Hi

I have been staying away from sugar alcohol stuff as they cause gas and stall for me. But now there are quite a few products made with erythritol which should not cause any digestive/bathroom problem.

But i am wondering whether it can cause stall ???

thanks,

For most people, it shouldn't. Very little of it metabolizes - most of it is excreted through the urine, making it extremely low carb/low cal. If the carbs don't metabolize, they can't stall you.

I do know a handful of people that swear that erythritol laxates them. So there may be that same handful of exceptions in the ketogenic realm as well. The vast majority, though, should be stall-free while consuming erythritol.

the ZCarb bars (made with ery.. however its spelled) dont stall me.

I get "rumbly" from the erythritol-sweetened "1 Carb" peanut butter cups. Could be the other sweeteners in them (a maltitol derivative)...impossible to tell, but they give me the same trouble as the others. (Lactitol is the WORST, though... )

Then how do we know whether our body metabolises the carb from erythritol? If it causes gas and laxative then does it mean that our body does not metabolise them?

Erythritol is a very special case. For all the other sugar alcohols, gas/laxation is a sign that they aren't being digested, and thus not being metabolized. Erythritol, on the other hand, is supposed to take a totally different route. It shouldn't be making it to the large intestine and causing gas/laxation. It is absorbed through the stomach, is then unable to metabolize, and the lion's share (90%), is passed through the urine unchanged.

It's actually an even larger lions share - 95%. The other big winner with erythritol is that it has a G.I. of zero. Zip. Nada. All the other S.A.'s have much higher G.I. It's laxation threshold is even higher than sucrose. So if sugar gets you moving then erythritol might - if you eat more of it than you would sugar. There is simply no physiological reason for it to cause gas in anyone. People who swear that it causes gas will find that there are other S.A.'s OR (and this is a very big or) there are other carbs in the problem food that are making it to the bowel unmetabolized and so becoming dinner for gas producing yeasts and bacteria. Erythritol is a paradigm change for the better in low carb sweeteners. It's a pity it is a sugar alcohol at all, because so many people just dismiss it as 'just another S.A.' and avoid it. It's not even any more expensive than the others. About the only valid criticism that I've ever heard levelled at erythritol is it's cool, very slightly minty taste. I prefer it's taste to real sugar. But others may not.

Yes, you are correct. My math was off. Sugar is 4 calories/gram and erythritol is .2. .2 is 5% of 5.

Most of the products with erythritol as the sweetener(zcarb, hersheys, etc...)also come with a ton of inulin (and occasionally an additional sugar alcohol), which is what causes most of the gas/laxation symptoms described above. The erythritol itself is harmless.