As food companies try to lower the sugar content of their foods, they’ll try just about anything. In addition to the usual white-flour-to-soy-flour conversion, sugar is often taken out and replaced with a sugar alcohol. The name is a bit misleading as it’s neither a sugar nor an alcohol; rather, its chemical structure is merely similar to sugars and alcohols.
And, food companies generally subtract food alcohols from the “carb count” on the back of the package as they reason that sugar alcohols have a negligible effect on blood sugar levels. But, is that really the case? To find out, I searched for the glycemic values for various sugar alcohols. For those not aware, the Glycemic Index is a measure of a food’s effect on blood sugar levels. The scale is set up so that sugar has a value of 100. But, that’s not to say that foods can’t exceed 100 — potatoes can reach into the 150s, for example.
While a glycemic value of zero would truly represent a food which has “no effect” on blood sugar levels, that’s not to say that any effect is bad. Really, it’s the spikes in blood sugar levels brought on by foods with high glycemic values which cause mischief. Getting back to the sugar alcohols, I discovered that many of them aren’t that low:
- Maltitol syrup, intermediate: 53
- Maltitol syrup, regular: 52
- Maltitol syrup, high: 48
- Polyglycitol / hydrogenated starch hydrolysate: 39
- Maltitol syrup, high-polymer: 36
- Maltitol: 36
- Xylitol: 13
- Isomalt: 9
- Sorbitol: 9
- Lactitol: 6
- Erythritol: 0
- Mannitol: 0
So, which sugar alcohols are used commonly? Speakingly only anecdotally — from my recollections of food labels at my local Target — maltitol seems to be the sugar alcohol of choice for many manufacturers. I think we’d all like to find some double chocolate chip cookies make with erythritol (with its zero glycemic value), but I’ve never actually seen erythritol on any ingredient label :-/.
It may initially seem confusing to have all these sugar alcohols and glycemic values to remember — especially since so many food manufacturers liken all of them to having a minimal effect. But, just keep in mind these two: maltitol (36-53, depending on variant) and polyglycitol (also called “hydrogenated starch hydrolysate”, at 39). If you steer clear of those, the rest shouldn’t be an issue — the next-highest sugar alcohol is xylitol and that only has a glycemic value of 13.
Well I’m a little nervous now as I just ate 2 pieces of pumpkin pie made with malitol and wasn’t aware of the side effects..!
CANDIDA SUFFERERS: Steevia is accceptable for the candida diet.
Anything sweet (sugar, honey, molasses, maple syrup, corn syrup, dextrose, sorbitol, Splenda), alcoholic beverages—none of these will work for candida sufferes because they will feed the candida which thrive on sugar.
I have not learned enough about erythritol, but I don’t think that it would be allowed on the candida diet beacuse it is a fermented product. All fermented foods are forbidden on the candida diet. Must see website which includes diet, recipes, and testimonies: http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/4966/index.html
What about Polydextrose?
I started a diet where the food is pre-packaged and noticed when I had some of the items I’d get sick with bad gas. I’d feel really bad for about four hours. I traced it back to maltitol. In addition, the medical journal I receive recently had an article about sucralose being a possible trigger for migraines and if you do a net search for sucralose side effects (people’s testimonials), it’s jaw-dropping. I won’t touch the stuff. Other people don’t seem to be bothered.
Thanks for the post! I had no idea. I’ve heard of xylitol. It’s in Trident or Orbit gum, one of those…
I will bookmark this page.
I’ve been on the low carb diet for a few months now. Yesterday I bought a bag of the sugar/carb free Russell Stovers candy and within an hour I had horrible gas. At first I didn’t relate it to the candy so I took some over the counter gas pills and if it didn’t help one bit. My gas problem lasted all evening long. My 16 year old daughter came home from work and said she’d had bad gas/diarrhea stomach gurgle etc… I asked her if she ate any of the sugar free candy and she said “yes.” This has to be without a doubt the worse case of gas I’ve ever had in my life. I was miserable!
