Sorbitol....

[MRG]

We've been cutting out higher calorie, heavy fat snacks. Goodbye Ben and Jerry's, hello low calorie popsicles? No HFCS, so they're healthy(?). DW likes these little things so I tried a couple, not bad. After having 3 single pops, total of 75 calories, the sorbitol hits me and I spent the night in the bathroom.

They use that garbage as a laxative! Who thought it was a great idea to put it in food? It's in prunes! Who the blank thinks this is a great idea with no warning? I think they need big warning labels on this poison.

Sure you can read the list of ingredients and after one incident say I know better, but this is a crisis. I'm 62 years old and I've never had anything hit me like this!

They're "Outshine" brand I think they got the first 6 characters correct.

 

[Jerry1]

I try to stay away from any artificial sweetener. I know, stevia and sorbitol and the like are natural, but I’d rather just skip it all together or just go light on the sugar. None of them don’t have an aftertaste that I just don’t like.

Sorry this happened to you.

Edit to add: just checked our Outshine bars and they have no sorbitol. You must have chosen a lite version. Be careful.

 

[JoeWras]

TMI, sorry...

When I hit the sugarless chewing gum, later it can cause me a little liquid anal leakage. So it doesn't always manifest as a full blown bathroom issue.

 

[Chuckanut]

Those popsicles are another food product made in a huge factory.

The trick is to eat food more like it came out of the ground or off the animal. Less processed food is good.

Just because a highly processed food does NOT have something bad in it does not mean it is good for you. Low-fat sugary yogurt comes to mind Just because a highly processed food has something good in it does not mean it is good for you. Bran muffins come to mind.

 

[MRG]

I try to stay away from any artificial sweetener. I know, stevia and sorbitol and the like are natural, but I’d rather just skip it all together or just go light on the sugar. None of them don’t have an aftertaste that I just don’t like.

Sorry this happened to you.

Edit to add: just checked our Outshine bars and they have no sorbitol. You must have chosen a lite version. Be careful.

Thank you.

You made me look. The evil ones are "no added sugar". I picked up another box at the same time they're "USDA organic" and contain no sorbitol. The goofy thing is they're on the same shelf, I thought they were just different flavors as that's the most noticeable difference. I thought I had eaten these before, the most likely thing is I did eat the ones with no sorbitol...

 

[W2R]

Sorbitol does that to me, too. My sympathies!

Other artificial sweeteners have a variety of other side effects. I lose weight best with no added sugar and no artificial sweeteners.

 

[ERD50]

...

The trick is to eat food more like it came out of the ground or off the animal. Less processed food is good. ...

No thanks!

More seriously, "processed" doesn't necessarily equal "bad". That's just too broad brush and general to be meaningful or helpful.

I want my water to be processed (filtered, disinfected). I want most of my food cooked. The uncooked stuff probably needs to be washed (a process). Freezing, refrigerating, canning, and drying are all processes.

I like my grapes processed into wine, my barley processed into beer and/or whisky. I also like grass and grain processed into steak, which I like processed on a grill. With a cooked (processed) potato, with processed (churned or fermented) milk on it , (butter or sour cream).

Saying we should avoid "processing" is like saying we should avoid "chemicals" - it is meaningless.

-ERD50

 

[pacergal]

Yes, artificial sweeteners have that effect. I avoid them.
I use real sugar, but less amount. Same with butter.

 

[Chuckanut]

I like my grapes processed into wine, my barley processed into beer and/or whisky. I also like grass and grain processed into steak, which I like processed on a grill. With a cooked (processed) potato, with processed (churned or fermented) milk on it , (butter or sour cream).

Saying we should avoid "processing" is like saying we should avoid "chemicals" - it is meaningless.

-ERD50

I agree. That's why I referred to 'less processed' foods and 'highly processed' foods.

IMO, the amount of processing is like speeding in a school zone. The guy going 1 mph over the limit is probably not a great threat to the kids. The gal going 35 mph over the limit is probably a big threat. Both, are legally speeding, but the degree of danger is not the same.

Where to draw the line is up to each of us. Me? I would rather eat real beef than the the new fake-meat burgers which I consider to be highly processed factory food. If for some reason I want to eat less beef and more veggies, I will buy less beef and more veggies. YMMV.

 

[Sue J]

Sorbitol is also used in imitation crab. That's those crab sticks that are ground up fish made to look like crab legs. They don't taste bad, but if you don't handle sorbitol well you'll know if you ate some of these.

https://www.fooducate.com/community...-to-Know/57A33F1D-2DF6-09A4-43FD-8F5C307B434A

Anytime I order anything that contains "crab" I ask specifically if it's real crab or the manufactured stuff. Hopefully the waiter knows what's in it and tells the truth.

Sorbitol also shows up in many sugar free mints and gum.

 

[NW-Bound]

Sorbitol is in prunes? I did not know. Then it's all natural and good.

 

[aja8888]

Nuts get me "going". I have a handful each day. I'm off the sweet stuff.

 

[NW-Bound]

Seriously, I just found out that sorbitol is commonly found in fruits such as apples, pears, peaches, and prunes. Humans can digest it, but very slowly. Apparently, people have different reactions to it. Some people cannot eat prunes at all, yet it does not bother me that much.

