JustaShooter wrote:AlanM wrote:Suckerspawn wrote:Erythritrol is not ethanol.
Very good point and WebMD says it's much less harmful for you than sugar.
Interesting - from what I can find, the Now Foods liquid strevia says "organic alcohol" - does that mean Erythritrol?
And either way, is Erythritrol intoxicating to humans, or not since it isn't ethanol? (Sorry, I'm pretty clueless about such things.)
Most of the artificial sweeteners are sweeter than sugar but are not absorbed from the intestines. The body doesn't know what to do with them so they are simply not digested: they just pass straight through. This is why they cause diarrhea in some people, particularly when larger amounts are ingested. Erythritol is a little different: it actually IS partly absorbed and then excreted in the urine. However, it is not digested, either.
Artificial sweeteners all share the quality of not being digested, so provide no calories. However, there is mounting evidence that the sensation of sweetness may provoke the same insulin response as sugar, regardless of the fact that no sugar enters the bloodstream: it is insulin resistance (not calories) that results in type 2 diabetes and all of its negative health effects. I am not saying that artificial sweeteners are to be avoided. I am only saying that if you consume a lot of sweets, replacing some of them with artificial sweeteners will not help you lose weight or get healthier. In other words, it is excess rather than just sugar that is bad for you. No surprise there.
If you want a bit of a chemistry explanation: As already pointed out, sugar alcohols have a structural similarity to the simple alcohols. A molecule with a hydroxyl group (-OH) attached somewhere along the carbon chain is an alcohol, and the chemical name is denoted with the suffix "-ol" (as in "ethanol" or "sorbitol"). However, only those alcohols which when oxidized are reduced to an acetaldehyde group are capable of producing intoxication. Sugar alcohols do not do this.
Ethanol is the classic intoxicant. Methanol (wood alcohol) will also produce intoxication, but it breaks down to formaldehyde which then breaks down to formic acid. If you drink enough methanol to become intoxicated, the excess formic acid will damage the retina, resulting in blindness.