These articles are quite interesting. But I was reading through hoping to find out why I get a coarse or sore throat after chewing gum. Is there some harsh ingridient that i should be aware of?
can somebody tell why the hell maltitol, sorbitol, manitol etc could feed yeast when it’s not sugar??!! I know it’s not healthy and it’s bad for candida/yeast in the sense that these sweetners cause gas and unrest in the intestines but do they actually feed yeast and if so how?? Do they feed yeast less than natural sugars? And Pls don’t recommomed stevia. I think it’s highly overrated and expensive you can’t find any real goodies (eg. chocolate) sweetened with it.
I was told by my doctor to have a very low carbohydrate diet due to a very severe exacerbation of Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome/Fibromyalgia from chronic yeast sinusitis (there is an advisory panel of experts that have recommended changing CFIDS/FMS name to Myalgic Encephalopathy due to the extreme and often debilitating symptoms that affect the entire body). This week on two occasions, I ate a dark chocolate bar sold at Trader Joes that contained Maltitol. I had such severe abdominal cramping from near my heart that I thought I was having a heart attack. I then had severe and painful cramping throughout my entire abdomen and the absolute worst gas I have ever had in my entire life. I will NEVER use Maltitol again. The FDA has a responsibility to the public and not just BIG business to take this off the market!! Like most on this site, I too have a sweet tooth. I am going to make my own “sweet” chocolate using unsweetened chocolate, cream or milk and stevia. I have been using stevia all week in my coffee and tea and it is terrific. My doctors and many experts researching my illness recommend stevia (without the benefit of any profit to themselves).
Elizabeth asked why a sugar alcohol could feed yeast when it’s not a sugar. Anything that breaks down into sugar, bread, pretzels, fruit, though not classified as a “sugar” can have significantly medium or high glycemic indices (such as Maltitol) which means that they break down into sugar at a medium to high rate. Therefore, sugar alcohols can feasibly feed yeast because they turn into sugar after eating it. If I had known this a week ago, there would not have been the previous and consecutive post. I mistakenly thought Maltitol had zero carb impact (0 Glycemic Index), but apparently that is not the case.
Stop thinking all day n night about what to eat will take u far away from diabetes.Chew on NEEM leaves & Tulsi.
FYI-The Center for Science in the Public Interest is currently petetioning the FDA to require warning labels concerning the GI effects of Sorbitol. In the conclusion of the petetion they also include mannitol and maltitol, amoung others. Sources that I trust tell me that the FDA is changing on a daily basis, this, in order to better protect the public food supply after 9/11. Sorbitol and Mannitol products are required to carry the warning “Excessive consumption may have a laxative effect” if they provide more than 50g and 20g to a daily diet, respectively. The petetion above seeks the same for Maltitol. Check the labeling for gram content and don’t over do it. As mentioned above start small and allow your body to adjust, the side effects may diminish with time and a building of tolerance. If not stop eating it. The labels, if the petition is acted upon, will require a description of the GI side effects and include that children should not consume the products.
What affect if any does this have on children? Sugar itself can affect childrens behavior. As a result I am attempting to remove sugar from my 11 year olds diet. But I am finding it very challenging. Has there been any studies done on sugar alchohol effect on the behavior of children?
Because of cancer, I am supposed to stay away from sugar. I thought I had found something I could eat, because it is labeled as having Zero grams of sugar. But, I noticed on the label that it has “sugar alchohol,” and I didn’t know what that was. The product I am referring to is a dark chocolate made by a company named “Carb Safe,” and sold at Trader Joe’s market. One 3 piece serving is listed as having 13 grams of Maltitol. Is that good, or bad in my case? Is it the same as eating sugar?
I tried some chocolate bars containing maltitol and my wife threw mw out of the house.
Gas??? I would win any fart contest in any part of the world.
You should read the label closer. I believe you are talking about MALITOL not MALTITOL. malitol is a chemicaly induced and malTitol is a natural malt sugar alcohol…
Agave Nectar (can be found at Whole Foods or other health food stores) is a lot better than Stevia because it doesn’t have the strong “licorice” taste that Stevia does but it has the same benefits
Just ate a lot of sugar free cookies with sorbitol. Gave me farts, and now diarrhea. This is criminal. The damn packaging didn’t even warn me of that.
Thank you very much for this post. I’ve been trying to watch my diet and thought that getting sugar free candy would substitute. The problem is I travel all the time and i’d eat a handful of the candies.. later it felt like World War II in my stomach and you know what happened next. I thought i just had some kind of problem or some stomach flu. I know what the problem is now so thank you very much.
