Q: In an effort to find a palatable sugar substitute, I recently tried Xylitol (Ideal Sweetener brand) and found that I like the taste. I’ve been using it now for a few months. I have read a few things about how it is manufactured that make me wonder if it’s not actually worse for my body than sugar. Here is a link to a representative article at altmedsales.com with the negative information.
It’s so hard to know what to believe any more about what products are safe or not. Some things that I read say that xylitol is just a fruit sugar and perfectly safe for the body, no negative effects like with fructose, and others make me feel that I’m eating poison. Can you help? What would you recommend?
A: Xylitol is an inert sugar that’s commonly used in sugar free foods. Similar sweeteners like mannitol and sorbitol are used in everything from baked goods and drinks to gum and mints. There’s no evidence that it is harmful to humans (although it is apparently quite harmful to dogs as the folks at Snopes point out). There are hundreds of web sites making claims about how horrible artificial sweeteners are for you. There’s really no evidence that this is the case. Xylitol
