so depending which you are using, you can see a significant calorie savings or not much of one at all).

One of the reasons sugar alcohols are used in sugar free products (other than reducing calories) is to reduce the glycemic index (effect on blood sugar) of the food. All sugar alcohols have a lower glycemic index than sugar, though some are also less sweet than sugar and so don't result in a net savings at all, and the different sugar alcohols vary in glycemic index as well.

The major issue with sugar alcohols is that they aren't completely digested (which is part of why they have fewer calories than sugars). That means they end up in your intestines, where they can cause a lot of gastrointestinal upset that you want to avoid. People have differing levels of tolerance for side effect free consumption, so you have to experiment a bit to find the levels that are right for you. Typically, erythritol is the only sugar alcohol that isn't subject to these side effects, because of the way it is digested (it also has the lowest glycemic index and lowest calories per gram).

Heh, heh, I try to avoid products with a lot of sugar alcohols. The reason is that they give me major problems with flatulence. As my biologist father said- just because you can't digest it doesn't mean that the bacteria that live in your intestines can't. The byproduct of this is gas and lots of it.

Not everyone has this problem though. See how you go. There are also lost of sites that talk about sugar alcohols and their side-effects and possible dangers.

MN.

I think you should avoid the sugar alcohols, you should avoid any food that contain sugar.

I have very little reaction to most sugar alcohols (providing I don't eat multiple servings), but my husband is very sensitive to them - which is unusual because I'm the one with IBS (irritable bowel).

Once I did buy some sugar free JellyBelly's in such a tiny package (about 2.5" square) that I assumed was a single serving (a lesson in reading packages very carefully). They contained sorbitol and a serving size was listed as something like 6 jellybeans. By that count, there were 4 servings in the bag. Yikes, I am so glad that I didn't buy the slightly bigger bag.