Okay here are a couple of my stories having to do with sugar-free items…
I first started off with sugar free nuts/nut clusters at the store because they didn’t have aspartame in them, so I thought “wow” but had no idea of the “itols” and what they do.
I would get severe diarrhea, gas, cramps, etc. and then would finally come to realize it was the sugar free chocolates and chocolate covered raisins.
So after more “experimenting” with the stuff, over the years I find that almost anything sugar free or low carb in it has a “itol” in it which makes me sick to know that people eat it. My mom insists it does nothing to her.
One time I ate the Sugar Free Safeway brand icecream, a chocolatey one (not realizing to look at the label for an itol in it) and It had SORBITOL in it…well I had to take 5, yes I said 5 anti-diarrhea pills to get my stomach to stop what it was doing and I couldn’t go anywhere I was doubled over in pain. I seriously wanted to sue that company for not warning people…it was horrible and painful and ruined my few days I was on vacation.
Government needs to make companies have warnings against the “itols” on the front. I’m starting to notice some companies doing it probably b/c they got a few complaints.
so any sugar free chocolate, chocolate bars, fondues/syrups are out of the question for me and it’s SAD. Even Suzanne somers promotes her Stevia that she makes and her chocolate bars also have “itols” in them causing severe stomach and intestinal distress!
It would be nice if there was a company that could care less about costs and have some yummy chocolate bars, fudge sauces, etc made with purely splenda or stevia, but not any of the “itols”.
I usually get my choco fix from 100% dark cocoa powder mixed with stevia or splenda.
My suggestion to people who get diarrhea, cramps, gas, bloat, etc. and have a reaction to write your govenor about labeling and write the company saying exactly what it did to you and that there was no warning label. I assume this “itol” trend is going to get “caught on” soon and it’ll be out of the market b/c nobody wants to double over in pain.
Now don’t even get me started about how cheap soy filler is in everything in our grocery stores…
Forgot to write:
Sorbitol gives everyone I know severe diarrhea, cramps, gas and bloat (the whole works) but the main thing is diarrhea.
Maltitol gives everyone I know gas, from mild to painful. All of the other “itols” usually fall int his zone.
i bought some gum containing erythritol and xylitol the other day. And i only chewed two peices in two days and the past two days i have been breaking out in hives i thought it might be soap. but no it hink it may be the gum. Im still not really sure. all the websites say that allergic reactions to these sugar subs are really rare. I just want to find out what im allergic to!
NO KNOWN PROBLEMS WITH SPLENDA??? Give me a break. try looking that crap up, if you like eating bleach then go ahead. I heard that erythritol is a mix of spenda and maltitol. I’ve had no problems with Maltitol, but i guess i’m lucky. i’m not going to keep eating it though because i’m skeptical of all sugar substitutes except for stevia which i think tastes like poop. i can’t stand the taste. still looking…
Agave nectar is DISGUSTING!!! Gross! tastes like poison. still looking…
I have been trying to cut down on my sugar intake.And found Some Imitation Honey made with Malitol Syrup. They should put labels on these products to warn about the reactions that it can cause.
I have had severe pains & gas . All day & night . I went over the things that I ate that day .All were normal things that I have eaten many times before with no problems.Except the honey. So, I started reading the label on the honey & here i am .
It should be labled properly !
