Posted by Heatherdawn on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 @ 11:56 AM
Erythritol and Inulin (or a "subspecies" of it - Oligofructose) are fairly new products that I've been doing some research on and they're sounding really good. For those of you that are interested in watching their carb and/or sugar intake, they sound like wonderful products - especially inulin.
Here's some of what I found (most of it is copied text, but I didn't want to push it over with block quotes because there's a lot of info here):
Maltitol (the main sweetener in most low-carb or "sugar free" products) causes a lot of problems. "Problems" can be merely embarrassing, like flatulence and bloating, or frustrating, like weight loss stalls. Or they can be much more serious. Many sugar alcohols can and do cause insulin spikes in some people, and can feed yeast cells in your digestive system and encourage or worsen yeast infections.
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol, like maltitol, only much, much lower in calories and without any of maltitol's side effects. It's a safe, natural substance that's been part of the human diet for thousands of years - you've always eaten it in pears, grapes, mushrooms, and soy sauce. Best of all, it has a clean, sweet taste just like real sugar.
Oligofructose isn't just a sweetener. It's also a dietary fiber, the same stuff your doctor keeps telling you you need more of. It's soluble, so it doesn't taste gritty like your fiber supplement (and is in fact used to create a smoother, creamier texture in some products), yet it has all the health advantages of fiber.
Both can be used
in baking and cooking.
Why Erythritol?
* Erythritol is very low in calories. It has only 5% of the calories of sucrose, or table sugar, and 7% of the calories of maltitol. This is good news for everybody, but if you're trying to lose weight, it's obviously of extra importance to you.
* If you're on a low-carb diet, erythritol won't stall your weight loss the way other sugar alcohols often do. That's because your body won't metabolize the vast majority of the erythritol you eat. More than 90% of it passes right through you and gets eliminated from your system without ever adding any carbs or calories to your diet.
* Erythritol is safe for diabetics and most people with other blood sugar-related problems. Clinical studies have repeatedly shown that it doesn't affect blood glucose or insulin levels.
* Since most of it is excreted unused, erythritol won't cause those embarrassing gurgling noises, flatulence, bloating, or diarrhea that comes with maltitol. A recent study estimated that you could eat a gram of erythritol for every kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of your body weight without experiencing these side effects.
Why Oligofructose?
* Oligofructose fights systemic yeast or Candida infections by creating an environment that's friendly to the "good bacteria" that naturally keep yeast in check.
* Oligofructose can help prevent potentially serious health problems like irritable bowel syndrome or chronic diarrhea and constipation. That's because oligofructose is the perfect food for health-promoting microbes (like bifidus and lactobacillus bacteria) that keeps your digestion running smoothly. It actually changes the environmental conditions within your intestines to make it more favorable to good bacteria.
* There's evidence that oligofructose can help avert colon cancer. Harmful bacteria that produce free radicals that have been implicated in the development of cancer cells get "crowded out" by beneficial species that thrive on oligofructose.
* Oligofructose boosts bone health by substantially increasing calcium absorption in your body, which can ultimately help prevent osteoporosis and other bone problems.
* Oligofructose is a dietary fiber, and can speed up weight loss by making you feel fuller on less food and promoting a sensation of satiety.
While they are a little more expensive than regular sugar and/or Sweet-n-Low, etc. if you're like me, you might want to weigh the cost versus the health benefits.