Sugar alcohols show up in a wide range of foods, from sugar-free candy and protein bars to chewing gum, baked goods, and even some foods you wouldn’t expect, like flavored yogurt and cough drops. They’re used as lower-calorie sweeteners that still provide bulk and texture, and food manufacturers have been steadily adding them to more products as demand for “no sugar added” options grows.
Common Foods That Contain Sugar Alcohols
The easiest place to spot sugar alcohols is in anything labeled “sugar-free,” “no sugar added,” or “diabetic-friendly.” But they also appear in products that don’t carry those labels. Here’s where you’ll find them most often:
- Chewing gum: Nearly all sugar-free gum uses xylitol or sorbitol as its primary sweetener. Many conventional gums use them too.
- Sugar-free candy: Hard candies, gummy bears, chocolate bars, and mints marketed as sugar-free almost always rely on maltitol, isomalt, or sorbitol for sweetness and texture.
- Protein and meal replacement bars: Many popular protein bars use erythritol or maltitol to keep sugar counts low while maintaining a sweet, chewy texture.
- Ice cream and frozen desserts: “No sugar added” ice cream brands frequently use sorbitol, maltitol, or erythritol as partial replacements for sugar.
- Baked goods: Sugar-free cookies, brownies, and cakes sold in stores typically contain maltitol or sorbitol.
- Flavored yogurt: Some light or low-calorie yogurts use sorbitol or erythritol alongside artificial sweeteners.
- Cough drops and throat lozenges: Many sugar-free versions use isomalt or sorbitol.
- Toothpaste and mouthwash: Xylitol is a common ingredient in oral care products because it doesn’t feed the bacteria that cause cavities.
- Jams and spreads: Sugar-free preserves often use maltitol or sorbitol to mimic the body and mouthfeel of sugar.
- Beverages: Some flavored waters, drink mixes, and low-calorie smoothie products include erythritol, especially those sweetened with stevia blends.
How to Identify Them on a Label
Sugar alcohols go by their individual chemical names on ingredient lists, so you need to know what to look for. The most common ones are erythritol, xylitol, sorbitol, maltitol, mannitol, isomalt, lactitol, and hydrogenated starch hydrolysates. A quick trick: most end in “-ol,” just like alcohol (though they won’t make you intoxicated).
On the Nutrition Facts panel, sugar alcohols get their own line underneath “Total Carbohydrates” when a product contains them. This was made mandatory by FDA labeling rules for products that make sugar-related claims. If a product says “sugar-free” or “no sugar added,” you can check that line to see exactly how many grams of sugar alcohols are in each serving. Products that don’t make those claims may still contain sugar alcohols but aren’t always required to break them out separately, so scanning the ingredient list is the more reliable method.
Foods That Naturally Contain Sugar Alcohols
Sugar alcohols aren’t purely artificial. Small amounts occur naturally in certain fruits and vegetables. Sorbitol is found in apples, pears, peaches, and prunes. Mannitol occurs naturally in mushrooms, cauliflower, and celery. Erythritol is present in grapes, melons, and fermented foods like soy sauce and wine, though in much smaller quantities than what you’d find in a sugar-free product.
The amounts in whole foods are generally too small to cause the digestive issues that concentrated, added sugar alcohols can trigger. A pear might contain a few grams of sorbitol, while a serving of sugar-free candy could deliver 15 to 20 grams of maltitol or more.
How Sugar Alcohols Differ From Sugar
Sugar alcohols provide fewer calories per gram than regular sugar. Table sugar has 4 calories per gram, while most sugar alcohols range from about 1.5 to 3 calories per gram. Erythritol is the outlier at roughly 0.2 calories per gram, which is why it’s become especially popular in keto and low-carb products.
They also raise blood sugar less dramatically than regular sugar. Your body absorbs them more slowly and incompletely, so they produce a smaller spike in blood glucose. This is why they’ve long been used in products marketed toward people with diabetes. That said, maltitol has a relatively high glycemic index compared to other sugar alcohols, around 35 to 52 depending on the form, so it’s not as “free” as some labels imply. Erythritol and xylitol have much lower glycemic responses.
Digestive Side Effects to Watch For
The reason sugar alcohols provide fewer calories is the same reason they can cause stomach problems: your small intestine doesn’t fully absorb them. The unabsorbed portion travels to your large intestine, where gut bacteria ferment it and produce gas. This can lead to bloating, cramping, and diarrhea, especially when you eat more than about 10 to 15 grams in a sitting.
Not all sugar alcohols are equal on this front. Sorbitol and maltitol are the most likely to cause digestive distress. Many sugar-free candies that use these ingredients carry a warning label about their “laxative effect,” and for good reason. Eating a full bag of sugar-free gummy bears has become an infamous example of what happens when someone unknowingly consumes a large dose.
Erythritol is the best tolerated because about 90% of it gets absorbed in the small intestine and excreted through urine before it ever reaches the colon. Most people can handle 30 to 40 grams of erythritol without symptoms, which is significantly more than other sugar alcohols. Xylitol falls somewhere in the middle, generally well tolerated at moderate doses but capable of causing bloating in sensitive individuals.
If you’re new to sugar alcohol-containing foods, starting with small portions and increasing gradually gives your gut time to adjust. People with irritable bowel syndrome tend to be more sensitive to these compounds, since sugar alcohols fall into the category of fermentable carbohydrates that a low-FODMAP diet restricts.
A Note on Pets
Xylitol is extremely toxic to dogs. Even small amounts can cause a dangerous drop in blood sugar and liver failure. This matters because xylitol shows up in peanut butter, baked goods, candy, and gum that might be within a dog’s reach. If you keep xylitol-containing products in your home and have a dog, store them where the dog cannot access them. Some manufacturers have started using the name “birch sugar” instead of xylitol, so watch for that term as well.