Wow, so glad I found this website/blog! Today I had the worst gas of my life! As you might guess, I ingested ta dah….. MALTILOL! I am at high risk for Type II Diabetes (labs wnl but at top of normal, had labs yesterday and don’t know results yet)and decided yesterday to take the diabetes risk more seriously and to make changes in my diet. I bought more “DandyBlend” (instant roasted dandylion root and chicory which tastes very coffee-like and is naturally pretty sweet especially if made with rice milk; good also with cinnamon). However, visiting my favorite coffe shop which has organic fair-traded coffee,I learned that there aren’t many sugar-free alternatives. (my favorite coffee drinks are white chocolate mochas or almond lattes and also love sweetened creamy chai tea) They suggested two syrups that they had which were sugar-free. I looked at the ingredients and wrote down MALTITOL SYRUP, Monin Gourmet brand syrup because I wasn’t sure what that was and want to avoid aspartame. The mocha tasted great and very chocolately and sweet. A few hours later I started having an uncomfortable stomach, growling and rumbling very loudly then proceeded to have hours of horrific gas- I am not exaggerating- it was so loud, sometimes awful smelling and here it is over 12 hours later and I am still having gas although it is just starting to “quiet-down”. Thank God I didn’t have to work today or go to any events- I don’t think I could have stayed at work- it would have been so embarrassing and unbearable. Plus I was having to go to the bathroom frequently for BM’s some of which were diarrhea-like. (ARE ANY MANUFACTURERS OF MALTITOL OR FDA TYPES READING THIS- I HOPE SO- THERE SHOULD AT LEAST BE A WARNING AND THIS PRODUCT SHOULD PROBABLY BE TAKEN OFF THE MARKET!) I decided to check out maltitol online as I remembered reading about increased gas, etc. with mannitol, xylitol, etc. There’s more to this story: I had a little friend of my daughter’s over today and she was farting away at dinner. Later I asked her if she had gum and she said “yes, I chewed Extra”; I looked that up just now- it has some of the “itol” ingredients. Then I remembered that my older daughter was very uncomfortable last night- stomach ache and headache and also farting- then we remembered she had two pieces of Eclipse gum, she also had some gas and was bad enought last night that I gave her some ?BioK drink to help calm her stomach. In the meantime, my 7 year old started talking about how much she was farting and yes, she also had Eclipse gum.
Moral of the story,never drink any maltilol products and avoid gum!I have been using stevia (Trader Joes brand)and I like it in tea, chai tea, etc. No licorice taste, it’s pure stevia powder.
Update from Nancy: At 4:00 a.m. I was awakened by terrible stomach cramps and called in sick to my workplace. Now it is 11:00 a.m., over 24 hours from initial maltilol ingestion and I still have occasional gas, my stomach is not right and my mouth tastes awful. I called the coffee shop to let them know what happened. They said that almost no one uses the syrup- one woman ordered a drink with it and never requested it again. (I wonder why?) They will probably take it off their shelf of coffee items.
Hi my name is Talla I am a cancer survivor and did it mainly with changing my lifestyle and diet. I have not had sweetners (except for fruit) for the last year and a half. While I don’t miss it one bit now, I do miss being able to have an apple pie or bannana bread etc. Well I found a cook book that is titled “Sweet and Sugarfree” An All-Natural Fruit-Sweetened Dessert Cookbook, so far I have only made the bannana bread but it is really good. I have learned in the course of my journey that sugar has the addictive properties of cocaine and that if it has sugar in it or sweetners people buy and the big companies make money off of that “legal” addiction. When I broke myself of the addiction it took 10 weeks, herbal medication to help me detox and lots of prayer. It was the hardest thing I have ever done but I am cancer free and I am healthier than I have ever been in my life. I also dropped eighty pounds without dieting or exerise! (and not from the cancer either.) I know its hard but my recommendation is to stop looking for a sugar substitute and break the addiction your body will evetually thank you for it. This has been an enlightening and amazing journey for me and I will never eat sugar again.
Just to note that Stevia and it’s derivitives are not permitted in the UK or EU due to the fact that they have been classed as unsafe.
Four of us ate sugar free birthday cake sweetened with maltitol. Two of us have diabetes.
One person had a mild case of diarrhea, one was so sick from diarrhea she was unable to work the next day, I had the same problem and with my stomach being upset for 4 or 5 days. The 4th person didn’t eat much and was not bothered.
I have diabetes and from now on, I’m staying away from such sugar free products.
Had Protein Plus protein bar that has Maltitol and noticed that I get unbearable gas pains after I eat it. My stomach feels like it’s going to explode. My farts are lethal. DO NOT COMSUME!!!
I’ve recently been diagnosed with diabetes so decided to try and get off the sugar. Very hard since I have such an addiction. To start with I purchased Stevia for coffee and tea. Apparently one packet equals 2 tsp of sugar. Not so. I put in another and another and another. My coffee was barely sweet. Does anyone know whether Stevia loses it’s potency in hot liquids or could it be the brand I bought? I finally gave up and used Sugar Twin.
