Sugarless Products Induce Diarrhea, Gas and Excess Weight Loss

You know, this is one of those news stories you read, and you have that moment where you know you experienced the same thing from a certain product that is now being definitively reported on as having the exact effects you experienced.  I’m talking about products made with sugar substitutes sorbitol, malitol and even some others ending in “tol” that have an effect that results in severe diarrhea, painful gas, and even excess weight loss if they are consumed in excess. 

Sure, the packages of products that are supposedly “healthier” for you that contain these sugar substitutes are labeled with warnings that excess consumption can cause loose stool, but honestly I think even moderate consumption has a negative effect on at least my system.  I am admittedly a little bit sensitive when it comes to my bowels, but I would swear that every time I even chewed one piece of sugarless gum, I’d almost instantly feel gas and bloating come on.

The news is that a study was done on both a young woman and older man as to why they were losing too much weight and found that both of them were consuming a lot of products that contained sorbitol, which is in most sugarfree gums these days that you see in drug stores unfortunately.  It’s funny because I remember when the correlation between my painful gas and the gum chewing finally dawned on me, and it was quite a long time after I had been chewing the gum. 

I thought my IBS was just acting up, but it was really just an unfortunate side effect of chewing this gum with sorbitol.  And the gum isn’t even the greatest contributor – many of those sugar free chocolates and candies you see in the candy aisles are pretty dangerous if you want to leave the house or be around people. 

In my opinion, it’s better just to stay away from this stuff all together, as we really don’t know the side effects of this stuff yet, and we do know that it affects our digestive tract and colon in a negative way.  May it possibly contribute to problems down the line such as cancer?  We just can’t safely say “no”, so my suggestion is to stear clear or severely limit these products, or try a great natural appetite suppressant like hoodia gum (which releases slowly so you have great appetite control all day) or something so that you aren’t tempted to go there in the first place!