E-Diets did an article today that mentioned at gave a link to Zylitol.org

http://www.xylitol.org/

Has anyone heard of this? What is the scoop?
This is touted (by them) to be better than splenda with no side effects at all.

Hi Randi Sue,

I checked out the website and they seem to really be promoting it as a tooth decay preventative and are saying that it is completely safe in the amounts taken to protect your teeth.

As far as I understand it xylitol is a sugar alchohol, or polyol, much like maltitol or sorbitol. It is more effective than Splenda in mimicking the properties and flavor of sugar and is used in many LC candies. I've seen it in bags at my health food store and have toyed with getting some to make foods that just don't work with Splenda (like fudge, peanut brittle, meringues) but I've resisted because all polyols cause gastric distress if consumed in large enough amounts (YMMV). This is a pretty important side-effect for them to dismiss as "no side-effects at all."

I am not 100% sure that xylitol specifically causes flatulence and diarreha, but since the other polyols do (because the molecules are too large to be absorbed by the body) I don't see why this one would be any different. I'm fairly certain that if there was a lc sweetener that mimicked sugar exactly without any side effects it would dominate the market, so I'm willing to bet that xylitol is a "muscial" sweetener.

That said, if you consume it in small amounts and watch your body's reaction (there is a widely individual reaction to these sweeteners) you can probably quickly evaluate your level of tolerance. I've found that things like jelly beans that have a greater percentage of their substance make up of sugar give me more trouble than something like a chocolate bar which has lots of other ingredients.

Hope this helps,
Dig

digwig: Thanks for the info. I suspected something must be up in some way for this stuff not to "dominate the market" like you mentioned. I do remember reading in the materials that it's molecules were too large to be absorbed. So it probably will cause people to be "gas bags."

I cannot use any of the other sweeteners without lots of problems, including stalls. So I will give this stuff a try if I can find a place to purchase it.

Supposedly, erythritol (sp?) doesn't cause the same gastric distress that the other sugar alcohols do. I personally am not going to seek it out, since if it is really as good as it says, it will probably just trigger me back into the same unhealthy binge eating pattern that got me here in the first place. I have enough trouble controlling my intake of splenda-sweetened products as it is. Still, you might want to check it out, I read somewhere that it is available at wwww.netrition.com and possibly Trader Joe's.

Its used in most sugar free chewing gums.