SUGAR ALCOHOL AND ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
Sugar Alcohol and Artificial Sweeteners
Good afternoon, Ketonians! John Terry here with another keto video. Go follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @ketoniafoods.
Today, we’re gonna be talking about sugar alcohols because it can get kind of confusing when you’re doing the ketogenic diet. There are a lot of products that’ll say that they’re sugar-free. And then you go home and test yourself an hour or two after eating it, and realize that it is actually not sugar-free or at least not sugar-free enough to keep you in ketosis.
What are the common sugar alcohols?
Some of the ones that are pretty common that you don’t realize actually have about half of the calories, and carbs of sugar. Those are gonna be ones like sorbitol, maltitol, xylitol, lactitol, and mannitol. Those all will get put on nutrition labels so if you see those know that it’s not really sugar-free, it’s more like half of the sugar, or at least half of the carbs from sugar.
Stevia and Erythritol
The ones that I like to stick with are stevia and erythritol. They’re both natural. They both don’t have a horribly negative effect on your microbiome. Though, I would like to take the time to say, I am not a nutritionist or a dietician or a doctor. So if you need anything like that, you should talk to them. But just in terms of staying in ketosis, I try to stick with erythritol and Stevia.
Alternatives to Stevia and Erythritol
As far as if you are out and you don’t have access to any of these fancy ones that I’ve been talking about, and all you’ve got are your aspartames and your sucraloses, and, saccharin and stuff. You’re looking you’re at a restaurant and you wanna get some tea. You wanna have it sweet. Well, you’re looking at it and going, “okay, what do we have on this? What is this artificial sweetener?”
What is artificial sweetener?
First and foremost, they’re not terribly great for your microbiome. And there’s a lot of research being done that shows the importance of having a healthy microbiome and a lot of the artificial sweeteners, like aspartame, do negatively impact that microbiome.
So if you are trying to just be overall healthy, I avoid staying away from stuff like diet Coke. Caveat for that, when I first started keto, I drank diet Coke like it was the fountain of life. I drank that stuff constantly because I needed something sweet. And when I started doing this diet in 2011, sweet options were limited and most of them were with artificial sweeteners. So it will not kill you, but you take it at your own risk.
So let’s focus back on the ones that I like using a lot. Really big fan of erythritol. It’s what we use to sweeten most of our products here at Ketonia foods. Stevia is also good. You gotta be careful with that because if you’re using it, I’ve found that it can be quite bitter. If you put it in something like coffee, which is already bitter, it kind of weirdly enough covers it up. At least for me. For my mom, absolutely not. She will not have any of it if it is not de-bittered. So you can find de-bittered Stevia. It’s a little more hard to find, but, go on the internet, use the Googles and you should be good.
Side effects of Erythritol
One other thing about erythritol and I say this, having a lot of personal experience, is if you eat too much erythritol in too short of a period, it can induce flatulence, one might say. Being someone who has eaten an entire, pretty much every I’ve eaten an entire full box or full, you know, whatever we’re serving you.
If you’re buying in bulk today, for instance, like the cranberry streusel bar or the chocolate chip cookies, I’ve eaten a full large serving. So, you know, you’re thinking, how many is he talking? Like, yeah, I’ve put down 15 cookies or 30 cookies or 45 cookies because I’m an American and excess is what we do, right? Go team! But I’m gonna give you some advice: don’t do that. Don’t do that. You’ll fart. You’ll fart a lot. I farted a lot. So use your strength. Don’t eat an entire cheesecake if you have to sit in a car with someone tomorrow. Because while the flatulence tends to not be too smelly, I’m not giving you any guarantees. And it’s not the funnest thing to have a lot of gas when you’re in, for instance, close spaces.
So be mindful, don’t just wolf down Stevia like there are going to be no repercussions because there might be some repercussions. At least, there are for me when I go real excessive. Just one more thing that points you guys in the spirit of moderation. Be mindful. As we like to say here – be mindful of what you’re doing. Always.
This has been a keto video. If you guys have any more questions on particular sugar alcohols, feel free to email me or comment on this video. And I will do my best to help you out. As far as I can, being that like I said before, am not a doctor or a nutritionist. Reach out and I would love to help you guys out and keep tuned for more keto videos.
Aunt Ger is our head Chef behind Ketonia responsible for creating the delicious Ketonia products you know and love. Geri strives to create delicious and keto-friendly recipes as well as keto-fy your favorite comfort foods to help you reach your goals and enjoy the keto journey.
When you try out our recipes, please share your photos and tag us on social media! (@KetoniaFoods)
Let us know what you think of the recipes and which dishes or desserts you would love to see Aunt Ger keto-fy. We love seeing the Ketonia family loving both the recipes and our products. You guys are always our number one priority!
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