- Joined
- Sep 5, 2020
- Messages
- 3,161
- Reason
- DX FIBRO
- Diagnosis
- 02/2020
- Country
- DE
Interesting, this. Harder than it looks.
But very important to some of us. Especially if sugar is a trigger of any symptoms.
So I've had another look around to learn and decide if I want to stay with xylitol.
I also like/d to believe that less extraction means better, and also always use natural seeming sweeteners.
But science and evidence based it doesn't make that much difference. So I avoid it where I can.
As I understand it now, being simple carbs, the sugars in many "natural" sweeteners aren't good for us, even unrefined & unprocessed. That makes it important to keep them low and use natural sweeteners that don't directly contain sugars: Xylitol and erythritol are both polyalcohols and sugar alcohols, so not sugars.
As said, stevia's and monkfruit's sweetness comes from glycosides, also not sugars.
But both have an unfitting taste, whilst xylitol and erythritol are also not sugars, but have a sugary taste.
Sugars in honey are 82%, coconut sugar 80%+, maple syrup 66%, agave syrup 56%.
Xylitol, erythritol and glucose etc. are single chemical compounds, but they are of the subtype organic compounds, like what we are made of, that's organic = with carbon (as opposed to anorganic).
It may be misleading that wikipedia calls xylitol a "chemical compound", and only erythritol an "organic compound", but both are sugar alcohols and both are organic chemical compounds, like sugars, but less harmful than those.
Additionally, xylitol and erythritol comes in organic quality, that's organic in the more modern sense of no artificial pesticides and fertilizers. If it were human-made it couldn't be. But fructose & glucose syrup also comes in organic quality.
'Natural' sweeteners also consist of a variety of chemical compounds, like honey being mainly the simple sugars fructose and glucose (~82%) and water (= H2O) (~17%).
(Honey's vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are pretty negligible compared to many other foods).
None of these are synthesized or artificial or human-made like aspartame etc. are.
They all involve at least a bit of "processing". Even "unrefined" honey is nectar refined by bees using enzymes. These terms aren't as simple as we'd wish.
Honey overall is a little less bad despite its sugar because of traces other contents (incl. sometimes pollen), but it has more calories than sucrose and can spike blood levels.
The difference of xylitol to honey, stevia etc. is that they contains many chemical compounds, xylitol is one.
Xylitol and erythritol are produced by enzyme fermentation: extracted, and not chemically synthesized like aspartame etc. Erythritol seems a bit less processed than xylitol. But this isn't the kind of processing which "de-naturalizes" or devaluates, it's more like plant extracts, like some supplements.
Xylitol is processed perhaps as much as agave syrup is, plant juice heated to break down the chemical compounds like fructan(s) into the chemical compounds simple sugars: fructose, glucose, sucrose.
Grapes and raisins can kill dogs, cats etc., yet are safe for us: same way xylitol is safe for us (and some other animals), it's not a reason for us to avoid it, just because it's a problem for dogs. And if someone wanted to be on the very safe side I'd think not buying grapes and raisins would be more important than not buying xylitol.
Aspirin and similar meds:
The chemical compound in willow bark is salicin and our bodies convert this into the chemical compound salicylic acid. Bayer then synthesized (human-produced) acetylsalicylic acid in other ways and marketed as aspirin. Synthesizing similar compounds is very different to just extracting, fermenting etc.
Soooo to me it still looks as if xylitol and erythritol are generally healthier than sugars incl. honey and syrups. Monkfruit and stevia seem to be even better, but come with that strange taste we don't like...
I see no reason to avoid xylitol and erythritol and if my sugary products like yogurt and dark chocolate had those I'd prefer them, if the price were worth it.
But very important to some of us. Especially if sugar is a trigger of any symptoms.
So I've had another look around to learn and decide if I want to stay with xylitol.
I also like/d to believe that less extraction means better, and also always use natural seeming sweeteners.
But science and evidence based it doesn't make that much difference. So I avoid it where I can.
As I understand it now, being simple carbs, the sugars in many "natural" sweeteners aren't good for us, even unrefined & unprocessed. That makes it important to keep them low and use natural sweeteners that don't directly contain sugars: Xylitol and erythritol are both polyalcohols and sugar alcohols, so not sugars.
As said, stevia's and monkfruit's sweetness comes from glycosides, also not sugars.
But both have an unfitting taste, whilst xylitol and erythritol are also not sugars, but have a sugary taste.
Sugars in honey are 82%, coconut sugar 80%+, maple syrup 66%, agave syrup 56%.
Xylitol, erythritol and glucose etc. are single chemical compounds, but they are of the subtype organic compounds, like what we are made of, that's organic = with carbon (as opposed to anorganic).
It may be misleading that wikipedia calls xylitol a "chemical compound", and only erythritol an "organic compound", but both are sugar alcohols and both are organic chemical compounds, like sugars, but less harmful than those.
Additionally, xylitol and erythritol comes in organic quality, that's organic in the more modern sense of no artificial pesticides and fertilizers. If it were human-made it couldn't be. But fructose & glucose syrup also comes in organic quality.
'Natural' sweeteners also consist of a variety of chemical compounds, like honey being mainly the simple sugars fructose and glucose (~82%) and water (= H2O) (~17%).
(Honey's vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are pretty negligible compared to many other foods).
None of these are synthesized or artificial or human-made like aspartame etc. are.
They all involve at least a bit of "processing". Even "unrefined" honey is nectar refined by bees using enzymes. These terms aren't as simple as we'd wish.
Honey overall is a little less bad despite its sugar because of traces other contents (incl. sometimes pollen), but it has more calories than sucrose and can spike blood levels.
The difference of xylitol to honey, stevia etc. is that they contains many chemical compounds, xylitol is one.
Xylitol and erythritol are produced by enzyme fermentation: extracted, and not chemically synthesized like aspartame etc. Erythritol seems a bit less processed than xylitol. But this isn't the kind of processing which "de-naturalizes" or devaluates, it's more like plant extracts, like some supplements.
Xylitol is processed perhaps as much as agave syrup is, plant juice heated to break down the chemical compounds like fructan(s) into the chemical compounds simple sugars: fructose, glucose, sucrose.
Grapes and raisins can kill dogs, cats etc., yet are safe for us: same way xylitol is safe for us (and some other animals), it's not a reason for us to avoid it, just because it's a problem for dogs. And if someone wanted to be on the very safe side I'd think not buying grapes and raisins would be more important than not buying xylitol.
Aspirin and similar meds:
The chemical compound in willow bark is salicin and our bodies convert this into the chemical compound salicylic acid. Bayer then synthesized (human-produced) acetylsalicylic acid in other ways and marketed as aspirin. Synthesizing similar compounds is very different to just extracting, fermenting etc.
Soooo to me it still looks as if xylitol and erythritol are generally healthier than sugars incl. honey and syrups. Monkfruit and stevia seem to be even better, but come with that strange taste we don't like...
I see no reason to avoid xylitol and erythritol and if my sugary products like yogurt and dark chocolate had those I'd prefer them, if the price were worth it.
