BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb Lactitol - The new Olestra?

Last saturday I bought myself a sack of the new sugar-free bite-sized reeses peanut butter cups. As I watched the oscars the following sunday, I ate all 12 in the bag.

What followed was the worst gastro-intestinal dismay of my entire life, lasting all that night and most of the next day. I mentioned to a fellow carb-cutter that he should stay away from them, but he said he had already tried them and the exact same thing happened to him.

SO I decided to do a little research. Apparently, Lactitol (the sweetening ingredient in these hershey's/reeses sugar free candies) is better known as an OTC treatment for chronic constipation. It works by retaining water during the entire digestive process. The dosage used to fight constipation is 10g, and the dosage found in 1 serving of sugar-free bite-sized reeses (5 pieces) is 19g.

If you decide to try any of these Lactitol sweetened products, limit yourself to one or two pieces. They actually do taste really great, and are around 1/2 an impact carb each. If you're not able to exercise self-restraint with your first bag, you'll definitely be able to with your second.

http://www.curtish.com.pl/ang/lactitol.php
http://www.hersheyssugarfree.com/aboutsugarfree.html

I too had the same problem.. And excersising restraint hasnt even been an issue.. i refuse to buy them again!

This isn't a mystery - it's simply a biology fact about all sugar alcohols. It's not just lactitol. And it's not "dangerous".

The whole point of sugar alcohols is that they're not digested in your stomach. That's why they can taste sweet but not add pounds - your stomach doesn't break them down and send them into your blood system.

But when they get into your intestines, your intestinal bugs DO interact with the sugars - because usually they don't SEE sugars. Usually your stomach has taken care of all of them. So you get gas.

Every sugar alcohol bag should tell you to stick with normal consumption amounts - and at those amounts there are no problems at all. So to say that eating too much sugar alcohol causes tummy issues is like saying that drinking too much wine gives you a massive hangover. Yes it's true - so you do these things in moderation <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I have more about sugar alcohols here -

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art14505.asp

but they are a fantastic part of many low carb formulations. I would definitely not avoid all sugar alcohols just because overeating them causes farting <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I would eat them in moderation.

Did I SAY it was a mystery? Did I say it was dangerous? What I said was that the amount in one suggested serving size is DOUBLE the amount they use as an OTC laxative. On the bag under the ingredients I now see 'excess consumpsion may cause laxative effect.' But honestly, "excess" should be greater than the suggested serving size, not 1/2 of it.

If I know anything about human nature, it's that if a bag of candies says its not gunna mess up yer low carb diet, yer gunna scarf the whole thing. If I know one thing about the nature of marketing, it's that they're not gunna put a big yellow burst on the bag that says "don't scarf the whole bag or you'll get explosive diarrhea!"

To be clear, miss lisa, low carb host, I'm talking about EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA. I said that in my Tom Brokaw voice, btw... ala "tonight's top story, olestra causes explosive diarreha!"

I hoped to spare you the details, but when you said something to the effect of "oh did you stop eating candy cuz you broke wind for half an hour? did it give you tummy problems? well thats just silly.." I felt a belittled by that. When the lactizuma's revenge strikes you, I just hope I'm there to see it.

I've consumed massive amounts of splenda sweetened things in the past without any significant problem. I wouldn't be quick to group lactitol in the same category as anything, unless that category is constipation treatments that taste good. Splenda wasn't marketed as a laxative first, and it doesn't retain water.

I guess I'm making the case that it's an irresponsible product.
a. because 3 pieces have a greater laxative effect than a commercially available treatment for constipation.
b. because they will never lable the bag clearly enough that everyday people will know the above (a.)

I didn't mean to belittle you! I'm so sorry if you took it that way. Really my message was aimed at Sparkles and not you. To just toss out an entire type of food that can be greatly helpful to a diet isn't always wise.

I was also pointing out that the affects of sugar alcohols on the human body have been known for decades, that's why they put the warnings on the packages. This isn't a new thing, or a low carb thing, or a Splenda thing. Maybe some people who have never heard of sugar alcohols are now trying them *because* of low carb, which is actually sort of ironic because the aim of low carb dieting is to get you to eat all healthy, natural food. You shouldn't be eating junk food of any kind - whether it has sugar alcohol in it or not <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Your body needs to be fed nutrients and healthy components, and any time you fill it with junk food you are therefore not eating the healthy things your body needs.

That all being said, I know many, many people who regularly overeat sugar alcohol products and don't get any reactions anywhere near what you experienced. I personally have eaten large amounts of sugar alcohol products without reaction ... I've also eaten large amounts and had flatulence. But certainly not anything like your description.

There ARE some people out there who are super sensitive to sugar alcohols, just like there are people who are super sensitive to peanuts and other items. Maybe you're one of them, and maybe that means that you should steer clear of them! If you really did have the reaction you described, then it sounds like that's the case <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> But to compare a sugar alcohol to olestra which is medically dangerous is a bit extreme <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

And in fact I have to believe that the main reason you had that explosion is that you sent your body into shock by eating an entire bag. I bet if you now ate just 3 you'd be fine.