PS: It also states on the Stevia box not to use more than 20 packets a day and to consult a physician if you are taking high blood pressure medication. Also there is the potential of gastrointestinal upset, headache and dizziness. I seems everything has risks.
wow, so interesting guys. I had sugar free gummy bears several times now and every time I got sick from them, so I googled the main ingredient (maltitol) and landed on this page. I am going to pay more attention to the ingredients now and stay away from it. Something that gives you such severe gas and cramps cannot be good for you.
I now live in Europe. Here some maltitol products packages say you should eat small amounts only as maltitol causes discomfort in the digestive system. Whenever I eat a medium sized bar of chocolate with maltitol (because I cannot control my craving, even if I know too much is bad) I feel dizzy and have stomach discomfort (although no diarrhea or gas). However a small amount does not have much of an effect on me. Unfortunately Stevia does not stop my cravings. It’s not a sugar substitute for me, sigh!
Regarding honey – eat RAW, unheated honey. There are some US websites that sell good raw honey. I used to order it when I lived in the US. Raw honey is safe for type II diabetes. Its glucose is in a form that gets absorbed by the body instantly without staying in the blood. In addition good honey has anti-cancer effects. If you can get the honeycomb caps (mix of wax, honey, propolis, pollen and, yes, an occasional piece of insect), get it, it’s very beneficial and has anti-cancer properties.
A cheaper alternative will probably be to just find beekepers and make sure you get the honey in the raw and unfiltered. You also need to make sure they never feed the bees sugar It is best to get honey from colder climates, since heat destroys some of the health benefits.
Honey bought in stores is pasteurized, filtered – dead.Stay away from it!
Maltitol = The devil’s sweetener. I made the mistake of eating some sugar-free jelly beans made with maltitol a few hours ago. What a mistake!! I have had servere gas, diarrhea and cramping within the hour of consuming the maltitol. I couldn’t imagine having to be on a plane, in a meeting or working under these conditions. My stomach is rumbling something terrible. The diarrhea is of an uncontrollable nature. Stay away from this stuff, unless you know how to handle it. I will be throwing the rest of my sugar-free candy stash out. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.
I have eaten many products with Manitol, and I have had no adversere reactions. Just because a food may cause some people, or even many people, degrees of distress does not mean it is a dangerous product of a corporate/government conspiracy to poison the public. Some people can react poorly to virtually any food on the market. Learn your tolerances, and act accordingly.
can diabetes use fructose?
will it raise cholestrol?
I had some sugar free jelly bellys I bought at the airport just last week. I was sick as I have ever been on that plane…severe cramping, bloating and vomiting. I normally have a very tolerant stomach and a strong constitution, so Maltitol must be bad. I agree with some of the others here…it can’t be good, is even dangerous, and it really should be taken off the market.
So I’m sorry, “Colorado,” but fresh foods don’t normally make people sick like that. We shouldn’t have to test eat products to see if they will make us sick before consuming them. BTW, there was no warning on the bag whatsoever that it could cause stomach distress.
Has anyone ever had maltitol linger in their teeth? I ate some Nips parfaits many days ago & have a lingering sweetness in my teeth that becomes more pronounced whenever I eat. ecch
Does this stuff not break down or digest?
Maltitol is nothing but crap. Supposedly it won’t affect you unless you eat “excessive amounts”, and yet I had the worst stomach cramping/pain of my entire life after eating only TEN (I counted) sugar-free chocolate covered raisins. I’m also pissed that the company that manufactures them didn’t even put a warning label that stands out on the container. It’s at the very bottom of the ingredient list in tiny print you can hardly read….no bold font or anything, it doesn’t stand out whatsoever. Unfortunately I have heard of sorbitol and malitol, just not MALTitol. I’m never eating anything with ingredients that end in -itol ever again.
Wow is all I have to say. I am a food science major who worked with maltitol all summer and to think that consumers are this clueless is apalling to me. I was aware that most people have no idea what functions particular ingredients perform in food items, but this was eye opening. Are the manufacturers supposed to put in big letters-MAY HAvE A LAXATIVE EFFECT. Can’t consumers take some responsibility and have the initiative to research additives on their own? This one little, one sided article produced all this fuss and gained all this response how? just wow……wow
Maltitol is not good for me.
You might try “Just like Sugar”. This is all natural and the GI index very low. It has no side effects. I am a diabetic and it works. Check out the web site for just like sugar.