 

[mystang52]

I get cluster headaches. They are now much less frequent, once I learned from unpleasant experience that added sorbitol - and stevia - were triggers for my headaches.

 

[MRG]

I get cluster headaches. They are now much less frequent, once I learned from unpleasant experience that added sorbitol - and stevia - were triggers for my headaches.

Wow! My empathy. I had frequent clusters till 2015, two years after I retired. No idea what my triggers were, other than a dental issue. Thanks for sharing.

 

[steelyman]

This thread reminded me of an article I’d bookmarked recently. I’d been looking at a nutrition label and wondered, “What the heck are sugar alcohols?”

It’s from Healthline and covers several of those mysterious chemically-sounding ingredients.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sugar-alcohols-good-or-bad

 

[audreyh1]

Many sugar alcohols cause gastric distress in larger amounts.

 

[harllee]

This may be too much information but here goes. I sometimes suffer from constipation. I eat prunes, Fiber 1 cereal, etc to help with this. I want to avoid harsh laxatives. My doctor advised me to chew sugar free gum with Sorbitol to help get things moving. I chew a few pieces of sugar free gum every day and it helps me. Different strokes for different folks!

 

[RAE]

Those popsicles are another food product made in a huge factory.

The trick is to eat food more like it came out of the ground or off the animal. Less processed food is good.

Just because a highly processed food does NOT have something bad in it does not mean it is good for you. Low-fat sugary yogurt comes to mind Just because a highly processed food has something good in it does not mean it is good for you. Bran muffins come to mind.

+1. Best to stick with real food........things your grandmother would have recognized as food. Anything in a package with a list of ingredients on the side is a highly processed food, best avoided. We have become conditioned to eat these processed foods, because the grocery stores are full of them. I try to stay out of all the middle aisles in the grocery store (for the most part), and just shop the perimeter, where the veggies, fruit, and meat usually are. And if you can avoid the grocery store altogether, and get your veggies, fruit, eggs, and meat from local farmers (as I mostly do), that's even better.

 

[catii]

Nuts get me "going". I have a handful each day. I'm off the sweet stuff.

I'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't even like sweet things (except DW). My only sugar foible is bubble gum, & nuts are a key part of my diet.

 

[harley]

Sorbitol is also used in imitation crab. That's those crab sticks that are ground up fish made to look like crab legs. They don't taste bad, but if you don't handle sorbitol well you'll know if you ate some of these.

https://www.fooducate.com/community...-to-Know/57A33F1D-2DF6-09A4-43FD-8F5C307B434A

Anytime I order anything that contains "crab" I ask specifically if it's real crab or the manufactured stuff. Hopefully the waiter knows what's in it and tells the truth.

Sorbitol also shows up in many sugar free mints and gum.

Interesting. I avoid sorbitol, but didn't know it was in the faux crab.

Imitation crab also contains a lot of sugar and carbs. I had been eating it for years as a nibble, but when DW tasted it she said it was really sweet. I googled it to prove I was right, but as usual...

As far as sorbitol, I have avoided it for 15 years. The day I got diagnosed as diabetic I saw a bunch of sugar-free candy, and bought a whole bunch of it and ate it all. It was a bad reaction to the news, as I seldom ate candy ordinarily. A few hours later diabetes was the last thing on my mind, as I didn't expect to survive the night. Horrible stuff. Luckily LCHF has reversed my diabetes, so if I ever need to eat candy I can have the hard core stuff. But I don't.

 

[SecretlyFI]

OP, I can sympathize and identify with your discovery. It took me sitting in a gastroenterologist’s office to learn this. I thought it was stress, or too much coffee. But to quote the doc, “I don’t think it’s the coffee, but the stuff you’re putting in it”. He said he only adds almond milk to his. Well, that’s aspirational, I thought, given that I’m used to turning coffee into a dessert.

He then followed that with “so, while I have you here, let’s get that colonoscopy scheduled that you’re due for” ��

 

[NW-Bound]

Sorbitol is also used in imitation crab. That's those crab sticks that are ground up fish made to look like crab legs. They don't taste bad, but if you don't handle sorbitol well you'll know if you ate some of these...

I did not know this. But why do they add sorbitol to the surimi (fish paste) to make imitation crab?

It is not to add sweetness, but it is for the texture.

One of the major problems with surimi was that when it was frozen, it lost its gel forming properties. As scientists investigated this problem, they discovered that the incorporation of cryoprotectant materials such as sucrose and sorbitol protected the surimi from degradation during freezing...

 

[dixonge]

More TMI here...

I once had the *worst* ever constipation in Costa Rica. We're talking borderline impaction. I Also Could Not Pee! Talk about panic. As a last gasp desperation move the wife ran to the nearest pharmacy and got an enema. It worked! Then I read the label and saw the major ingredient...

Yep! Sorbitol. Makes sense.

 

[NW-Bound]

TMI? Aw, what the heck. I just read the following:

Sorbitol works as a laxative by drawing water into the large intestine, stimulating bowel movements.