My comment about enjoying them was actually aimed at Sparkles, I was telling her not to completely cut foods out of her diet that would be enjoyable in reasonable doses <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Unless she indeed was saying she had explosive diarrhea after only 3 pieces, in which case it sounds like she is also super sensitive and would also do well in avoiding them.

But to be honest, eating an entire bag of candy in one sitting is never good for you - no matter what is in the candy <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> That is a big volume of matter going into your body, and if you're going to take in that much content, it should be healthy and fresh veggies and meat!

Do you suppose it's more likely that my friend, sparkles, and I, are all hyper-sensitive to lactitol OR that we're all experiencing a normal reaction to consuming a quadruple dose of a laxative which also causes gas? Bare in mind that the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.

I think my likening lactitol to olestra is a lot more reasonable than your apparent mindset that lactitol is essentially splenda by another name. The first and main ingredient in these candies is the only ingredient found in some laxatives. It may be a sugar alcohol and a sweetener, but this isn't NOT splenda, it's a laxative. If you find that I'm repeating myself, it's because I'm relatively sure you're not reading my posts at all.

Your probably right... it was probably not because I consumed a quadruple dose of gas-producing laxative. Laxative... meaning to stimulate the evacuation of the bowels. Laxative.

Odd I hadn't mentioned that yet. In that case you'd just be consuming one dose of gas-causing laxative, and you'd probably live. If you had five, the 'serving size,' then, probably not.

To be absolutely clear, one more time, we're talking about a tiny little bag of mini-reeses pb cups. There's only supposed to be 10 in the bag, but I got 12 because I was 'lucky.' They're about 1/3 the size of a standard reeses pb cup. To say I ate 12 of these buggers over a three hour period, I feel, was not excessive. You look at the bag some time and tell me it's a big volume of candy. Since all three ppl in this little example ate the whole bag, it can't really be that much.

Since it's already been established that we each shouldn't have eaten the whole bag, there's really no point in using this as an opportunity to tell us to eat our vegetables instead. I didn't think they were "dangerous" at first, but you've managed to bring me on board... because you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who says "I ate two a day and had no adverse effects." Every sweets-starved person is gunna buy them and eat them all inside a day, and find out what I already know, and I HOPE you're slowly slowly learning. That it's a gas-producing laxative, with some other stuff thrown in for flavor.

I really hate being a negative presence on your forum, but hey, at least I'm not putting a little smiley face every time I contradict you... you might find that belittling. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Maybe we should just agree that I have more experience with lactitol than you do, and if I'm to be told I'm wrong, it should be by a person who's actually tried the product.

Lactitol is worse than other sugar alcohols--I've read this, and I can also affirm that from my own experience. I can eat small amounts of maltitol candy without problems, but even 2 or 3 of the SF Reese's do me in.

I too once ate a whole (little) bag, and regretted it for the next 48 hours. I wish Hershey would switch to erythritol, a sugar alcohol without the laxative effect.

I'm a natural debater, of course I read everything before I respond to it. I thought that was sort of clear in my responses <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> And I put smilies up because I love to debate! Does anybody really find a smily upsetting somehow?? I've been on the net since the 70s and I've used smilies the entire time - I've never heard anyone complain about it before!

I accept that you guys ate entire bags of candy in one sitting - heck people out there drink entire six-packs of beer too. I guess that's just not the way I eat or the people in my circles. And I definitely don't think either behavior as healthy.

Some people eat entire half gallon containers of ice cream too! But I really believe that sort of behavior is the over-indulgence that has caused our obesity situation. It's not something I've ever done nor do I know anyone who has done that. But I'm sure if we asked in this forum if people have done it, we'd get some YESs because the whole point of low carb is that it tends to appeal to people who are overweight and who have had trouble in the past handling it. So if these were vegetarians we were talking about who ate small amounts of food, they probably wouldn't be in here <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Yes that's fine - if you are the type that would eat entire bags of candy, then stay away from them!! I suppose that's the simple answer. If you find it difficult to stay with the stated serving size, then it's best not to have it in the house at all. For me personally it's confusing that it would be hard - you take out the serving size, you put the rest back on the shelf, you eat the serving and go on with life. But if that's difficult for you, then I fully support your decision to simply not let the stuff in the house.

But that self control is really CRITICAL in long term maintenance. Because there are SO many situations in life that involve buffet lines, and being at other peoples' houses, and so on. If you don't learn to pace yourself and only eat serving size portions - if your tendency is to eat entire bags of candy at one sitting - then the weight will come right back on if you get into that 'danger situation' because you won't have built up the coping skills that you need in life.

And yes we have reviewed and had many bags of that exact candy in our house, we have some here right now in fact. I have *never* been tempted to eat an entire bag of those suckers. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Oh, for pete's sake. Those are 3.3 ounce bags. That's three-point-three ounces of candy. That hardly qualifies as a binge!

Well, good for you.

Again: 3.3 ounces of candy. Sugar-free candy.

Blaming obesity on "over-indulgence" has quite the Puritan ring to it--it feeds into our culture's weird "pleasure is bad" attitude. What has caused the obesity situation, in my opinion, is the abundant intake of carbohydrates, fueled largely by the low-fat dogma that was spread by the media and government over the last couple decades.

We heard you the first time. And the next time. Man!