I can eat anything but mangoes (give me a skin rash) but 20 minutes after eating a blueberry pie from whole foods with maltitol (I didn’t know it was a sugar free item), my face and throat began to swell, resulting is slurred speech and a novacaine-like feeling in my face. The local emergency room tried to admit me, but I finally found an urgent care office open. (That saved about $4000 dollars because I have no health insurance.) I don’t know if it was maltitol, but everything else I ate were leftovers from T-giving, and I had eaten them uneventfully the day before. Two days later, my face is still puffy and I feel some nausea (maybe from taking 5 benadryls to stop the allergic reaction.
I wasn’t sure if Misty’s question about Maltitol and candida diet was every really answered, but because it takes longer to absorb into the bloodstream it ferments in the gut which cause all the gastric effects. Anything that is either fermented or becomes fermented is just another meal for the yeastie beasties…..I didn’t know that erythritol was a fermented product until I read it here. It makes sense though, sorry to say. I think we need to stick to Stevia and hope that someone comes up with a way to market something for our sweetooth. In the meantime, using cocoa and stevia is one way to satisfy the chocolate cravings….I hope that this helps a little, but unfortunately not great news for all of us who are trying to fight the yeast and the sweet cravings at the same time! I have been purchasing books with Stevia dessert recipes like crazy! I hope this info will help someone to avoid making the mistake I made with maltitol. I triggered a gastitis attack that lasted months and couldn’t eat a thing because of the pain…. God Bless everyone who is trying to erradicate the yeast from their bodies! It’s a hard road, but it can be done. Hang in there and have faith. A new you will emerge and you will feel better than you ever thought possible. You will find that the yeast has been living inside of you for alot longer than you ever realized!I even stopped having panic attacks as the yeast died off. Most of all, know that you aren’t alone and so many of us are in this together! Love to all of you that are fighting the yeast war…..
Learn some organic chemistry or stop spouting off in ignorance. Maltitol, xylitol, etc *ARE* a sugar alcohols.
Yes they all give me diahrrea after only 15-30 grams.
I agree with you completely, stevea. Mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, lactitol, isomalt, maltitol, erythritol are all sugar alcohols and for me, any of these are as deadly as they are for you.
What makes me so angry is that anyone who calls herself/himself a doctor on the Internet all use the words “excessive consumption.” Just what is considered excessive consumption? — 3 or 4 pieces of hard candy give me diarrhea, stomach pains and gas. I am an avid label reader and stay away from anything ending in “tol” and isomalt
This is my first pregnancy and I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and so have to do insulin shots and test my blood sugar after each meal. I have done well on a low carb diet but one day when I was on the road and was tempted by a chocolate shop, I stopped in for some ‘sugar-free’ chocolate. It had maltitol and I wasn’t aware of the side effects such as diarrhea.
Anyway, the sad part is, is that when it came time to test my blood sugar after my meal, it was surprisingly high! When I went in to my doctor and dietician, they told me that maltitol has a delayed effect on blood sugar levels and is usually reveals just as bad as regular sugar.
I have been sticking to sucralose and aspartame after that which have worked well.
Stick with Stevia. Folks who have sugar cravings usually have diabetic tendancies, yeast infections (either beginnings or acute), altered brain chemistry (EG: not producing enough seratonin) or others things that won’t do well by adding more sugar to the issue (even if it’s sugar alcohols).
There’s starting to be some products showing up using Stevia as the main sweetner. You have to go to your local yuppy/hippy health store to find them, though.
“Zevia” is a diet soda that uses stevia as the sweetner. It’s expensive, but tasty. It works well for a “sugar hit”.
Beware of “low carb” foods that are starting to tout using Splenda as their sweetner … most still use sugar alcohols as their primary sweetner with just a little Splenda added in for advertising purposes.
If you get the farts or scoots from eating sugar alcohol foods, it’s a good sign you have some bowel issues, like either yeast overgrowth or bacterial dysbiosis. You should cut out the carbs, and eat a 50% mean/fat + 50% green veggie diet. If you really want to crash-course, go on a week long green-veggie-only diet. Just stock up on a bunch of microwaveable froze broccoli, green beans, etc and eat them morning, noon and night. This will run your system “clean”, and you’ll feel the difference. It’s good to do a week long veggie diet every 6 months or so just to clean things out.
The glycemic index is a useful tool, but not by itself. As others have mentioned, a foods nutritional content is ignored in the glycemic index (EG: white potatoes have lots of nutrition even though they index at 150), and eating the foods with other things slows digestion.
Each person needs their own diet, but general rules of thumb should be…
If you gain weight easily, don’t mix carbs and fats at the same meal. (Eat carbs at meals by themself, and stick to just 1 carb meal a day, the other 2 being protein + fats. Eat green veggies at each meal.) “Hard Losers” have over-active insulin. Carbs ramp up your insulin, and any fat in the meal will get stored immediately into your fat cells. If you eat too many carb meals, too, your muscle & organ glycogen stores (the storage form of carbs for quick energy) don’t have time to deplete, so excess carbs just jack up blood sugar into danger levels, get converted to triglycerides and stored off into fat cells. Triglycerides require LDL cholesterol to get transported (where as protein requires HDL). That’s why “hard losers” who pork up on high carb, high fat diets always have high triglycerides and LDL levels … they go hand in hand (along with hardened arteries, since too much LDL cholesterol can damage the arteries, and the platelettes trying to heal them clog up the arteries). By sticking to just one carb meal a day, you give your glycogen stores plenty of time to deplete so a high carb meal (very low in fat & protein) will convert and get stored as glycogen, not fat. Unfortunately, most folks want to eat fat with their carbs (pasta, donuts, cake, cookies), but those are the exact combinations that cause “Hard Losers” to gain weight … fat + carbs at the same meal for a “Hard Loser” is a death sentence. You should cut out the sugars for carbs, since sugars break down to mostly replenish liver glycogen stores (and the liver can only hold the equivilent of 2 pieces of fruit of glycogen), where as the muscles hold 80% of glycogen, but primarily get fueled up from complex carbs turning into glycogen. Stick with nutritionally dense carbs, like beans, and avoid grains since grains offer less nutrition for the calories, and wheat especially (wheat gluten) screws with insulin metabolism.
If you have a hard time gaining weight, eat carbs and fats (and protein) at the same meal. The carbs will ramp up your insuling into a “normal” zone where you’ll burn both the carbs and fat as energy while using the protein for building instead of energy. “Hard Gainers” need more carbs to keep up their insulin, since it doesn’t respond as wildly as a “Hard Losers”. “Hard Gainers” should try to avoid ketogenic diets, unless they’re eating a lot of fat along with the protein in order to spare muscle protein from being metabolized as energy. Unfortunately, “Hard Losers” probably can’t meet the fat requirements to be able to do a protein+fat diet alone, thus they need to keep some carbs in their diet. “Hard Gainers” are almost like diabetics, except that instead of their body not producing or responding to their insulin, their body just doesn’t produce much insulin or is just very efficient at using what it has. That’s why these folks are the “eat anything they want” skinny folks. But if they eat crap food (fast food, junk food, etc), while they don’t gain weight they will usually have some other nasty side-effect, like horrible acne, seizures, etc. You should eat carbs, but cut out the sugar and focus on the more nutritionally dense carbs, like beans and potatoes (no, french fries don’t count).
Last but not least, everyone should just say “no” to artifical sweeteners like Aspartame, Splenda, Saccharine, etc. They screw with your endocrine system, causing more hunger and addiction withdrawal symptoms (not to sound conspiracy theorist, but that’s exactly why the product companies like using them … so you’ll keep on being hooked on their diet soda or what not … and keep on porking up on other foods since the fake sweetners cause hunger cravings and binge eating, which keeps you fat, which keeps you consuming diet foods in an attempt to reduce calories in other areas of your life to make up for the uncontrollable binge eating. It’s a vicious cycle.)
Side note … in the paragraph that talks about “Hard Losers” … any time I said “Hard Gainer” I actually meant “Hard Loser” … that whole pargraph was about Hard Losers themselves.
I have candida and have been searching for a sugar free cookie to eat. I found some and thought they were fabulous – however, I am starting to have a terrible reaction and researched the ingredients and realized that maltitol may be causing the bloating, swelling, pain and overall rock-like feeling in my gut!
If you have a yeast allergey or intolerance you would best be served to stay away from anything with this ingredient in it!